Why it works: Sugar and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 98,233 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Fruit Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Combine sugar, raspberries or strawberries, melted butter, and hot water in a pot.
Boil slowly, removing any scum that rises.
Strain the mixture through a sieve.
Serve warm with dumplings or apple puddings.
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 + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 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
- Sugar
- Sweetens the sauce and thickens it slightly as it cooks down.
- Raspberries or strawberries
- Provide the main fruit flavour, colour and body of the sauce.
- Melted butter
- Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the sauce.
The step that matters
Boil slowly, removing any scum that rises. Gentle heat keeps the fruit from breaking down too harshly and clouding the sauce. Skimming the foam that rises removes impurities, giving a clearer, cleaner-tasting result.
“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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