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Preserve

Preserved Cherries

Preserved cherries are cherries preserved in sugar syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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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 ↓

Preserved Cherries

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Stone the cherries, preserving all the juice.

  2. Weigh the cherries and measure 1.5 pounds of sugar for every 2 pounds of cherries.

Make the syrup

  1. Combine the sugar and cherry juice in a pot with the muslin bag of cherry stones.

  2. Boil the mixture for about 15 minutes, skimming off any scum.

  3. Add the cherries.

  4. Boil until the syrup thickens like jelly.

  5. Remove from heat.

Jar and seal

  1. Fill pint jars.

  2. Let cool.

  3. Cover with brandied paper.

  4. Screw on the lids tightly.

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. Sugar + cherrytop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Sour red cherries
Provide the fruit, whose tartness balances the sugar in the finished preserve.
Sugar
Sweetens the fruit and, as it dissolves and concentrates, thickens the syrup and helps preserve it.
Cherry stones
Release a little almond-like aroma into the syrup while it simmers in the muslin bag.

The step that matters

Boil until the syrup thickens like jelly. Sugar and water boil off until the syrup reaches a concentration that sets and preserves the fruit. Stopping too early leaves a runny result that may spoil, while overcooking makes it stiff and sugary.

“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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