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Preserved Cherries

A method for preserving cherries in sugar syrup using a muslin bag.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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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 ↓

Preserved Cherries

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the syrup

  1. Stone the cherries, preserving all the juice.

  2. Weigh the cherries; for every pound, use ¾ pound of sugar.

  3. Combine the sugar and cherry juice in a pot with the cherry stones in a muslin bag.

  4. Boil for about 15 minutes, skimming off any scum.

Cook and jar

  1. Add the cherries and boil until the syrup thickens like jelly.

  2. Remove from heat, fill pint jars, and cover with brandied paper.

  3. Screw on the lids tightly once cooled.

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. Sugar + cherrytop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Sour red cherries (morellas)
Provide the fruit, tartness and bulk of the preserve.
Sugar
Sweetens the fruit and, as it thickens, helps set the syrup like jelly.
Cherry stones
Add a subtle almond-like aroma to the syrup while it boils.

The step that matters

Boiling until the syrup thickens like jelly. Sugar and fruit pectin must concentrate to a high enough sugar level to gel. Stopping too early leaves a runny syrup, while boiling too long can caramelise the sugar and darken the flavour.

“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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