Why it works: Sugar and sherry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 22% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,141 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Strawberries, Preserved in Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Gather strawberries in fine weather and use them as soon as picked.
Prepare dry glass bottles and soft corks.
Fill and seal
Remove the stalks from the strawberries and place them in the bottles, sprinkling with sugar.
When the fruit reaches the neck of the bottle, fill with sherry or Madeira.
Cork the bottles with new corks and dip them in melted resin.
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 + sherrytop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,141 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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 preserved and gives the dish its flavor.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and helps draw out moisture to preserve it.
- Sherry or madeira
- Covers the fruit and adds aroma and flavor while helping preserve it.
The step that matters
Filling the bottles with sherry or Madeira. The fruit must be fully covered by the wine so no part is exposed to air, which would let it spoil. Sealing tightly with fresh corks and resin then keeps air out over storage.
“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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