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Dessert

Steamed Strawberries

A sweet dessert of strawberries steamed in a butter, flour, sugar, and baking soda mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Steamed Strawberries

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together until smooth.

  2. Gradually work in the flour until very smooth.

Add the fruit and soda

  1. Cook the strawberries with sugar until thick, then stir them into the mixture.

  2. Add the baking soda and mix well.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered mold and steam for 4 hours.

  2. Serve with foamy sauce or strawberry sauce.

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.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Butter
Adds richness and a tender, smooth texture to the batter.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the pudding together after steaming.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and softens its texture as it creams with the butter.
Strawberries
Contribute fruit flavor and moisture once cooked into a thick mixture.
Baking soda
Releases gas in the batter, helping it rise and lighten as it steams.

The step that matters

Steaming the mold for 4 hours. The mold must stay sealed and the steam must be kept steady for the full time. If water gets in or the steam drops, the pudding turns heavy and wet inside.

“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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