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Stuffed Dates

Dates filled with a sugar fondant flavored with vanilla or almond extract.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Stuffed Dates

Why it works: Vanilla and dates work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 218 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Stuffed Dates

Ingredients

Directions

Make the fondant

  1. Combine 2 cups granulated sugar and 1 cup cold water in a saucepan, and stir until dissolved.

  2. Cook slowly, stirring until it begins to boil.

  3. Let it boil hard for 15 minutes without stirring. Test a small amount in cold water; it should form a soft ball.

  4. If it doesn't form a soft ball, continue boiling until it does.

  5. Remove from heat and pour into a shallow pan.

  6. Allow the mixture to cool completely.

  7. Once cooled, whip the mixture to a cream and add chosen flavoring.

Stuff and coat

  1. Stuff small pieces of the fondant into the pitted dates.

  2. Wrap the stuffed dates in a brandied cloth and roll them in powdered or granulated sugar.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Vanilla + datestop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together218 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + datestop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together985 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Granulated sugar
Forms the syrup that cooks into a soft fondant for the filling.
Dates
Provide the sweet, chewy shell that holds the fondant filling.

The step that matters

Boil to the soft-ball stage. Sugar syrup must reach the soft-ball stage to form a fondant that whips into a smooth, creamy texture. Undercooked syrup stays runny, while overcooked syrup turns firm and grainy.

Swap the dates

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Blueberryfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Datesthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vanilla. 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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