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Drink

A Pectoral Diet Drink

A drink made from dates, jujube, dried currants, water, and gum or marshmallow syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Dates and currant work together. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 139 recipes. Both carry acetoin, which smells butter, cream. The science ↓

A Pectoral Diet Drink

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the dates, jujube, and dried currants in 1 pint of water.

  2. Strain the mixture through a towel.

  3. Add 1 ounce of gum or marshmallow syrup to the strained liquid.

  4. Stir well and it is ready for use.

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 + curranttop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together139 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

  2. Dates + jujubetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Dates + syruptop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together49 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Currant + syruptop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together329 recipes
  5. Jujube + syruptop 44% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Dates
Add natural sweetness and body as they soften and release their sugars into the water.
Jujube
Adds fruity sweetness and a mild, rounded flavour to the liquid.
Dried currants
Contribute concentrated fruit sweetness and tartness to the drink.
Gum or marshmallow syrup
Gives the strained liquid a smoother, slightly thicker mouthfeel.

Swap the jujube

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (dates, currant, syrup):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Jujubethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against dates, currant, syrup. 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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