Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Iced Strawberry Puree
Ingredients
Directions
Pound the strawberries with the sugar, lemon juice, and liquid carmine.
Rub the mixture through a sieve.
Chill the puree on ice until ready to use.
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 + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Strawberries
- Provide the main fruit flavour, colour base and the bulk of the puree.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the strawberries and lemon.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the strawberry flavour and helps keep its fresh taste.
- Liquid carmine
- Adds a deep red colour to the puree.
The step that matters
Rub the mixture through a sieve. Pressing the pounded fruit through a sieve removes seeds and fibrous pieces, leaving a smooth puree. Skipping or rushing this step leaves a gritty texture.
“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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