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Dessert

Tutti Frutti

A frozen dessert made with vanilla cream, currants, citron, raisins, candied cherries, other candied fruits, almonds, and ice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Tutti Frutti

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Partially freeze the rich vanilla cream.

Add the fruit

  1. Add the currants, chopped citron, chopped raisins, chopped candied cherries, and other chopped candied fruits.

  2. Mix in the chopped blanched almonds if desired.

Freeze and serve

  1. Mould the mixture and place it in pounded ice and salt until ready to serve.

  2. Allow sufficient time for the cream to harden.

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. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  2. Vanilla + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

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

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

  5. Vanilla + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

Vanilla and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,301 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

Rich vanilla cream
Forms the creamy base that the fruit and nuts are suspended in.
English currants
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness to the frozen cream.
Chopped raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness to the frozen cream.
Chopped candied cherries
Add sweetness, color and chewy texture throughout the ice cream.
Chopped citron
Adds candied, aromatic flavor and chewy texture to the ice cream.
Chopped blanched almonds
Add crunch and nutty flavor against the soft frozen cream.

The step that matters

Partially freeze the cream before adding the fruit. Fruit added to a fully liquid cream sinks and settles unevenly. Partial freezing thickens the base so the pieces stay suspended, and it must then harden fully in the ice and salt for a firm texture.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vanilla, cream, raisin, almond):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against vanilla, cream, raisin, almond. 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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