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Dessert

Glace Fruit and Nuts

Candied fruit and nuts prepared by boiling sugar, vinegar, and water, then dropping fruit and nuts into the syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Walnut and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 993 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Glace Fruit and Nuts

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Boil water, sugar, and vinegar until the syrup reaches 155°C or changes color slightly.

  2. Remove from heat and place over hot water.

Coat the fruit and nuts

  1. Drop one section of fruit or nut at a time into the syrup using a fork.

  2. Remove and place on oiled plates without stirring the syrup.

  3. Work quickly to ensure the syrup remains at the right consistency.

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. Walnut + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together993 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Orange + almondtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Orange + walnuttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  4. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Forms the syrup that hardens into a crisp, glossy coating on the fruit and nuts.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that helps keep the syrup from crystallizing into grainy sugar.
Navel orange sections
Provide the fruit that is coated in the hardened syrup.
English walnuts
Provide the nuts that are coated in the hardened syrup.
Blanched almonds
Provide the dry nuts that are coated in the hardened syrup.

The step that matters

Keep the syrup at the right temperature while coating. Syrup that is too cool or has been stirred can turn grainy or crystallize, and wet fruit can cause it to weep. Working quickly while the syrup stays hot and undisturbed gives a smooth, crisp coating. Thoroughly dry, slightly heated nuts also help the coating adhere.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, vinegar, walnut, almond):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, walnut, almond. 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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