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Cherry Bounce

A whisky-based cherry liqueur made by soaking cherries, mashing, and adding a sugar syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Whisky and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,008 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Cherry Bounce

Ingredients

Directions

Steep the cherries

  1. Add enough whisky to cover 1 gallon of wild cherries and let soak for 2 to 3 weeks.

  2. Drain off the liquor and mash the cherries without breaking the stones.

  3. Strain the mashed cherries through a jelly bag and combine this liquor with the drained liquor.

Sweeten and bottle

  1. Make a syrup by boiling ½ cup of water with 1 pound of white sugar until dissolved.

  2. Stir the syrup into the cherry liquor, bottle it, and tightly cork.

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. Whisky + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,008 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

Wild cherries
Provide the main fruit flavor and aroma that the whisky draws out during soaking.
Whisky
Extracts flavor from the cherries and acts as the preserving alcohol for the liquor.
White sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the tartness and alcohol of the cherry liquor.

The step that matters

Mashing the cherries without breaking the stones. Cracked pits can release bitter, almond-like compounds into the liquor, so the cherries should be crushed gently to keep the flesh broken while the stones stay whole.

“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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