Why it works: Sugar and cream 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 ↓
Raspberry or Strawberry Cream, Not Iced
Ingredients
Directions
Make the fruit syrup
Mash the ripe fruit and boil down the drained juice with fine sugar.
Make the cream
Whip the sweetened cream until strong.
In a separate bowl, mix the egg yolks with the remaining cream.
Add the fruit juice to the egg yolk mixture and cook until thickened.
Once cooled, mix in the fruit syrup and serve with the whipped cream on top.
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.
-
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together42,166 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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
- Raspberries or strawberries
- Provide the main fruit flavour and colour, and the juice that becomes the syrup.
- Fine sugar
- Sweetens the fruit, and when boiled down it thickens the juice into a syrup.
- Sweetened cream
- Adds richness and body, and whipped it forms a light topping.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the mixture as they gently cook, setting it into a smooth custard.
The step that matters
Cooking the fruit juice into the egg yolk mixture. Egg yolk proteins set at gentle heat. If the mixture gets too hot or cooks too fast, the eggs scramble and the cream turns grainy instead of smoothly thick. Stir constantly and stop as soon as it thickens.
“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.
More raspberry or strawberry cream recipes
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.