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Dessert

Tutti-frutti

A layered dessert of macaroons, ladyfingers, fruit juices, milk, eggs, and fruit jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Tutti-frutti

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Cover the bottom of a large glass dish with macaroons and ladyfingers.

  2. Pour fruit juice and unfermented grape juice over the cakes and let soak for 1 hour.

Make the custard

  1. In a saucepan, melt 1 tablespoon of butter and add 3 pints of milk and the yolks of 5 eggs.

  2. Add sugar and vanilla to taste, stirring until thick but do not let it boil.

  3. Remove from heat, let cool, and pour over the soaked cakes.

Top and finish

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff, sweeten with sugar and fruit jelly, and spread on top.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Grape + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,596 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Grape + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,682 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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

Egg yolks
Thicken the milk mixture into a smooth custard as they set with gentle heat.
Egg whites
Whipped until stiff, they form a light meringue-style topping.
Macaroons
Soak up the juice to form the soft, flavourful base layer.
Ladyfingers
Soak up the juice to form the soft, flavourful base layer.
Milk
Forms the body of the custard, giving it richness and a soft set.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the custard base.

The step that matters

Thickening the custard. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat and can scramble or curdle if the mixture boils, so it should be stirred over low heat only until thick.

Swap the grape

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Peachfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Grapethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, egg, 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.

More tutti frutti recipes

Ice Cream 57Cake 11Punch 8Icing 7Filling 6Ice 5 See all 17 →

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