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Dessert

Stuffed Dates with Whipped Cream

Dates are pitted, filled with chopped nuts, boiled in sugar syrup, and served with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Stuffed Dates with Whipped Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the pits from the dates.

  2. Fill the dates with chopped nut meats and press them together firmly.

  3. Place the stuffed dates in a saucepan.

Cook and serve

  1. Add sugar and enough water to cover the dates.

  2. Boil until the dates are tender and the syrup thickens.

  3. Serve with whipped cream.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Dates + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together985 recipes

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

  3. Dates + creamtop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together276 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Dates
Provide the main body and sweetness, and soften into a tender texture when simmered.
Sugar
Sweetens the syrup and helps it thicken as the liquid reduces.
Whipped cream
Adds a cool, rich, airy contrast to the warm, sweet dates.

The step that matters

Boil until the dates are tender and the syrup thickens. Boiling too briefly leaves the dates firm and the syrup thin. Simmering gently until the dates soften lets sugar concentrate into a syrup that clings to them, without the dates breaking apart.

Swap the dates

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Datesthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream. 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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