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 ↓
Cherry Syrup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Dissolve the sugar in the cold water.
Add the pitted cherries and cherry juice, then cook for 10 minutes.
Remove from heat and press the mixture through a strainer.
Return the liquid to the heat and boil until it thickens into a syrup.
Seal the syrup while hot.
Serve
Serve over shaved ice, thinning with cold water to taste.
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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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
- Granulated sugar
- Provides sweetness and, as the liquid reduces, body and a syrupy thickness.
- Pitted cherries
- Add fruit flavor and color, and release their juices as they cook.
- Cherry juice
- Adds concentrated cherry flavor and deepens the syrup's color.
The step that matters
Boil until it thickens into a syrup. Boiling evaporates water and concentrates the sugar, which gives the syrup its body. Stopping too early leaves it thin and watery, while boiling too long can make it overly thick once 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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