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Dessert

Strawberry Jam

A strawberry jam made with strawberries, water, optional cochineal, liqueur or brandy, gelatin, and served with custard or ice cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Brandy and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,635 recipes. Both carry 2-heptanol, which smells bitter, floral. The science ↓

Strawberry Jam

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Prepare a pot of strawberry jam with enough strawberries and water to make syrup.

  2. Strain the mixture.

  3. Color it rosy pink with cochineal.

  4. Add the liqueur or brandy.

Set the jelly

  1. Melt the gelatin and strain it.

  2. Stir the gelatin into the syrup when cold.

  3. Decorate a plain mold with almonds and place it on ice.

  4. Pour the strawberry syrup into the mold gradually and cover it.

  5. Set it in ice for two hours.

Serve

  1. Turn it out and serve with cold custard or iced cream.

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. Brandy + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  2. Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  3. Brandy + almondtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,969 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Strawberries
Provide the main flavour and colour, and their pectin helps the syrup thicken as it cools.
Gelatine
Sets the liquid syrup into a firm, sliceable jelly as it chills.
Liqueur or brandy
Adds aroma and a warm, complex flavour to the syrup.

The step that matters

Stirring the gelatine into the syrup when cold. If the syrup is still warm, it can weaken the gelatine's setting power, and if it is too hot the gelatine may not set evenly. Cooling the syrup first helps the jelly set firm and clear.

“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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