Why it works: Vinegar and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Pickled Cherries
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Pick over the cherries and remove any specked ones.
Pickle
Place the cherries in a jar and pour enough hot vinegar and sugar to cover them.
Boil the vinegar and sugar mixture, skim it, and pour it hot over the cherries.
Let the cherries sit for a week.
Pour off the vinegar, boil it again, and pour it hot over the cherries a second time.
Once cooled, tightly seal the jar.
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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Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,806 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
- Cherries
- Provide the fruit that absorbs the sweet-sour brine and becomes firm-textured when pickled.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the brine and balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
- Hot vinegar
- Acidifies the fruit, preserving it and giving it a tart flavor.
The step that matters
Pouring the second hot brine. Reboiling and repouring the hot vinegar over the cherries helps heat the fruit and keep the pickle stable, so the jar should be sealed only after it has cooled.
“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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