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Dessert

A Macedoine of Fruit

A molded dessert of dried cherries, citron, jam, brandy, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pear and apple match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 649 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, fruity. The science ↓

A Macedoine of Fruit

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mold

  1. Oil the inside of a mold.

  2. Decorate the bottom with dried cherries and slices of citron.

  3. Line the sides with pear jam.

Fill and set

  1. Mix apple jam with quince marmalade and a little brandy.

  2. Fill the cavity with the mixture.

  3. Set the mold in ice.

Serve

  1. To serve, turn it out onto a dish and add a little perfumed cream around it.

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. Pear + appletop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together649 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  2. Pear + quincetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together133 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Apple + quincetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together506 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  4. Apple + brandytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,291 recipes

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

  5. Pear + brandytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together157 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Pear jam
Lines the sides, adding fruity sweetness and a glossy surface to the mold.
Apple jam
Forms the sweet, set filling that holds the salad together when turned out.
Quince marmalade
Adds body and a tart, aromatic note to the filling through its natural pectin.
Cream
Provides a soft, rich contrast to the sweet fruit preserves on the plate.

The step that matters

Set the mold in ice. The filling must chill until firm enough to hold its shape when turned out. Jams and marmalades set as they cool, so letting it stay on ice long enough keeps the mold from collapsing or slumping.

Swap the quince

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pear, apple, brandy, cream):

  1. Apricotfits better
  2. Plumfits about as well
  3. Strawberryfits about as well
  4. Quincethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pear, apple, brandy, cream. 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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