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Dessert

Guava Paste

A sweet, thick paste made from guavas, sugar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Guava Paste

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cook the sieved guavas with just enough water to prevent burning.

  2. Pass the mixture through a sieve and return it to the heat.

  3. Add an equal amount of sugar to the guavas and cook until thick, stirring to prevent burning.

  4. Just before removing from heat, add the allspice, cloves, cinnamon, and mace.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Allspice + macetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Guavas
Provide the main fruit body and flavour that set into the paste as it cooks down.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, as it thickens with the fruit, helps the paste set firm.
Cinnamon
Adds warm aroma that complements the guava flavour.

The step that matters

Stirring during the thickening. Once sugar is added and the mixture is thick, it can scorch on the bottom of the pan. Constant stirring prevents burning and keeps the paste smooth and evenly coloured.

Swap the guava

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (allspice, clove, cinnamon, mace, sugar):

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Guavathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against allspice, clove, cinnamon, mace, 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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