Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Raspberry Creams
Ingredients
Directions
Stir enough confectioners' sugar into a teaspoonful of raspberry jam to form a thick paste.
Roll the mixture into balls between your palms.
Melt French Cream in a teacup set in a basin of boiling water, stirring until smooth.
Add a few drops of cochineal coloring or raspberry juice to tint the cream, but do not add too much.
Dip the balls into the melted cream, coating them twice.
Set aside to harden, stirring the melted cream occasionally to prevent it from turning back into syrup.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Raspberry + creamtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,332 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + raspberrytop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,101 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the raspberry
The recipe marks raspberry as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cream):
- Vanillafits better
- Strawberryfits about as well
- Raspberrythe original
- Raisinfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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