Why it works: Whisky and sugar 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
Steep the cherries
Add enough whisky to cover 1 gallon of wild cherries and let soak for 2 to 3 weeks.
Drain off the liquor.
Mash the cherries without breaking the stones and strain through a jelly bag.
Sweeten and bottle
Combine the strained cherry juice with the drained liquor.
Make a syrup by boiling ½ cup of water with 1 pound of white sugar until dissolved.
Stir the syrup into the cherry liquor mixture, bottle it, and tightly cork.
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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Whisky + sugartop 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
- Wild cherries
- Provide the fruit juice and flavor that make up the body of the drink.
- Whisky
- Extracts flavor from the fruit and acts as the preserving alcohol.
- White sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the tartness and astringency of the cherries.
The step that matters
Keep the cherries fully covered with whisky during the soak. Fruit exposed above the liquid can spoil and ferment unevenly. Submersion in alcohol keeps the fruit preserved while its flavor and color steadily move into the spirit over the weeks.
“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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