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Dessert

Strawberry Cream

A chilled strawberry dessert made with gelatin, sugar, lemon juice, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Strawberry Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pick the strawberries and pass them through a fine sieve.

  2. Dissolve the gelatine and sugar in 2 tablespoons of water, then add the lemon juice.

  3. Strain the gelatine mixture into the strawberry puree.

Finish and set

  1. Add the whipped cream and mix lightly.

  2. Pour into a prepared mold and set on ice or in a cold place until firm.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Cream + lemontop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,640 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
Provide the main flavour and colour, and the fruit body of the cream.
Cream
Adds richness and a light, soft texture that is lifted by whipping.
Castor sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the fruit and lemon.
Leaf gelatine
Sets the mixture into a firm, sliceable structure as it cools.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the strawberry flavour.

The step that matters

Adding the gelatine mixture to the puree. Gelatine only sets properly when it is fully dissolved and evenly distributed. If it is lumpy or cools and firms before mixing, the cream will have uneven pockets of stiffness. Stir it in smoothly and while still liquid so the set is even throughout.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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