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Fruit Salad Dressing

A sweet dressing made with sugar, sherry, cinnamon, and Madeira.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Fruit Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix the sugar and cinnamon together.

  2. Add the sherry and Madeira.

  3. Stir constantly until the sugar is dissolved.

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. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Sherry + cinnamontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together649 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Sugar + sherrytop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,141 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Sweetens the dressing and dissolves to form a smooth, syrupy liquid.
Sherry
Adds liquid and a fruity, acidic note that brightens the fruit.
Madeira
Adds liquid and a rich, caramel-like aroma that deepens the dressing's flavor.
Cinnamon
Contributes warm, aromatic spice flavor to the dressing.

The step that matters

Stir constantly until the sugar is dissolved. Sugar left undissolved gives a gritty texture and uneven sweetness. Stirring while it is added to the liquid helps the crystals dissolve fully and evenly.

“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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