Name: Cherry Brandy
Ingredients: 2 pounds ripe Morella cherries; 6 shelled bitter almonds; 3 ounces rock candy; brandy

Why it works: Almond and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,969 recipes. Both carry 2-heptanol, which smells bitter, floral. The science ↓

Cherry Brandy

Ingredients

2 pounds ripe Morella cherries
6 shelled bitter almonds
3 ounces rock candy
brandy

Directions

Prepare the fruit and almonds

Wipe each cherry with a clean cloth and cut off the stems within an inch of the fruit.
Prick each cherry several times with a needle.
Blanch the almonds by pouring boiling water on them, then rub off the skins.
Crush the rock candy finely.

Fill the jars

Place the cherries in quart glass jars, filling them halfway.
Add 6 almonds and 3 ounces of rock candy to each jar.
Fill the jars with brandy, cork them, and seal air‑tight.

Rest

Store the jars for at least one month before using.

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.

Almond + brandytop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,969 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

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 flavor and juice that mingles with the brandy over time.
Brandy: Acts as the alcohol base that extracts flavor from the fruit and almonds and preserves them.
Rock candy: Adds sweetness and gradually dissolves into the brandy to sweeten the liquor.
Bitter almonds: Contribute a distinctive nutty, almond aroma to the infused liquor.

“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.