Why it works: Syrup and sugar match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
To Candy Fruit
Ingredients
Directions
Steep the prepared fruit in syrup.
Lay the fruit in an open sieve until the bottom is covered with one layer.
Quickly steep the fruit in scalding water to remove excess syrup.
Drain the fruit on a napkin.
Sift finely powdered loaf sugar over the fruit until they are completely white but not overly encrusted.
Place the fruit on strainers or the reverse end of small sieves, ensuring they do not touch each other.
Put them in a gently warmed oven, watching carefully and turning until dry.
Maintain a consistent oven temperature until the fruit is completely dry.
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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Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,842 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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