Why it works: Butter and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 98,233 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Clafoutis Aux Cerises
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
Grease a deep pie dish with butter.
Make the clafoutis
Spread the pitted cherries evenly on the bottom and sprinkle with sugar.
Pour the lightly sweetened frying batter over the cherries.
Bake for 3 hours, until the top is golden brown.
Serve
Invert onto another pie dish or a large plate.
Sprinkle the fruit with additional sugar and serve.
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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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cherries
- Provide the fruit, moisture and tartness that flavour the baked dessert.
- Frying batter
- Sets in the oven into a soft, custard-like body that holds the fruit.
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and helps the top brown as it bakes.
- Butter
- Greases the dish so the baked batter releases cleanly.
The step that matters
Bake for 3 hours, until the top is golden brown. A low oven and long bake let the batter set gently into a custard. Removing it too early leaves the centre wet, while baking too long dries and toughens it.
“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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