Strawberry is a berry with 478 known flavor compounds. The most distinctive molecule is 2-methylbutanoic acid methyl ester. It pairs most strongly with raspberry, sharing 153 flavor compounds. Strawberry appears in 4,697 recipes, most commonly in world cuisine.
Characteristic fruity floral aroma from volatile esters. Furaneol adds sweetness with pineapple undertones. Key aromas: fruity, floral, caramel and cheesy.
Compounds ranked by rarity — the higher the score, the more distinctive to this ingredient.
Of the ~226 molecules that drive perceived food aroma (Dunkel et al. 2014), Strawberry's inventory contains 87. Most of the other 391 compounds are below detection threshold.
+ 75 more — showing top 12 by class and threshold.
Generalist = appears in >25% of foods (Maillard / fermentation products). Individualist = appears in <5% of foods (carries signature notes). Threshold values are in clean water — the actual perception threshold in a food matrix can differ substantially.
How Strawberry's 478 known compounds break down by aroma category. Percentages are of compounds with a known label.
206 of 478 are distinctive to strawberry — they appear in under 10% of foods. The remainder are the background most foods share.
Ordered by measured impact in strawberry — concentration against odour threshold where both are published, then by how distinctive the molecule is across the graph. Molecules measured here but not established as odorants sit below those that are.
Ranked by median concentration across published studies. Only 25 of Strawberry's 478 compounds have a measured concentration in the literature — the rest are confirmed present but not yet quantified. Bars are log-scaled.
Ranked by how often cooks actually use them together, across 453,403 recipes — the familiar answer first. Each pairing still carries its molecular score and shared-compound count; only the ORDER differs. Counts cover every characterised molecule the two ingredients have in common, not only the aroma-active ones, so they can exceed an ingredient’s aroma-compound count. For the chemistry-first view — where the surprising pairings live — see the molecular network below, the side-by-side comparison, or the Pairing Tool.
Strawberry and its 10 closest compound-sharing relatives. Spoke thickness = shared compounds; circle size = that ingredient's own compound count. Drag to rearrange, scroll to zoom, click to open.
Compare Strawberry side-by-side
Drawn from PubMed + Europe PMC + food-science journals. Click any title to read the full abstract on the original source.
Strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) is an important horticultural crop and is highly nutritious and valuable. However, several molecular mechanisms on the biosynthesis and metabolism... Read abstract →
The strawberry is one of the world's most popular fruits, providing humans with vitamins, fibers, and antioxidants. Cultivated strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) is an allo-octoploid... Read abstract →
Ripening as a physico-chemical change is part of a continuous developmental process and hormones play a major role in this processes. The present study was carried out to investiga... Read abstract →
The NAC transcription factor ripening inducing factor (RIF) was previously reported to be necessary for the ripening of octoploid strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) fruit, but the me... Read abstract →
Volatile compounds that impact the acceptability of strawberry preserves were investigated by untargeted GC-MS flavoromics analysis. Chemical profiles for fifteen strawberry preser... Read abstract →