Why it works: Currant and corn work together. They rank in the top 30% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 144 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓
Strawberry Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the soup
Cook strawberries and water together until soft.
Add currant jelly and stir until dissolved.
Strain the mixture.
Thicken with corn starch and cook for 10 minutes.
If necessary, strain again.
Serve
Serve very cold in bouillon cups with chipped ice.
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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Currant + corntop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together144 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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, once cooked down, most of the soup's body.
- Currant jelly
- Adds sweetness and tartness, and its pectin helps give the soup body.
- Corn starch
- Thickens the liquid as it heats, giving the soup a smooth, fuller texture.
The step that matters
Thicken with corn starch and cook for 10 minutes. Starch granules must be heated long enough to swell and thicken the liquid. If the soup is served before this happens, it stays thin and can taste raw and starchy.
“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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