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Frosted Codlins and Cream

Codlins are boiled, buttered, sugared, baked until frosted, and served cold with tart cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Frosted Codlins and Cream

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the codlins

  1. Boil the codlins gently in spring water with a pinch of alum until they are slightly more than half done.

  2. Peel off the skin of the codlins.

  3. Rub the codlins with oiled butter.

  4. Sift fine loaf sugar generously over the codlins.

  5. Place the codlins on a tin plate.

Frost and serve

  1. Let them sit in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until the sugar appears frosted.

  2. Serve cold, surrounded by tart cream.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  3. Butter + sugartop 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

Codlins
Provide the fruit that is cooked, then frosted and served cold.
Fine loaf sugar
Forms a sweet, crisp frosted coating as it dries in the oven.
Oiled butter
Adds a thin fat layer that helps the sugar adhere to the fruit.
Tart cream
Adds richness that balances the sharpness of the fruit and sugar.

The step that matters

Frosting in the slow oven. The codlins should be left in a slow oven only until the sugar looks frosted. Sugar that stays too long can melt, darken or turn syrupy, and the fruit can soften and lose its shape.

“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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