Skip to main content
Dessert

Heavenly Hash

A sweet fruit hash of apples, sugar, raisins, and oranges cooked slowly until clear.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Apple and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,230 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Heavenly Hash

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Chop the orange peels and squeeze the juice over the sugar.

  2. Combine all ingredients in a pot.

  3. Cook slowly until the mixture is clear.

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. Apple + orangetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,230 recipes

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

  2. Raisin + orangetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,684 recipes

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

  3. Apple + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,920 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  5. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

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

Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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

What each ingredient does

Apples
Provide bulk and pectin, giving body and a jammy texture as they soften.
Sugar
Sweetens the mixture and draws out juice, helping it cook down into a syrupy base.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture.
Oranges
Contribute acidity and aromatic peel oils, brightening the sweetness.

The step that matters

Cook slowly until the mixture is clear. Low, gentle heat lets the sugar dissolve fully and the fruit soften evenly without scorching on the bottom of the pot. Stirring helps prevent sticking as the sugar thickens.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sugar, orange):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Pearfits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, orange. 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.

You might also like

Orange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesApple PuddingApple Pudding256 recipesOrange Cream Rice PuddingOrange Cream Rice Pudding121 recipesOrange GelatinOrange Gelatin100 recipes