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Dessert

Chinese Fruit Candy

A sweet candy made with coconut, sugar, raisins, almonds, pecans, and walnuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and walnut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 993 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Chinese Fruit Candy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the coconut sugar base

  1. Grate the coconut very fine and reserve the milk.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the sugar and coconut milk; heat slowly.

  3. Once heated, boil rapidly for 5 minutes.

  4. Add the grated coconut and boil for 10 minutes, stirring constantly.

  5. Test the mixture on a cool plate; if it forms a firm paste, remove from heat.

Layer and set

  1. Pour half of the mixture onto a large tin lined with greased paper.

  2. To the remaining mixture, add the raisins, blanched almonds, pecan nuts, and chopped walnuts; mix well.

  3. Pour this mixture over the first half and let cool.

  4. Once cool, cut into bars.

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. Almond + walnuttop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together993 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  3. Coconut + almondtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,093 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  4. Coconut + walnuttop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together606 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  5. Almond + nutstop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together394 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Granulated sugar
Forms the sweet body of the candy and sets into a firm paste as it cooks down.
Coconut
Adds moisture and body to the paste and gives the candy its coconut flavor.
Pecan nuts
Add crunch and buttery richness that contrasts with the soft paste.
Blanched almonds
Add crunch and a mild, sweet nutty flavor throughout the bars.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness to the mixed layer.

The step that matters

Testing the mixture on a cool plate. Sugar syrup firms as it cools and loses water; removing it too early leaves a soft, sticky candy that will not hold its shape when cut, while overcooking makes it hard and brittle.

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (coconut, sugar, milk, raisin, almond, walnut):

  1. Pistachiofits better
  2. Brazil nutfits better
  3. Cashew nutfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against coconut, sugar, milk, raisin, almond, walnut. 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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