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Dessert

Crystallized Fruit

A dessert of fruit layered in sherry gelatin and served with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Banana and fig match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 104 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Crystallized Fruit

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the jelly

  1. Prepare wine jelly according to the instructions on the Cox's gelatine box, using sherry wine.

  2. Select a mold of your choice for crystallizing the fruit.

Layer the fruit

  1. Place a layer of thinly sliced banana at the bottom of the mold.

  2. Pour some jelly over the banana layer.

  3. Add a layer of small pieces of orange, then pour more jelly over it.

  4. Continue layering with up to five or six varieties of fruit, including candied figs and limes.

  5. Mix in the minced walnuts as you layer the fruit.

  6. Sprinkle a little sugar over each layer of fruit.

Set and serve

  1. Once the mold is full, cover it securely and keep it surrounded by ice.

  2. When the jelly is firm enough to slice, carefully remove it from the mold and place it on a fancy dish.

  3. Serve with whipped 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. Banana + figtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together104 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Orange + limetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together937 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Fig + walnuttop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together373 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Orange + figtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together407 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Banana + orangetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,118 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Cox's gelatine
Sets the sherry into a firm jelly that holds the fruit in layers.
Sherry wine
Flavours the jelly and adds a tangy, aromatic note to the fruit.
Candied figs
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture to the layers.
2 oranges
Add juicy acidity and bright flavour that contrasts with the sweet sherry.

The step that matters

Keeping the mold cold while the jelly sets. Gelatine sets only when it is cold enough; if the mold warms, the layers can blur or fail to firm. Keeping it surrounded by ice holds the jelly at a setting temperature so the fruit stays suspended in distinct layers.

Swap the lime

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wine, sherry, banana, orange, fig, walnut, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Pineapplefits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Limethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against wine, sherry, banana, orange, fig, walnut, sugar. 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.

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