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 cherries and remove any specked ones.
Pickle
Place cherries in a jar and pour enough hot vinegar and sugar to cover them; use 4 pounds of sugar per gallon of vinegar.
Boil the mixture, skim it, and pour it hot over the cherries.
Let it stand for a week, then pour off the vinegar and boil it again.
Pour the hot vinegar over the cherries a second time.
Once cooled, tie the jar tightly.
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 is preserved and flavoured by the pickling liquid.
- Hot vinegar
- Acidity that preserves the fruit and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
- Sugar
- Sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar and helps preserve the fruit.
The step that matters
Boiling and pouring the vinegar a second time. Boiling the vinegar and pouring it hot over the cherries heats the fruit and the liquid so the acid and sugar can penetrate and preserve it. Letting the cherries stand for a week first gives the flavours time to develop.
“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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