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Green Codlings, Frosted with Sugar

Small green codlings glazed with sugar and served cold with perfumed 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 ↓

Green Codlings, Frosted with Sugar

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

  1. Blanch the codlings in water with roche-alum and vine leaves until nearly done.

  2. Remove the outer skin from the codlings.

Frost and bake

  1. Rub the codlings with oiled fresh butter and sift sugar over them.

  2. Place the codlings on a clean baking sheet and bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until the sugar sparkles like frost.

Serve

  1. Serve cold in a trifle glass with perfumed cream around each codling, garnished with a small flower.

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

Green codlings
Form the main fruit, softening when blanched and turning tender when baked.
Sugar
Forms a sparkling frosted crust that browns and sweetens the surface as it bakes.
Oiled fresh butter
Adds fat so the sugar adheres to the fruit and the surface browns.
Perfumed cream
Adds richness and a fragrant contrast to the tart fruit when served alongside.

The step that matters

Baking until the sugar sparkles like frost. Sugar can scorch or darken before it turns glassy if the oven runs too hot. A slow oven dries and sets the sugar into a crisp, frosted coating while keeping the fruit tender.

“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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