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 ↓
Blackberry Mush
Ingredients
Directions
Mash the blackberries in a preserving kettle until they form a pulp.
Add enough sugar to make the mixture quite sweet.
Heat the mixture over the fire until it begins to simmer.
Gradually stir in the flour while continuously stirring.
Boil the mixture while stirring until thickened.
Serve warm or cold with cream.
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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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Blackberries
- Provide the main fruit pulp, flavor, and color of the dish.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the mash and balances the tartness of the blackberries.
- Flour
- Thickens the pulp as it heats, giving the mush its body.
The step that matters
Stirring in the flour. Flour added to hot fruit clumps easily if dumped in at once. Adding it gradually while stirring constantly disperses the starch so the mixture thickens smoothly.
“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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