Why it works: Sugar and dates 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 ↓
Stuffed Dates
Ingredients
Directions
Make the fondant
Combine sugar and cold water in a pot and let dissolve completely.
Cook the mixture slowly, stirring until it begins to boil.
Let it boil hard for 15 minutes without stirring.
Test a small amount in cold water; if it forms a soft ball, it's done.
Remove from heat and pour into a shallow pan to cool completely.
Once cool, whip the mixture to a cream and add flavoring if desired.
Stuff and finish
Stuff small pieces of the fondant into the pitted dates.
Wrap the stuffed dates in a brandied cloth and roll in sugar.
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.
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Sugar + datestop 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
- Granulated sugar
- Dissolves and cooks into the fondant, providing the sweet, set base for the filling.
- Dates
- Pitted fruit that holds the fondant filling and supplies natural sweetness and soft texture.
The step that matters
Boiling without stirring. Sugar syrup must boil undisturbed to reach the soft-ball stage; stirring can trigger crystallisation, leaving a grainy fondant instead of a smooth, creamy one.
“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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