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 ↓
Cherry Cup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the cherry base
Press the canned sour cherries through a sieve.
Put the cherry puree over the fire and add sugar to sweeten.
When the mixture boils, add a thickening of cornstarch mixed with cold water.
Cook until the mixture is the consistency of cream, then remove from heat and cool.
Serve
Serve in sherbet cups with a few drops of lemon juice and a little shaved ice.
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
- Sour cherries
- Provide the main fruit flavor and tartness that define the sherbet.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the tart cherry puree to balance its acidity.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the puree as it heats, giving it a creamy body.
- Lemon juice
- Adds brightness and acidity to sharpen the cherry flavor.
The step that matters
Adding the cornstarch thickening. Cornstarch must be mixed with cold water first and added once the puree boils, then cooked through. Added dry or to a cold mixture it clumps, and undercooked starch leaves a raw, pasty taste and a thin 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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