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 Bounce
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Stone the morella cherries and crack the stones.
Put all the cherries and cracked stones into a demi-john.
Add the pounded loaf sugar and pour in the whisky.
Steep and bottle
Cork the demi-john and let it sit for six months.
After six months, pour off and bottle the cherry bounce.
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
- Morella cherries
- Provide the main fruit flavour and juice that blends with the spirit.
- Black heart cherries
- Add more fruit juice, colour and sweetness to the infusion.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the spirit and balances its strength and the fruit's tartness.
- Double-rectified whisky
- Acts as the solvent that extracts flavour and colour from the fruit and stones.
The step that matters
Cork the demi-john and let it sit for six months. The spirit must stay sealed while flavour slowly extracts from the fruit and cracked stones. Opening early or leaving it unsealed lets alcohol evaporate and oxidise the infusion, so the bounce stays weak and dull.
“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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