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
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, half-filling them.
Add 6 almonds and 3 ounces of rock candy to each jar.
Fill the jars with brandy, cork them, and seal air-tight.
Steep
Store for at least one month before using.
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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Almond + brandytop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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 fruit whose flavor and juices infuse the brandy.
- Rock candy
- Adds sweetness that dissolves slowly into the brandy over time.
- Brandy
- Acts as the liquid base that extracts flavor from the fruit and almonds.
- Bitter almonds
- Contribute a distinct almond aroma to the finished liqueur.
The step that matters
Pricking the cherries. Piercing the skins lets brandy and sugar penetrate the flesh and draw out flavor, so the infusion works evenly throughout the fruit.
“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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