Why it works: Sugar and red currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,156 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
To Preserve Strawberries
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the strawberries
Select strawberries that are not too ripe.
Weigh equal quantities of strawberries and sugar.
Sprinkle half the sugar over layers of strawberries and let it stand overnight.
Cook and preserve
The next day, make a syrup with the remaining sugar and red currant juice.
Simmer the strawberries in the syrup for 30 minutes.
For longer preservation, add an additional ¼ cup of sugar for every pound of fruit, seal the jars, and bury them.
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 + red curranttop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,156 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Strawberries
- The main fruit, which softens and holds its shape during simmering in the syrup.
- Sugar
- Draws moisture out of the fruit and helps preserve it through sweetness and reduced water.
- Red currant juice
- Adds tartness and acidity to the syrup, balancing the sweetness of the sugar.
The step that matters
Sprinkle half the sugar and let it stand overnight. Sugar drawn into the fruit by osmosis forms a syrup and firms the berries, so they keep their shape during cooking. Skipping the rest period can leave the fruit less firm and the syrup thinner.
“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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