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Cherries and Currants in Syrup

A syrup made by boiling cherries and currants with sugar and water, then adding currant juice and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Currant and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Cherries and Currants in Syrup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Boil 2 pints of water with 4 pounds of sugar for 15 minutes.

  2. Add the pitted cherries and cook for an additional 20 minutes.

  3. Strain the syrup and mix in 1 pint of currant juice.

  4. Add brandy or maraschino to taste and cook rapidly for 10 minutes.

Fill and seal

  1. Pour the syrup over the fruit and seal while hot.

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. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + curranttop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,256 recipes

Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Cherries
Supply the main fruit flavor and the soft, tender texture of the finished syrup.
Sugar
Provides sweetness and body, thickening the syrup as the water cooks off.
Currant juice
Adds tart acidity and a bright fruity note that balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Seal the syrup while hot. Pouring the syrup over the fruit while it is still hot helps the fruit warm through and reduces the chance of spoilage once sealed. Letting it cool first increases the risk of contamination.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, brandy. 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.

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