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Drink

Cherry Bounce

A whisky-based liqueur made by macerating wild cherries, then sweetening with a sugar syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Whisky and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,008 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Cherry Bounce

Ingredients

Directions

Steep the cherries

  1. Add enough whisky to cover the wild cherries in a jar.

  2. Let the mixture soak for 2 to 3 weeks.

  3. Drain off the liqueur.

  4. Mash the cherries without breaking the stones.

  5. Strain the mashed cherries through a jelly bag.

Finish and bottle

  1. Combine the strained liqueur with the drained liqueur.

  2. Make a syrup by boiling ½ cup water with 1 pound sugar until dissolved.

  3. Stir the syrup into the cherry liqueur and mix well.

  4. Bottle the mixture and cork it tightly.

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. Whisky + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,008 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Wild cherries
Provide the fruit flavour and colour that the whisky draws out during soaking.
Whisky
Acts as the solvent that extracts flavour and colour from the cherries and preserves the liqueur.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness and alcohol of the liqueur.

The step that matters

Mash the cherries without breaking the stones. Cracked stones can release bitter, almond-like compounds into the liqueur, so the cherries should be crushed gently to free their juice while leaving the pits whole.

“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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