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Dessert

Cherries in Brandy

A preserve of ripe cherries soaked in brandy and powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Brandy and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,939 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Cherries in Brandy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut off the tops of the cherry stalks, leaving a short stalk.

  2. Place the cherries in a glass jar.

Steep

  1. Mix the powdered sugar with the brandy and pour over the cherries, ensuring they are covered.

  2. Seal the jar with a bladder or tight lid.

  3. Let the cherries sit for two months before using.

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. Brandy + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

Brandy and sugar 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

Morella cherries
Provide the main fruit flavor and texture that the brandy soaks into.
French brandy
Extracts flavor from the fruit and its alcohol helps preserve it.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves into the brandy to add sweetness and balance its sharpness.

The step that matters

Keep the cherries fully covered with the brandy mixture. Fruit exposed above the liquid can spoil or mold, since the alcohol only preserves what it fully surrounds. Covering every cherry keeps the whole batch protected during the long steep.

“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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