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Dessert

Steawberry Cream

A chilled dessert of strawberries, gelatin, sugar, lemon juice, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Gelatin and cream match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,628 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Steawberry Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the strawberries

  1. Wash and hull the strawberries, discarding any that are not good.

  2. Place the strawberries in a bowl and sprinkle with ½ ounce of powdered sugar to draw out the juice.

  3. Use a silk sieve over a bowl to strain the strawberries, pressing them through with a wooden spoon.

Make the gelatin base

  1. In a small saucepan, soak ½ ounce of gelatin in ½ cup of cold water until swollen.

  2. Heat the saucepan and stir until the gelatin is completely melted.

  3. Add 2 ounces of powdered sugar and the strained lemon juice to the gelatin mixture, stirring well.

  4. Combine this mixture with the strained strawberries and mix thoroughly.

Fold, mould and serve

  1. In a separate bowl, whip ½ pint of heavy cream until stiff peaks form.

  2. Gently fold the whipped cream into the strawberry mixture.

  3. Prepare a pint mold by scalding it with hot water, then rinsing with cold water.

  4. Pour the strawberry cream into the mold and chill in ice until ready to serve.

  5. To serve, dip the mold in boiling water for a second, shake to loosen, and turn out onto a dish.

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.

  1. Gelatin + creamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Sugar + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Gelatin + lemontop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,215 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-pinene (pine, resin).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Fresh strawberries
Provide the main flavour and the fruit pulp that gives the cream its body.
Gelatin
Sets the liquid mixture so the cream holds its shape when turned out.
Heavy cream
Whipped into air, it adds lightness and a rich, creamy texture.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the cream and draws juice out of the strawberries.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness of the strawberries.

The step that matters

Folding the whipped cream into the strawberry mixture. Whipped cream holds air that gives lightness. Stirring vigorously knocks out that air and makes the cream dense. Fold gently so the mousse stays airy, and make sure the gelatin base is cool but still liquid so it does not deflate or set in lumps.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, gelatin, cream):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, gelatin, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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