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Maple Cream

A sweet sauce made from brown sugar, cream, maple syrup, butter, vanilla, and optional figs or nuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Maple Cream

Why it works: Vanilla and fig match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 324 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Maple Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cream

  1. In a saucepan, combine brown sugar, cream, maple syrup, and butter.

  2. Boil for 10 minutes, stirring constantly.

  3. Remove from heat and beat until creamy.

Finish

  1. Stir in chopped figs or nuts before serving.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

  1. Vanilla + figtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together324 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Maple syrup + vanillatop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together752 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Brown sugar
Provides sweetness and the caramel-like depth that defines the cream's flavor.
Cream
Adds fat and moisture, giving the finished cream a smooth, soft texture.
Maple syrup
Adds sweetness and its distinctive maple aroma.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Boil for 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Boiling evaporates water and concentrates the sugars, so the mixture thickens properly. Constant stirring keeps the sugar from scorching on the bottom of the pan, which would give a burnt taste.

Swap the fig

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cream, maple syrup, butter, vanilla):

  1. Strawberryfits about as well
  2. Coconutfits about as well
  3. Figthe original
  4. Bananafits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream, maple syrup, butter, vanilla. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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