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Combination Roly-poly

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Plum and apple match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 404 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Combination Roly-poly

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cut figs, dates, and plums into small pieces.

  2. Mix all ingredients in a bowl, adjusting the amount of apple and adding marmalade if desired.

  3. Prepare the suct or paste for rolling.

  4. Roll out the paste, fill with the mixture, and roll it up tightly.

  5. Boil the pudding longer than a jam roll, ensuring it is cooked through.

  6. If the mixture is dry, moisten with treacle before rolling.

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. Plum + appletop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together404 recipes

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

  2. Fig + datestop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together318 recipes

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

  3. Fig + plumtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together32 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Fig + appletop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together238 recipes

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

  5. Nutmeg + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

Swap the dates

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fig, plum, sugar, raisin, apple, nutmeg, ginger):

  1. Pearfits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Datesthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fig, plum, sugar, raisin, apple, nutmeg, ginger. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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