Name: Cherries in Brandy
Ingredients: fine Morello cherries; cold water; brandy; cinnamon; 4 ounces powdered sugar

Why it works: Cinnamon and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Cherries in Brandy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cherries

Cut the stems of the cherries halfway and wash them in cold water.
Drain the cherries in a sieve and place them in glasses.

Steep

Pour enough brandy over the cherries to cover them and add a little cinnamon.
Seal the bottles airtight and let them sit for a month.

Make the syrup and finish

Drain the brandy.
Mix 4 ounces powdered sugar into each pint of drained brandy until melted. Strain the mixture through flannel until bright and clear.
Pour the strained mixture over the cherries to cover them.

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.

Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Brandy + cinnamontop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,199 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Brandy + sugartop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Fine morello cherries: Provide the main fruit flavour and tart character that the brandy and sugar carry.
Brandy: Acts as the preserving liquid that soaks into the cherries and carries their flavour.
Powdered sugar: Dissolves into the brandy to sweeten the finished liquid poured over the cherries.

“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.