Why it works: Dates and fig work together. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 318 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓
Tutti Frutti
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Make a quart of rich yolk-of-egg custard.
Color the custard café-au-lait by burning 2 ounces of sugar to molasses color and dissolving it in ½ cup milk.
Flavor the custard with ¼ pint curaçao, strain, freeze, and beat thoroughly.
Prepare and fill the molds
Fill a quart measure with a mixture of assorted sugared fruits.
Mix the fruits with the frozen custard and pack down with ice and salt.
Prepare molds by coating the insides with orange ice made from 2 quarts of orange ice and beaten egg whites.
Imbue the molds in the freezing mixture and fill with the tutti frutti when the coating is firm.
Spread orange ice on top, secure with lids and rubber bands, and close all spaces with butter.
Freeze and serve
Place the molds in the freezing mixture for 2 to 3 hours.
To serve, wash the outsides with a cloth dipped in tepid water, turn out onto a folded napkin, and decorate with gelatin paste.
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.
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Dates + figtop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together318 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).
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Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,781 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
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Fig + almondtop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together519 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Raisin + figtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together737 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Dates + almondtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together217 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg yolks
- Form the rich custard base that gives the ice cream its smooth, creamy body.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and, burnt to molasses color, gives it a café-au-lait tint.
- Curaçao
- Adds orange flavor to the custard base.
- Assorted sugared fruits
- Provide chewy texture and sweet fruity pieces throughout the frozen dessert.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into the orange ice to help form a firm coating lining the molds.
The step that matters
Coating the molds before filling. The orange ice lining must be firm before the tutti frutti goes in; if it is still soft, it can smear or mix with the filling and lose its shape when turned out.
Swap the dates
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, milk, raisin, fig, almond):
- Vanillafits better
- Apricotfits about as well
- Peachfits about as well
- Datesthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, milk, raisin, fig, almond. 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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