Why it works: Strawberry and banana match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 421 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓
Strawberry Sauce for Ice Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
Beat the egg white until stiff.
Cream together the sugar and butter until smooth.
Add the beaten egg white, strawberry juice, and small pieces of strawberries to the mixture.
Finish and serve
Just before serving, fold in the diced bananas.
Optionally, top with whipped cream before 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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Strawberry + bananatop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together421 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Strawberry + creamtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,525 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + bananatop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,536 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg white
- Beaten until stiff, it adds airy lightness and body to the sauce.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the sauce and helps cream smoothly with the butter.
- Butter
- Creamed with the sugar to give the sauce a smooth, rich texture.
- Strawberry juice
- Provides the main strawberry flavour and moisture for the sauce.
- Bananas
- Add body and sweetness, folded in at the end to keep their texture.
The step that matters
Folding in the beaten egg white. Stiffly beaten egg white holds air, and overmixing or stirring it vigorously deflates it, making the sauce dense rather than light.
Swap the banana
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg, strawberry, cream):
- Vanillafits better
- Raspberryfits about as well
- Bananathe original
- Peachfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, strawberry, cream. 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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