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Strawberries, Compéte of

A fruit compote made by simmering strawberries with a clear syrup of water and sugar, optionally flavored with currant juice or maraschino liqueur.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and red currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,156 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Strawberries, Compéte of

Ingredients

Directions

Macerate

  1. Pick the strawberries and place them in a bowl.

  2. Pour a little clear syrup made by boiling water and sugar for 10 minutes over the strawberries.

  3. Cover the bowl with a plate and let it stand for at least 1 hour.

Finish and serve

  1. Drain the syrup, boil it for a few minutes, skim, and strain it over the strawberries in a serving dish.

  2. For added flavor, mix in red currant juice and/or maraschino liqueur.

  3. For a chilled version, set the flavored syrup in ice until almost frozen, then pour it over the fruit.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Sugar + red curranttop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,156 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Strawberries
Provide the main fruit flavor and the soft, juicy body of the compote.
Sugar
Sweetens the fruit and, dissolved in water, forms the syrup that draws out juice.
Red currant juice
Adds tartness and a brighter fruit note that balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Chilling the flavored syrup. Setting the syrup in ice only until almost frozen gives a cold, slushy texture. Leaving it too long freezes it solid, while stopping too early leaves it watery and unable to coat the fruit.

“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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