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 a syrup by dissolving ½ pound of sugar in water.
Add 1 pound of cherries to the syrup.
Scald the cherries in the syrup for 10 to 15 minutes without boiling hard.
If desired, place a few cherry stones in a muslin bag and add to the syrup while scalding for extra flavor.
Can and seal the cherries after scalding.
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
- Form the fruit that is preserved, providing the main texture and flavor of the finished jar.
- Sugar
- Dissolves into the syrup that sweetens the fruit and helps preserve its shape and texture.
The step that matters
Scald without boiling hard. Gentle heat around the simmer point softens the cherries and lets the syrup penetrate evenly. A hard boil can break the skins and cause the fruit to split and turn mushy.
“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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