Why it works: Sugar and red currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,156 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Strawberry Compote
Ingredients
Directions
Pick and arrange the strawberries in a dish.
Sprinkle the powdered sugar over the strawberries and let them stand for a few minutes.
Melt the red currant jelly and pour it boiling over the fruit.
Serve cold.
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 + red curranttop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,156 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Strawberries
- Provide the main fruit body and flavor of the compote.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the strawberries and draws out their juices as they stand.
- Red currant jelly
- Adds sweetness and tartness and sets into a glossy glaze over the fruit.
The step that matters
Melting the red currant jelly. The jelly must be fully melted and boiling so it pours evenly and coats the fruit; if it cools too much it can clump or set unevenly on the berries.
“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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