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
Cook the cranberries
Stew the cranberries in a pot until soft.
Rub the cooked cranberries through a colander or sieve.
Sweeten the cranberry puree to taste with sugar.
Add the almonds
Blanch the almonds and chop them coarsely.
When the mixture is partly cold, add the almonds.
Set and serve
Pour the mixture into a mold and refrigerate until set.
Turn out the cranberry sauce 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
- Cranberries
- Provide the tart base and natural pectin that lets the puree gel as it cools.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the tart puree and balances its acidity.
- Blanched almonds
- Add crunch and a mild nutty flavour to the set sauce.
The step that matters
Add the almonds when the mixture is partly cold. If the mixture is still hot, the almonds can sink unevenly instead of staying distributed through the sauce. Waiting until it has cooled somewhat keeps them evenly suspended as the mixture sets in the mold.
“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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