Why it works: Lemon and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Cherry Drink
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and soak
Wash and stone the cherries, then bruise them.
Pour boiling water over the cherries and add lemon rind or bruised kernels.
Let the mixture soak for 4 to 5 hours.
Strain and sweeten
Strain the liquid and sweeten with sifted sugar.
If desired, add brandy before serving.
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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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,939 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Lemon + brandytop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,351 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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 main fruit flavour and colour that the syrup takes up during soaking.
- Loaf sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the cherries.
- Lemon rind
- Adds a bright citrus aroma to the infused liquid.
The step that matters
Let the mixture soak for 4 to 5 hours. Flavour and colour move from the fruit into the hot water slowly over time. Soaking for the full period draws out enough of the cherry character, while a shorter soak gives a weak, pale syrup.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, brandy):
- Vanillafits better
- Apricotfits better
- Raisinfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, brandy. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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