Skip to main content
Dessert

To Pickle Cherries

A method for pickling cherries in vinegar with sugar, spices, and cochineal for color.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

To Pickle Cherries

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and steep

  1. Select cherries and leave an inch of stem.

  2. Put cherries into a jar and cover with cold vinegar.

  3. Leave for three weeks.

  4. Pour off half of the liquid.

  5. Boil the reserved liquid with 1 pound of sugar for each pint to make syrup.

  6. Replace the poured-off vinegar with fresh vinegar over the cherries.

  7. Drain the vinegar.

Spice and pickle

  1. Add 1 ounce coriander seed, 1 blade of mace, a pinch of cayenne, and 4 bruised cochineals tied in muslin.

  2. Boil the mixture.

  3. Let it cool.

  4. Pour the cooled mixture over the cherries.

  5. Let the cherries sit for a 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.

  1. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Vinegar + coriandertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,829 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Coriander + macetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together281 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Vinegar + macetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,415 recipes
  5. Sugar + coriandertop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,749 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cherries
Provide the fruit body and flavour that the pickling liquid permeates.
Cold vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavour and helps preserve the fruit.
Sugar
Sweetens the syrup and balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Coriander seed
Adds a warm, citrusy aroma to the pickling liquid.
Mace
Adds a warm, aromatic spice note to the pickle.
Cochineals
Release a red colour into the liquid, tinting the cherries.

The step that matters

Boil the reserved liquid with the sugar to make syrup. The sugar must dissolve fully and the liquid must boil to concentrate it. A thin, under-boiled syrup gives a weaker sweetness and a less stable preserve.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, sugar, coriander):

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar, coriander. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.

More pickled cherries recipes

Sweet 6 See all 86 →

You might also like

White CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesSpice CakeSpice Cake344 recipes