Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Gooseberry Paste
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Gather ripe rough red gooseberries.
Remove the stems.
Place the berries in a jar and cover with bladder.
Boil the jar in a pot of water until the berries are soft.
Pour off the thin juice.
Rub the gooseberries through a fine sieve using a wooden spoon.
Make the paste
Measure out slightly more than half the weight of the pulp in pounded loaf sugar.
Mix the sugar into the pulp.
Boil the mixture until it reaches a jelly consistency, about two hours, stirring and skimming as needed.
Transfer the mixture to a dish.
Let it cool before serving with cream.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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 + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 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
- Rough red gooseberries
- Provide the fruit pulp and natural pectin that set the paste.
- Pounded loaf sugar
- Sweetens the paste and helps it thicken into a firm, sliceable set.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a cooling fat that balances the tart fruit.
The step that matters
Boiling to a jelly consistency. The paste sets only when enough water evaporates and the sugar and fruit pectin reach the right concentration. Undercooking leaves it runny, while overcooking can make it stiff and sticky once cooled.
“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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