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Dessert

Cranberry Whip

A baked dessert of whipped egg whites folded with stewed cranberries and sugar, flavored with vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Cranberry Whip

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the cranberry pulp

  1. Stew the cranberries until soft, then press through a sieve.

  2. Return the pulp to a saucepan and add an equal measure of sugar; cook until thick.

Whip and bake

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

  2. Drop the hot pulp by spoonfuls into the egg whites, beating constantly.

  3. Add the vanilla and mix well.

  4. Turn the mixture into a buttered mold and bake at 350°F (175°C) until firm.

  5. Unmold and serve with steamed raisins.

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. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  2. Vanilla + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together782 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  4. Vanilla + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Cranberries
Provide the main fruit flavour and the pulp that gives the whip its body.
Sugar
Sweetens the pulp and, cooked down, thickens it to a spoonable consistency.
Egg whites
Whipped to foam, they give the dessert its light, airy structure and set when baked.

The step that matters

Folding the hot pulp into the egg whites. Beat the hot pulp in gradually and keep beating constantly so the thick pulp is evenly dispersed without deflating the whites. Overmixing or adding it all at once knocks out the air that gives the whip its lightness.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Peachfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, vanilla, butter. 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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