Why it works: Sugar and sherry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 22% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,141 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Strawberries, Preserved in Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Pick ripe strawberries and place them in dry, wide-mouthed bottles.
Sprinkle 4 ounces of powdered sugar over each pound of fruit.
Preserve
Fill the bottles to the neck with sherry or Madeira to cover the fruit.
Cork the bottles securely and wax them down.
Store in a cool, dry place.
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 + sherrytop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,141 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Strawberries
- Provide the fruit that is preserved and flavours the wine.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and draws out moisture that helps keep it covered in syrup.
- Sherry or madeira wine
- Covers the fruit, adding alcohol that helps preserve it and contributing aroma.
The step that matters
Covering the fruit fully with wine. Any fruit left above the liquid can spoil, since exposed surfaces are open to air and mould. Filling to the neck keeps every berry submerged before the bottles are sealed.
“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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