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Dessert

Cranberry Shape

A molded dessert of stewed cranberries encased in buttered bread slices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cranberry Shape

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cranberries

  1. Boil the cranberries in water until they reduce to a pulp.

Line the mold

  1. Butter the slice of bread and place it at the bottom of a plain mold or basin.

  2. Cut strips of buttered bread and arrange them closely around the sides of the mold.

Fill and set

  1. Mash the stewed cranberries through a colander into the mold until full.

  2. Cover with another slice of buttered bread, butter side down.

  3. Let it cool thoroughly until solid, then turn it out.

Serve

  1. Serve with a garnish of whipped cream or plain 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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Bread + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,789 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Cranberries
Break down into a pulp that sets into a firm, tart filling.
Bread
Forms the sturdy outer shell that holds the molded shape.

The step that matters

Mashing the stewed cranberries through a colander. Pressing the cooked fruit through a colander removes skins and lumps, giving a smooth pulp that packs evenly and sets solid when cooled.

“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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