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Dessert

Fruit and Nut Filling

A sweet filling made from figs, raisins, nuts, water, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Fig and raisin work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 737 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Fruit and Nut Filling

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a saucepan, combine figs, raisins, nut meats, boiling water, and sugar.

  2. Stir and cook over medium heat until the mixture is smooth.

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. Fig + raisintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

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

  2. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  3. Fig + sugartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,241 recipes

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

  4. Raisin + meattop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together484 recipes

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

  5. Fig + meattop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together143 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Figs
Provide the main body, sweetness and a soft, jammy texture as they cook down.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture to the filling.
Nut meats
Contribute richness, bite and texture that contrasts with the soft fruit.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the fruit mixture thicken and turn glossy as it cooks.

Swap the fig

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

  1. Figthe original
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Coconutfits less well
  4. Datesfits less well

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