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Gooseberry and Elderflower Fool

By bbcfood · From Open Recipes · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and lemon balm share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 13 recipes mention both. Both carry myrcene, which smells balsamic, herbaceous. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 4-6
Prep30 min
Cook30 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Put the gooseberries, water, sugar and lemon strip in a medium pan. Tie the elderflower heads in muslin and add them to the pan, pushing them under the liquid.

  2. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, then cover and cook gently for 15 minutes, until the gooseberries have collapsed and are very soft.

  3. Lift out the muslin bag and squeeze it over the pan to extract the flavour, then discard it. Remove and discard the lemon strip.

  4. Mash the gooseberries roughly with a fork or potato masher, or blend briefly for a smoother texture. Leave to cool to room temperature.

  5. Chill the gooseberry mixture in the fridge for at least 30 minutes so it is cold before mixing.

  6. Spoon the crème fraîche into a bowl and fold in the cold gooseberry mixture gently, leaving some ripples of colour.

  7. Spoon into glasses or bowls and chill for 10 minutes more. Top with sprigs of lemon balm, mint or elderflower just before serving.

By bbcfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Lemon + lemon balmtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together13 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  2. Sugar + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together53,530 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + lemon balmtop 20% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together21 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Sugar and lemon share little aroma chemistry, yet 53,530 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the lemon balm

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

  1. Cinnamonbetter flavor fit
  2. Gingerbetter flavor fit
  3. Corianderbetter flavor fit
  4. Lemon balmthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).