Why it works: Sugar and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,939 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
To Preserve Stawberries
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Pick and wash the strawberries, then drain them in a sieve or colander until dry.
Add an equal weight of sifted sugar to the strawberries and let them stand overnight.
Cook and jar
Put the mixture in a kettle and boil slowly, skimming off any scum that rises.
Once done, dip the hot strawberries into small jars or tumblers.
Cover the jars with brandy paper the next day.
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 + brandytop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,939 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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
- Strawberries
- Provide the fruit that is cooked down and preserved.
- Sifted sugar
- Draws moisture out of the fruit and acts as the preservative that keeps it stable.
- Brandy paper
- Covers the jars to help protect the preserves from spoilage.
The step that matters
Boil slowly and skim the scum. Slow boiling lets the sugar dissolve and concentrate without scorching the berries, and skimming removes foam and impurities that could spoil the preserves.
“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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