Why it works: Sugar and whisky are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,008 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Cherry Cordial
Ingredients
Directions
Combine cherries, sugar, and whisky in a large jar.
Shake the jar often for the first three weeks.
After three weeks, bottle the mixture.
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 + whiskytop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,008 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cherries
- Provide fruit flavour, colour, and natural juice that dissolves the sugar into the liquid.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cordial and draws juice out of the cherries while it steeps.
- Whisky
- Acts as the alcoholic base that extracts and preserves the cherry flavour.
The step that matters
Shaking the jar often for the first three weeks. Regular shaking keeps the sugar moving so it dissolves into the cherry juice and whisky rather than settling at the bottom. Even dissolving helps the flavours extract evenly during steeping.
“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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