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 ↓
Chorry Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash and pit the cherries.
Combine cherries and brandy in a pot.
Cook and seal
Add sugar to taste, being careful not to add too much.
Cook over medium heat until the mixture thickens.
Pour into a quart bottle and seal.
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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Brandy + sugartop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Cherries
- Provide the fruit body and natural flavor that the jam is built from.
- Brandy
- Adds an aromatic, boozy flavor and liquid to the pot.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the mixture thicken as it cooks.
The step that matters
Add sugar to taste, being careful not to add too much.. Sugar sweetens the fruit and, as it cooks, helps bind water and support gel formation with the fruit's natural pectin. Too much sugar makes the jam cloyingly sweet and can mask the cherry flavor.
“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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