Skip to main content
Dessert

Tutti Frutti

A fruit preserve made by steeping various fruits in alcohol with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pineapple and peach match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 168 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Tutti Frutti

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine 1 pint of alcohol and 1 pint of seeded cherries in a stone jar.

  2. Add 1 pint of sugar.

  3. Add 1 pint of strawberries and 1 pint of sugar.

  4. Add 1 pint of raspberries and 1 pint of sugar.

  5. Add 1 pint of oranges and 1 pint of sugar.

  6. Add 1 pint of pineapples and 1 pint of sugar.

  7. Add 1 pint of blackberries and 1 pint of sugar.

  8. Add 1 pint of currants and 1 pint of sugar.

  9. Add 1 pint of gooseberries and 1 pint of sugar.

  10. Add 1 pint of peaches and 1 pint of sugar.

  11. Pour another pint of alcohol over the fruits.

  12. Seal the jar and let it sit for six weeks before using.

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. Pineapple + peachtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together168 recipes

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

  2. Orange + pineappletop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,664 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Orange + peachtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together385 recipes

    Shared aroma: pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Currant + peachtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Pineapple + curranttop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together142 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Sweetens the preserve and draws moisture out of the fruit, helping form a syrup.
Alcohol
Acts as the preserving liquid that keeps the fruit stable while it steeps.
Cherries
Add tart, deep fruit flavour to the base of the preserve.
Strawberries
Contribute sweet, fruity flavour and juice to the mixture.
Raspberries
Contribute bright, tart fruit flavour and juice to the mixture.

The step that matters

Layering the sugar with each fruit. Sugar must be added with every fruit so it can draw out juice and prevent the fruit from fermenting or spoiling before the alcohol penetrates it.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, orange, pineapple, peach):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Mangofits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, orange, pineapple, peach. 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.

You might also like

Orange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesOrange Cream Rice PuddingOrange Cream Rice Pudding121 recipesPineapple SherbetPineapple Sherbet116 recipesOrange GelatinOrange Gelatin100 recipes