Name: Strawberries with Cream
Ingredients: fresh strawberries; powdered sugar; heavy cream; ¾ pint granulated sugar; 1 vanilla bean (optional); 1 egg white (optional)

Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Strawberries with Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Pick the strawberries and wash them if they are sandy.
Place the strawberries in a compote dish and keep on ice until ready to serve.

Serve

Serve the powdered sugar and cream separately for each person to sweeten to taste.

Make the ice cream

For ice cream, mash the fruit finely before adding it to the cream.
Mix ¾ pint of granulated sugar and a little vanilla bean with 1 quart of cream.
Add the egg white for smoothness and stir the mixture in a freezer until fully congealed.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together12,301 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Vanilla + eggtop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together27,347 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Heavy cream: Provides fat and richness, giving the dessert its smooth, creamy body.
Egg white: Adds smoothness to the mixture as it sets in the freezer.
Fresh strawberries: Supply the fruity flavour and the fruit mashed into the ice cream.
Powdered sugar: Dissolves easily into the cream, adding sweetness to taste.

“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.