Skip to main content
Preserve

Tutti-frutti Filling

A sweet filling made with vanilla boiled icing and candied fruit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Vanilla and apricot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 608 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Tutti-frutti Filling

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Prepare ½ quantity of vanilla boiled icing.

  2. Once ready, add ¾ cup each of chopped red candied cherries, candied pineapple, candied green grapes, and candied apricots.

  3. Ensure all fruit is cut into small pieces.

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. Vanilla + apricottop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together608 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  2. Vanilla + pineappletop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together911 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Pineapple + apricottop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together377 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Vanilla boiled icing
Soft sugar base that holds the fruit together and adds sweetness and moisture.
Red candied cherries
Adds concentrated sweetness, chewy texture and bright colour.
Candied pineapple
Adds concentrated sweetness and a chewy, fruity texture.
Candied green gages
Adds concentrated sweetness, chewy texture and fruity flavour.
Candied apricots
Adds concentrated sweetness and a chewy, fruity texture.

The step that matters

Cut all the fruit into small pieces. Small, even pieces spread evenly through the sweet icing and are easy to bite. Large chunks of sugar-infused fruit sit heavily, cluster in one spot and make the filling uneven.

Swap the pineapple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vanilla, apricot):

  1. Peachfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vanilla, apricot. 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.

You might also like

Green Corn PuddingGreen Corn Pudding64 recipesCornmeal mushCornmeal mush12 recipes