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 ↓
Canned Cherries
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and cook
Prepare the cherries by washing and pitting them.
In a pot, combine the cherries and sugar.
Heat the mixture until it just scalds, about 10 to 15 minutes; do not boil hard.
If desired, place a few cherry stones in a muslin bag and add to the pot for flavor.
Can
Can the mixture in sterilized jars and seal immediately.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Sugar + cherrytop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Cherries
- Provide the fruit, flavor and most of the body of the finished preserve.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and binds water, helping the cherries keep in the jar.
The step that matters
Heat until just scalds, without boiling hard. Hard boiling breaks down the fruit's structure, making it mushy and dulling its flavor, and can scorch the sugar on the pot bottom. Gentle heat softens the cherries while keeping them whole.
“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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