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
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Dissolve the sugar in cold red currant juice.
Set the mixture on the fire.
Bring the mixture to a boil.
Add the strawberries.
Let them scald for 6-8 minutes without boiling.
Carefully remove the strawberries with a slotted spoon into a bowl.
Boil the syrup for a few minutes. Skim the syrup.
Pour it hot over the strawberries.
Cover the mixture.
Let it cool completely.
Boil and jar
Boil the syrup several times for 5-6 minutes each time. Skim as needed.
Seal the strawberries in the syrup.
Transfer the strawberries to jars.
Pour the syrup over them.
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
- Hold their shape and flavour as the fruit is the main body of the preserve.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the preserve and, at high concentration, helps preserve the fruit against spoilage.
- Red currant juice
- Dissolves the sugar into a syrup and adds tartness and pectin to set the preserve.
The step that matters
Scalding the strawberries without boiling. Boiling breaks down the fruit and toughens the skins, so the berries turn mushy. Gentle heat lets the syrup penetrate while the strawberries keep their shape.
“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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