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Dessert

Maple Puffs

Maple Puffs are a sweet dessert made from a mixture of sugar syrup, egg whites, citron, and raisins, then dropped onto paper to set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,481 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Maple Puffs

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Boil sugar and water until it spins a heavy thread.

Make the puffs

  1. Beat the egg whites until very stiff.

  2. Gradually add the hot syrup to the egg whites while beating continuously.

  3. When the mixture begins to stiffen, add the chopped citron and raisins.

  4. Beat until the mixture holds its shape.

  5. Drop by tablespoons onto greased paper and let stand until stiff.

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

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

  2. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Raisin + eggtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,556 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that traps air and gives the puffs their light, airy structure.
Sugar
Boiled with water into a syrup that sweetens the puffs and firms up as it cools.
Citron
Adds chewy pieces and bulk to the mixture, giving texture and a candied fruit flavor.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the puffs.

The step that matters

Gradually add the hot syrup to the egg whites while beating continuously. Pouring the hot syrup in slowly while beating cooks the egg white proteins gently and builds a stable foam. Adding it all at once or without constant beating can deflate the whites or leave cooked lumps.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinthe original
  3. Lemonfits about as well
  4. Datesfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. 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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