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Dessert

Strawberries Preserved Whole

A method for preserving whole strawberries in sugar and red currant juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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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 Preserved Whole

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine equal weights of strawberries and loaf sugar with just enough water to dissolve the sugar in a pan.

  2. Boil the mixture until small bubbles cover the surface, about 20 minutes.

  3. Add 1 pint of red currant juice for each pound of strawberries.

  4. Boil for 5 minutes, then transfer to small jars.

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.

  1. Sugar + red curranttop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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
The fruit being preserved, which softens and takes on syrup as it cooks.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the fruit and draws water out, helping to preserve it.
Red currant juice
Adds tartness that balances the sugar and gives a brighter flavour.

The step that matters

Boiling until small bubbles cover the surface. Boiling concentrates the sugar syrup, which helps preserve the fruit. Stopping too early leaves it too watery, while boiling too long can over-thicken or darken it.

“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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