Why it works: Raisin and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,481 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Cranberries and Raisins
Ingredients
Directions
Combine cranberries, raisins, sugar, and water in a pot.
Cook over medium heat until the cranberries are broken down, stirring occasionally to prevent burning.
Pour into a sauce dish and let cool.
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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Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 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
- Cranberries
- Break down into the sauce, providing the tart fruit body and bulk of the texture.
- Raisins
- Add concentrated sweetness and chewy pieces that soften during cooking.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the sauce and balances the tartness of the cranberries.
The step that matters
Stirring during the cook. Sugar-rich fruit mixtures scorch on the bottom of a pot over medium heat. Stirring occasionally keeps the sugar from burning and moves the fruit so it breaks down evenly.
“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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