Why it works: Sugar and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,679 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓
Cranberry Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
Stew the cranberries until soft.
Rub the cranberries through a colander or sieve.
Sweeten the cranberry puree to taste.
Blanch the almonds and chop them.
When the mixture is partly cold, add the chopped almonds.
Mold and serve
Pour the mixture into a mold, chill, then turn out 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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Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,679 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fresh cranberries
- Provide the tart fruit base and the pectin that lets the puree set when chilled.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the tart puree and balances its acidity.
- Blanched almonds
- Add crunch and a mild nutty flavour against the soft sauce.
The step that matters
Adding the almonds when the mixture is partly cold. If the puree is still hot, the almonds can soften and lose their crunch, and the sauce may thin. Waiting until it is partly cooled keeps the texture firm and the nuts evenly distributed before the mold sets 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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