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 ↓
Berry Pudding Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Beat the sugar and butter together until creamy.
Add the mashed strawberries and mix well.
You can substitute any other fruit or use canned fruit if fresh is not in season.
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 helps the butter beat into a light, creamy base.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture to the sauce.
- Strawberries
- Provide the main fruit flavour, moisture and a bit of tartness.
The step that matters
Beating the sugar and butter until creamy. Beating softened butter with sugar traps air and partly dissolves the sugar, which gives the sauce a light, smooth texture. Stopping early leaves it dense and gritty.
“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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