Why it works: Dates and sugar work together. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 985 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Date Filling
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash and remove the pits from the dates.
Cook
In a saucepan, combine the dates, sugar, and water.
Cook over medium heat until the mixture thickens into a paste.
Allow to cool before using.
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.
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Dates + sugartop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together985 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Dates
- Provide the main bulk and flavor, and break down into a thick, spreadable paste.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps thicken the mixture into a glossy, spreadable texture.
- Water
- Dissolves the sugar and softens the dates so they can cook down into a paste.
The step that matters
Cook over medium heat until the mixture thickens into a paste. Heat that is too high can scorch the sugar and dates before they thicken evenly, while too low a heat may leave the filling thin and slow to set. Stirring keeps the mixture from sticking and burning on the bottom of the pan.
“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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