Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Preserves
Ingredients
Directions
Cover peeled fruit with cold water to prevent browning.
Sprinkle some sugar over berries and soft fruits for a few hours before preserving.
Boil preserves gently in a porcelain kettle, granite ware, or block tin.
Use a skimmer to dip fruit out of the syrup into jars.
Seal preserves if desired and store in a cool, dry place.
If preserves become candied, place the jar in cold water and bring to a gentle boil for an hour to liquefy.
If mold appears, carefully remove it and scald the preserves by heating them in a crock in the oven until heated through.
Add 1 teaspoon of cream of tartar for every gallon to prevent graining.
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 + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Apple + creamtop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,089 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cream):
- Vanillafits better
- Strawberryfits better
- Raspberryfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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