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Dessert

Fruit Candy

Fruit Candy is a candied fruit confection made with raisins, figs or dates, almonds, and a sugar-butter-vinegar mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Fruit Candy

Why it works: Raisin and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Fruit Candy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the candy base

  1. Combine the brown sugar, butter, and vinegar in a saucepan.

  2. Boil until almost hard but not brittle.

Add the fruit and nuts

  1. Add the chopped citron, raisins, figs or dates, and almonds to the saucepan.

  2. Stir until thoroughly blended.

Shape and slice

  1. Pour the mixture into a wet pudding cloth and roll it up like a roly-poly pudding.

  2. Once cool, remove the cloth and cut the candy into slices.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  2. Fig + almondtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together519 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Raisin + figtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

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

  4. Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 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

Brown sugar
Provides sweetness and, as it boils, builds the firm, chewy body of the candy.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender texture and a rich flavour.
Vinegar
Adds a little acidity that helps keep the sugar from crystallising too coarsely.
Raisins
Add moisture and chewy sweetness that bind the candy together.
Figs or dates
Add soft, moist body and natural sweetness.
Almonds
Add crunch and nutty flavour that contrast with the chewy base.

The step that matters

Boil until almost hard but not brittle. Sugar syrup must reach the right concentration to set firm enough to slice but stay chewy. Boiling too long makes it brittle and hard to cut, while stopping too early leaves it too soft to hold its shape.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fig, almond, sugar, butter, vinegar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against fig, almond, sugar, butter, vinegar. 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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