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Dessert

Blackberry Mush

A thickened blackberry dessert made with blackberries, water, sugar, and flour, served chilled with cream or sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,373 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Blackberry Mush

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large pot, combine the blackberries and boiling water.

  2. Add the sugar and cook for a few moments.

  3. Stir in the wheat flour and boil for a few moments longer.

  4. Pour the mixture into a greased mold to cool.

  5. Serve with cream or hard sauce.

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. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Sugar + wheattop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,071 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Blackberries
Provide the main fruit flavor, color, and body of the mousse.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the blackberries.
Wheat flour
Thickens the mixture as its starch cooks, helping it set when cooled.

The step that matters

Stir in the wheat flour and boil for a few moments longer.. Flour must be fully boiled so its starch swells and thickens the mixture. Under-cooked flour leaves a raw, pasty taste and a weaker set.

“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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