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 Punch
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Cover the hulled strawberries with sugar and let them sit until the sugar draws out their juice, creating a red syrup.
Strain the syrup and berries through a fine sieve.
Finish and serve
Add the sweet wine and water to the syrup and stir well.
Freeze the mixture.
Serve in punch or lemonade glasses.
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 flavor and the red color of the syrup.
- Sugar
- Draws juice out of the strawberries and adds sweetness to the punch.
- Sweet wine
- Adds sweetness and aromatic flavor to the punch.
The step that matters
Letting the strawberries sit with sugar. The sugar must have enough time to draw the juice out of the berries, which forms the syrup that gives the punch its flavor and color. Skipping or shortening this rest leaves the base weak and pale.
“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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