Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
To Pickle Cherries
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cherries
Leave about an inch of stalk on the cherries and place them in a jar.
Cover the cherries with cold vinegar and let them stand for three weeks.
Pour off two-thirds of the vinegar and replace it with fresh vinegar.
Make the pickle
Drain the cherries and boil the vinegar with coriander seed, mace, cayenne or white peppercorns, and bruised cochineals tied in muslin.
Let the pickle cool completely before adding it to the cherries.
After a month, the cherries will be ready to use.
Make the syrup
To make syrup, boil the reserved vinegar with sugar, optionally infusing with fresh raspberries, cherries, or currants for three to four days.
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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Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,842 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Mace + curranttop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,791 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Vinegar + curranttop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together693 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,806 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Vinegar + coriandertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,829 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cold vinegar
- Acidity that preserves the cherries and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
- Sugar
- Sweetness in the syrup, balancing the sharpness of the vinegar.
- Coriander seed
- Adds a warm, citrusy aroma to the pickling liquid.
- Cochineals
- Provide a red colour to the pickling liquid.
The step that matters
Let the pickle cool completely before adding it to the cherries. Hot liquid partly cooks the fruit, softening its texture and making it less firm. Cooling the pickle first keeps the cherries intact while they absorb the flavours slowly.
Swap the currant
The recipe marks currant as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, coriander, mace, sugar, syrup):
- Lemonfits better
- Limefits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, coriander, mace, sugar, syrup. 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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