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Strawberries and Cream Parfait

Fresh ripe strawberries in a sweet cream.

By tastykitchen · From Open Recipes · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 43,437 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 4
Prep10 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Hull the strawberries. Set aside 4 of the best whole berries for topping, then slice the rest. Toss the sliced berries with the granulated sugar and let them sit for 10 minutes to release juice.

  2. Stir the strawberry jam in a small bowl until smooth. Add a splash of water only if it is too thick to spoon.

  3. In a chilled bowl, whip the heavy cream, confectioners sugar and vanilla extract until soft peaks form.

  4. Spoon some sliced strawberries with their juice into four glasses. Add a layer of whipped cream, then a layer of jam, then more whipped cream.

  5. Repeat the layers if there is enough. Top each parfait with a reserved whole strawberry and a maraschino cherry if using. Chill until serving.

By tastykitchen. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Sugar + creamtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together43,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together35,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Strawberry jam + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together98 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  4. Cream + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together12,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Sugar + strawberry jamtop 13% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together291 recipes

Sugar and vanilla share little aroma chemistry, yet 35,031 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Flavor stand-ins for the vanilla

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, strawberry jam, cream):

  1. Vanillathe original
  2. Strawberryabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, strawberry jam, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).