Name: Wild Cherry Syrup
Ingredients: 1 gallon simple syrup; 1 ounce citric acid solution; 2 ounces wild cherry extract; Carmine color (optional)

Why it works: Syrup and cherry work together. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 339 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Wild Cherry Syrup

Ingredients

1 gallon simple syrup
1 ounce citric acid solution
2 ounces wild cherry extract
Carmine color (optional)

Directions

Combine 1 gallon of simple syrup with 1 ounce of citric acid solution.
Add 2 ounces of wild cherry extract.
If desired, add carmine color for a richer hue.

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.

Syrup + cherrytop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together339 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Simple syrup: Provides the sweet base that carries the flavor of the whole syrup.
Citric acid solution: Adds tartness that brightens the cherry flavor and balances the sweetness.
Wild cherry extract: Supplies the main cherry aroma and flavor of the syrup.

“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.