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Dessert

Maple Tutti Frutti

A candied fruit and nut mixture sweetened with maple sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Dates and fig work together. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 318 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓

Maple Tutti Frutti

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Line a shallow buttered pan with a half‑inch layer of the chopped nuts and fruits.

Make the maple candy

  1. In a saucepan, boil the maple sugar and hot water without stirring until it hardens in cold water.

  2. Remove from heat and add the lemon juice.

  3. Pour the mixture over the nuts and fruits in the pan.

  4. When almost cool, cut into squares with a buttered knife.

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. Dates + figtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together318 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

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

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

  3. Almond + raisintop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  4. Almond + figtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together519 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Walnut + figtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together373 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Maple sugar
Forms the candy base and provides sweetness as it hardens into a set mass.
Hickory nuts
Add crunch and texture within the candy layer.
Pecans
Add crunch and a rich, buttery flavor within the candy layer.
Walnuts
Add crunch and a slightly bitter, earthy note within the candy layer.
Almonds
Add crunch and a mild, sweet nuttiness within the candy layer.
Dates
Add chewy texture and natural sweetness.

The step that matters

Boiling the maple sugar without stirring. Sugar syrup heated to the hard-crack stage sets firmly as it cools, so the temperature must be reached without stirring. Stirring can trigger grainy crystallization, which spoils the smooth texture.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (nuts, pecans, walnut, almond, dates, fig, raisin):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against nuts, pecans, walnut, almond, dates, fig, raisin. 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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