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Dessert

Date Loaf Candy

A sweet loaf made from dates, sugar, milk, butter, and nuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Date Loaf Candy

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the candy

  1. Combine sugar, milk, and butter in a saucepan.

  2. Cook until it forms a soft ball when dropped in cold water.

  3. Add the dates and nuts.

  4. Cook for an additional 3 minutes.

  5. Remove from heat.

  6. Stir until you can stir no longer.

Shape and cut

  1. Place the mixture on a wet cloth.

  2. Roll it into a log shape.

  3. Once solid, slice into pieces.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Dates + nutstop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together178 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Milk + datestop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together470 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Milk + nutstop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together982 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Provides sweetness and, as it cooks, forms the firm body of the candy.
Milk
Adds milk solids and fat for a softer, creamier texture.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the candy richer and smoother.
Dates
Add sweetness and chewy moisture to the mixture.
Nuts
Add crunch and contrast to the soft candy.

The step that matters

Cooking to the soft ball stage. The sugar must reach the right concentration and temperature to set into a soft, sliceable candy. Cooking too little leaves it runny, while cooking too long makes it hard and brittle as it cools.

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, milk, butter, dates):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Pecansfits better
  3. Walnutfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, butter, dates. 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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