Why it works: Sugar and madeira wine work together. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 343 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Strawberries with Madeira Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Clean the strawberries and remove any stems.
Macerate
In a bowl, combine the strawberries, sugar, and Madeira wine.
Stir well and let the mixture stand on ice for 2 hours.
Serve
Serve in tall glasses.
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.
-
Sugar + madeira winetop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together343 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Strawberries
- Provide the main fruit flavor and juice that forms the sauce.
- Sugar
- Draws juice out of the strawberries and adds sweetness to the syrup.
- Madeira wine
- Adds a rich, aromatic flavor that complements the sweet fruit.
The step that matters
Standing on ice for 2 hours. Sugar needs time to draw liquid out of the strawberries and dissolve into it, so the syrup forms and the flavors blend. Stirring well first helps the sugar contact all the fruit, and the cold slows spoilage while it stands.
“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
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.