Why it works: Currant and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,256 recipes. The science ↓
Fruit Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Layer the fruit in a deep glass bowl.
Sprinkle sugar over each layer.
Just before serving, pour ½ pint of Madeira over the fruit.
Add ⅓ cup of Benedictine or Curaçao.
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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Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,256 recipes
Currant and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,256 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
- Fruit (in the method)
- Provides the main body, texture and fresh flavour of the salad.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and draws juice out of the fruit, forming a syrup.
- Madeira
- Adds sweetness and a rich, nutty aroma to the fruit juices.
- Benedictine or curaçao
- Adds sweetness and a herbal or citrus aroma to the fruit.
The step that matters
Adding the Madeira just before serving. Sugar draws juice out of the fruit over time, and the fruit softens as it sits. Pouring the Madeira in at the last moment keeps the fruit firm and the flavours fresh rather than diluted.
“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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