Why it works: Sugar and wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 31% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,581 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Strawberry Cardinal
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Pick and discard any unsound or bruised strawberries.
Sprinkle the strawberries with powdered sugar and pour half a bottle of Rhine wine over them.
Cover and let them stand in a cool place for 30 minutes.
Serve
Just before serving, pour the remaining wine and another bottle of either Moselle or Rhine wine over the strawberries.
Add the bottle of seltzer and serve.
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 + winetop 31% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together9,581 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Strawberries
- Provide the main fruit flavor and, once macerated with sugar, release juice that mixes into the wine.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the dish and draws juice out of the strawberries as it dissolves.
- Rhine wine
- Supplies the main liquid and wine flavor, soaking into the softened strawberries.
- Seltzer
- Adds carbonation, giving the finished dessert a light, lively fizz.
The step that matters
Letting the strawberries stand in the sugar and wine. Sugar pulls water out of the strawberries by osmosis, and the wine soaks into the softened fruit. Standing time in a cool place lets the sugar dissolve and the flavors blend, while cooling slows fermentation and spoilage of the fruit.
“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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