Why it works: Dates and flour work together. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 675 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Berry Mush
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and stew
Pick and wash the berries.
Stew the berries in a little water, adding a few stoned dates.
Stir frequently until well cooked.
Thicken
Gradually stir in a little Graham flour or oatmeal until evenly combined.
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.
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Dates + flourtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together675 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Berries
- Provides the main flavour and colour, and softens into a pulp that forms the mousse body.
- Stoned dates
- Add natural sweetness and body to the stewed fruit.
- Graham flour or oatmeal
- Its starch thickens the cooked fruit pulp as it heats.
The step that matters
Gradually stir in the flour or oatmeal. Starch clumps when it meets hot liquid in large amounts. Adding it a little at a time while stirring disperses the particles so the mixture thickens smoothly instead of lumping.
“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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