Name: Pilled with Whipped Cream and Fresh Strawberries
Ingredients: macaroons; melted barley sugar; whipped cream; fresh strawberries

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 ↓

Pilled with Whipped Cream and Fresh Strawberries

Ingredients

macaroons
melted barley sugar
whipped cream
fresh strawberries

Directions

Choose a mold to form the basket.
Dip the edges of the macaroons in melted barley sugar and attach them together.
Remove the basket from the mold and store it in a dry place until needed.
Just before serving, fill the basket with whipped cream that has been drained on a sieve from the previous day.
Top with very fine ripe strawberries.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Barley + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together755 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Barley + creamtop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together301 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).