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Dessert

Cherry, Blueberry, Blackberry or Strawberry Sauce

A simple fruit sauce made with sugar, butter, water, corn starch, and crushed berries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,345 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Cherry, Blueberry, Blackberry or Strawberry Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cream together the sugar and butter.

  2. Add the boiling water and place in a double boiler.

  3. When it boils, stir in the corn starch dissolved in a little cold water.

  4. Heat thoroughly, then remove from heat.

  5. Stir in the crushed fruit and serve hot.

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 + corntop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Sugar + corntop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,168 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Corn starch
Thickens the sauce as it heats, giving it body.
Sugar
Sweetens the sauce and balances the tartness of the fruit.
Crushed fruit
Provides the main flavour and fruity character of the sauce.

The step that matters

Stirring in the cornstarch slurry. Cornstarch must be dispersed in cold water first and added once the mixture boils, so it thickens smoothly. Added dry or to cold liquid, it clumps and stays grainy.

“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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