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Ratafia Basket

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Ratafia Basket

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a saucepan, combine the loaf sugar and water. Boil until it reaches 310°F (154°C).

  2. Remove from heat and place the saucepan in a basin of cold water for 1 minute to stop the cooking.

  3. Line a cake tin with oiled paper.

  4. Dip the ratafias in the syrup and cover the bottom of the mold with them, then line the sides in the same manner.

  5. Quickly lay two semicircles of dipped ratafias on an oiled tin, ensuring they touch each other.

  6. Once set, attach them at opposite sides of the basket using a little syrup to form handles.

  7. When firm, lift the basket out of the tin and place it on a dish.

  8. Just before serving, fill the center with fruit and top with sweetened, flavored whipped cream.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

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

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

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