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Drink

Cherry Whiskey

A fruit liqueur made by macerating cherries in whiskey or brandy, sweetened with sugar syrup.

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 ↓

Cherry Whiskey

Ingredients

Directions

Steep the cherries

  1. Place the cherries in a jar.

  2. Pour the whiskey or brandy over the cherries.

  3. Let it stand for one month.

  4. Remove the cherries, bruise them in a mortar, and return them to the liquor.

  5. Let it stand for another month.

Sweeten and bottle

  1. Strain the liquor.

  2. For every quart of liquor, add ¾ pound of sugar made into a syrup.

  3. Pour the boiling syrup into the cold liquor.

  4. Let it settle and cool completely.

  5. Bottle and cork well.

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

Cherries
Provide the fruit flavour and colour that infuse into the spirit during steeping.
Whiskey or brandy
Acts as the solvent, extracting flavour from the cherries over the long steeping.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and body to balance the strong spirit and tart fruit.

The step that matters

Pour the boiling syrup into the cold liquor. Adding boiling syrup to cold liquor and then letting it settle and cool helps the mixture clear and reduces the chance of cloudiness. Cooling completely before bottling lets any sediment drop out.

“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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