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To Brandy Fruit

Fruit preserved in brandy and sugar syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

To Brandy Fruit

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Boil sugar and water until it ropes from the spoon.

  2. Pour the hot syrup over the cherries or other fruit.

Steep and finish

  1. Cover the jar and let it cool.

  2. Once cool, add the brandy and the sugar syrup.

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 + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

  3. Brandy + syruptop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together561 recipes

Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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

Sugar
Sweetens the fruit and, boiled with water, forms the syrup that preserves it.
Brandy
Acts as the preserving liquid, adding alcohol that helps keep the fruit from spoiling.
Cherries or other fruit
Provides the main flavor and is steeped in the syrup and brandy.

The step that matters

Let the syrup cool before adding brandy. Alcohol is volatile and evaporates readily when hot, so adding brandy to hot syrup wastes its aroma and strength. Cooling first keeps the spirit's character and its preserving effect in the finished jar.

“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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