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Dessert

Fruit and Nut Creams

A mixture of raisins, currants, figs, citron, French cream, nuts, and sugar formed into balls, bars, or squares.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and fig work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 737 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Fruit and Nut Creams

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. In a bowl, mix the chopped raisins, currants, figs, and citron with the uncooked French cream while it is still soft.

  2. Gradually add the sugar and stir until well combined.

  3. Fold in the chopped nuts of your choice.

Shape

  1. Form the mixture into balls, bars, or squares.

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. Raisin + figtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

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

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Raisin + nutstop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together490 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  5. Currant + figtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together276 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

French cream
Binds the fruit and nuts together and gives the mixture a soft, creamy body.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the mixture hold together as it is stirred.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and natural sweetness to the filling.
Figs
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness.
Nuts
Add crunch and a rich, toasty flavor against the soft fruit.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, fig, cream, nuts, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Datesfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, fig, cream, nuts, 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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