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Dessert

Cherries in Brandy

A preserved cherry dessert made with brandy, raspberry or mulberry juice, sugar, and cherries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Brandy and raspberry work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 235 recipes. Both carry (z)-hex-3-en-1-ol, which smells freshly cut grass green and herbaceous notes. The science ↓

Cherries in Brandy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the liquid

  1. Squeeze the raspberries or mulberries through a tamis to obtain clear juice.

  2. Combine the juice and brandy in a container.

  3. Add the sugar and stir until it has completely melted.

Pack and store

  1. Arrange the cherries in jars and pour the brandy mixture over them.

  2. Add a little more sugar on top and cover the jars for winter 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

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. Brandy + raspberrytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together235 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-hex-3-en-1-ol (freshly cut grass green and herbaceous notes).

  2. Brandy + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

  3. Raspberry + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,101 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

Brandy
Preserves the fruit and adds alcohol-based warmth and aroma.
Raspberry or mulberry juice
Provides the base liquid and fruity flavour that infuses the cherries.
Sugar
Dissolves into the liquid to add sweetness and help preserve the fruit.
Cherries
Are the main fruit that soaks up the sweet, spirited liquid.

The step that matters

Add the sugar and stir until fully melted. Sugar must dissolve completely into the juice and brandy before the cherries are added. Undissolved crystals settle, leaving uneven sweetness and a syrup that may not preserve the fruit evenly.

Swap the raspberry

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against brandy, sugar. 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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