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Coriander Dragees

Coriander seeds are candied with vinegar, clarified sugar, and gum.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Coriander Dragees

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the seeds

  1. Warm the coriander seeds in a pan over the fire.

  2. Add ⅓ cup of vinegar and stir until dry.

Make the coating

  1. Boil clarified sugar in another pan.

Coat and finish

  1. Once the coriander is dry, add a little gum and repeat until coated to your desired size.

  2. Wash the coriander well and warm them again.

  3. Pour the boiled clarified sugar from a height into the pan while stirring the dragees until well coated.

  4. Remove the dragees and place them in the stove to finish drying.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Coriander + vinegartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,829 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Coriander + sugartop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,749 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Coriander seeds
Form the core that each layer of gum and sugar builds around.
Clarified sugar
Forms the hard, crisp outer coating as it cools and sets on the seeds.
Gum
Binds to the seeds so each layer of sugar adheres evenly.

The step that matters

Pouring the boiled sugar while stirring. Sugar syrup cools and crystallizes quickly, so it must be poured from a height while the seeds are stirred constantly. This keeps the seeds separate and gives an even coat instead of clumps.

Swap the coriander

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, sugar):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Peppermintfits better
  4. Corianderthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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