Why it works: Sugar and cherry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,598 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Canned Cherries
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Prepare a syrup by dissolving ½ pound of sugar in water.
Cook and can
Add 1 pound of cherries to the syrup and heat gently without boiling hard for 10 to 15 minutes.
If desired, add cherry stones in a muslin bag to the syrup for flavor.
Can the cherries and seal the jars.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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 + cherrytop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,598 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cherries
- Supply the fruit, its flavor, color and texture, which the syrup carries into the jar.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and, dissolved in the syrup, helps preserve the cherries' texture and shape.
The step that matters
Heat the cherries gently. Boiling hard breaks down the fruit's structure, so the cherries can split, turn soft and cloud the syrup. A gentle heat keeps them whole and firm in the jar.
“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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