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Dessert

Prune Relish

A sweet preserve made from prunes, raisins, walnuts, sugar, and oranges.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Walnut and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,058 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Prune Relish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Grind the raisins and prunes using a vegetable grinder.

  2. Slice the oranges and add them to the mixture.

Cook

  1. Add the sugar and boil until thick.

  2. Add the chopped walnuts 5 minutes before removing from heat.

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 + orangetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

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

  2. Raisin + orangetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,684 recipes

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

  3. Raisin + walnuttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together647 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

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

Sugar and orange barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Prunes
Provide bulk, natural sweetness and moisture that give the relish its body.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, as it boils, thickens the mixture by concentrating the fruit juices.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture as they break down into the relish.
Walnuts
Add crunch and a nutty contrast to the soft, sweet fruit.
Oranges
Add acidity and bright citrus aroma that balance the sweetness.

The step that matters

Add the walnuts near the end. Walnuts held in hot, sugary syrup through a long boil soften and lose their crunch. Adding them five minutes before removing the pan keeps some of their texture.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Pistachiofits better
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, raisin, orange. 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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