Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Gooseberry Paste
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Gather ripe gooseberries, remove tops and tails.
Place gooseberries in a jar, cover with water, and boil until soft.
Pour off the thin juice and rub gooseberries through a fine sieve.
Make the paste
Add more than half the weight of the pulp in pounded sugar and mix.
Boil until it reaches a jelly consistency, about two hours, stirring and skimming as needed.
Pour into a dish and let cool before serving with cream.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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 + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 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
- Gooseberries
- Their natural pectin and acid help the pulp set into a firm paste when boiled.
- Pounded loaf sugar
- Sweetens the pulp and, with prolonged boiling, helps it thicken into a stiff, sliceable set.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a soft, cooling contrast to the tart paste.
The step that matters
Boiling to a jelly consistency. Boiling too briefly leaves the paste runny, while overboiling makes it dense and sticky. Sugar and fruit pectin set as water evaporates, so the cook must judge the set by eye and stir and skim to prevent scorching at the bottom of the pan.
“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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