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 ↓
Strawberries, Preserved Whole
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Combine sugar and just enough water in a pan to dissolve the sugar.
Boil until the surface is covered with small bubbles, about 20 minutes.
Cook the strawberries
Add strawberries and red currant juice to the pan.
Boil for 5 minutes.
Transfer the mixture into small jars.
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 flavour and bulk of the preserve.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the preserve and helps it set and keep by drawing out water.
- Red currant juice
- Adds tartness and acidity, along with pectin to help the preserve set.
The step that matters
Boil the syrup to small bubbles. Boiling the sugar and water until small bubbles cover the surface concentrates the syrup. Under-boiling leaves too much water, so the preserve may not set well or keep as long.
“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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