Why it works: Orange and pear work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 323 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓
French Flummery
Ingredients
Directions
Make the flummery
Slowly boil 2 ounces of isinglass in 1 quart of cream for 15 minutes, stirring constantly.
Sweeten the mixture with loaf sugar and the strained juice of 1 orange.
Pour the mixture through a fine sieve into a mold.
Serve
Serve with baked pears arranged around it.
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.
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Orange + peartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together323 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + peartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,079 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,212 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Cream + peartop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together404 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Sugar and orange barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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
- Isinglass
- Gelatin-like collagen that dissolves in the hot cream and sets it into a firm, wobbly jelly as it cools.
- Cream
- Supplies the fat and body that give the flummery a rich, smooth, creamy texture.
- Loaf sugar
- Adds sweetness to balance the richness of the cream and the tang of the orange.
- Orange juice
- Adds bright acidity and citrus aroma that cut through the richness of the cream.
The step that matters
Boil the isinglass in the cream with constant stirring. Isinglass must fully dissolve in the hot cream to set properly. Without constant stirring, it can stick to the base of the pan and scorch, and undissolved pieces leave lumps and weak spots in the finished jelly.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, sugar, pear):
- Vanillafits better
- Strawberryfits better
- Applefits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar, pear. 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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