Name: Cherry Branry
Ingredients: 7 pounds Morello cherries; 1 gallon brandy

Cherry Branry

Ingredients

7 pounds Morello cherries
1 gallon brandy

Directions

Steep the fruit

Remove pits from cherries and place the fruit in a bottle with the brandy.
Cork the bottle tightly and let it sit for six weeks.

Steep the stones

Bruise the cherry stones and place them in another bottle with the remaining brandy.
Cork this bottle tightly and let it sit for the same six weeks.

Combine and bottle

After six weeks, mix the two bottles together and bottle for use.

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

What each ingredient does

Morello cherries: Supply the main fruit flavour, colour and tart-sweet character as they steep.
Brandy: Acts as the solvent that draws flavour and colour out of the fruit and keeps it stable.

“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.