Why it works: Brandy and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,939 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Cherry Boonce. — a Cordial*
Ingredients
Directions
Steep the cherries
Fill a jug with ripe wild cherries and pour in French brandy until it covers the cherries.
Stop the jug tightly and set it aside for six months.
Make the syrup and bottle
After six months, boil a thick syrup using loaf sugar and spices to your taste.
Once the syrup is cold, fill your bottles two-thirds full with the cherry brandy and add the spiced syrup until the bottles are full.
Cork the bottles well.
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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Brandy + sugartop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,939 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Brandy and sugar 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
- Ripe wild cherries
- Provide the main cherry flavour and fruit body that the brandy extracts over time.
- French brandy
- Extracts flavour from the cherries and acts as a preservative in the finished liqueur.
- Loaf sugar
- Makes a thick syrup that adds sweetness and body to the finished cordial.
The step that matters
Let the syrup cool before bottling. Adding hot syrup to the brandy can raise the temperature and drive off alcohol and aroma, and warm liquid in sealed bottles can build pressure. Waiting until the syrup is cold keeps the spirit's character intact and the bottling safe.
“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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