Why it works: Sugar and strawberry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,060 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Strawberry Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Make the jam
Bruise the strawberries very finely and add a little strawberry juice.
Mix in the sugar, then place the mixture in a preserving pan.
Set over a clear, slow fire and boil for 20 minutes, skimming as needed.
Finish
Pour the jam into glasses.
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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Sugar + strawberrytop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,060 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Strawberries
- Provide the fruit flavour, colour and pectin-bearing body that the jam sets from.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jam and helps it set and keep by drawing out water and preserving the fruit.
The step that matters
Boiling for 20 minutes. Boiling must be steady but not too fierce, so the sugar and fruit concentrate and the jam sets without scorching. Skimming removes foam that would cloud the jam and spoil its clarity.
“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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