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Dessert

Turkish Paste

A sweet paste made from ground nuts, dates, figs, raisins, and powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Dates and fig work together. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 318 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓

Turkish Paste

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Grind the nuts, dates, figs, and raisins until fine.

  2. Mix in powdered sugar until well combined.

Shape and cut

  1. Roll the mixture out thinly.

  2. Cut into squares.

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. Dates + figtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together318 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  2. Fig + raisintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

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

  3. Nuts + raisintop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together490 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Dates + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together358 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Nuts + figtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together154 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Nuts
Adds body and a firm, crumbly bite to the paste.
Dates
Add natural sweetness and a sticky texture that helps bind the paste.
Figs
Add sweetness and a chewy texture with moisture.
Raisins
Add sweetness and moisture that help the mixture hold together.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the mixture combine smoothly.

The step that matters

Grinding until fine. Coarse pieces of nuts or fruit will not bind into a smooth paste and may crack or crumble when rolled out. Fine grinding lets the sticky fruit hold the nuts together.

Swap the nuts

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Walnutfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against dates, fig, raisin, 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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