Why it works: Sugar and brandy 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 ↓
Cherry Cordial
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Stone half of the cherries and prick the rest.
Steep
Place the cherries in a jar and add the bruised kernels.
Add the sugar and cover the cherries with brandy.
Let the mixture stand for one month.
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 + brandytop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,939 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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
- Morella cherries
- Provide the main fruit flavor and juice that mixes with the brandy and sugar.
- White sugar
- Sweetens the liquor and draws juice out of the cherries as it dissolves.
- Brandy
- Acts as the alcoholic base that extracts and preserves the cherry flavor.
- Cherry kernels
- Add a subtle almond-like bitterness and aroma to the steeping liquid.
The step that matters
Cover the cherries fully with brandy. Cherries left exposed above the liquid can spoil and mold during the long steep. Keeping all fruit submerged in alcohol preserves them and keeps the flavor even.
“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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