Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 ↓
Creme De Fraises
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the mixture
Mash the strawberries in a marble mortar.
Boil the cream and milk together, sweetening to taste, and let it reduce by half.
Once cool, mix the strawberries into the cream mixture.
Set and chill
Add a small amount of rennet, about the size of a coffee grain.
When the milk is lukewarm, pass it through a fine sieve (tamis).
Pour the mixture into a fireproof pan and place it on warm cinders.
Once set, cool the dish in a cool place or on ice until serving.
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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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Cream + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Supply the fruit flavour, aroma and colour that give the cream its character.
- Cream
- Provides fat for a rich, smooth texture in the finished cream.
- Milk
- Supplies protein and liquid that the rennet coagulates into a soft set.
- Rennet
- An enzyme that coagulates the milk proteins so the mixture sets.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness, balancing the tartness of the strawberries.
The step that matters
Adding the rennet. Rennet is an enzyme that works best at lukewarm temperatures; if the milk is too hot the enzyme can be damaged and the set fails. Using only a tiny amount matters because too much rennet can make the curd firm, rubbery or bitter. Add it only once the milk has cooled to lukewarm.
“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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