Why it works: Egg and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,340 recipes. Both carry acetoin, which smells butter, cream. The science ↓
Strawberry Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Make the jam
In a preserving pan, combine the strawberries and sugar, stirring gently to avoid breaking the fruit.
Simmer the mixture for 30 minutes.
Transfer the jam into airtight pots.
Seal the pots
To seal, cut round covers from writing paper, slightly larger than the pot tops.
Smear the inside of the covers with egg white and tie them over the pots with a cord.
For added protection, dip a circular paper in brandy and place it over the jam before sealing.
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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Egg + brandytop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,340 recipes
Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).
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Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,939 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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 flavour and body that the jam is built around.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jam and helps it set and keep by binding water.
- Egg white
- Used as a glue to stick the paper covers to the pots when sealing.
The step that matters
Stirring the fruit and sugar gently. Vigorous stirring breaks the strawberries into pieces, which can make the jam cloudy and mushy. Gentle stirring keeps the fruit whole and its texture intact while the sugar dissolves.
“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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