Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓
Cherry Liqueur
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cherries
Split the cherries and remove the stones.
Crack the stones and add them to a large bottle with the cherries, cloves, cinnamon, and sugar.
Steep and bottle
Pour the brandy over the mixture.
Cork the bottle tightly and let it stand for 14 days.
After 14 days, strain the mixture and bottle the liqueur.
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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Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Cinnamon + brandytop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,199 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Clove + brandytop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,362 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,939 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Morella cherries
- Provide the main cherry flavor and fruit juice that sweetens and colors the liqueur.
- Black cherries
- Add additional cherry flavor and body to the fruit base.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the liqueur and helps draw flavor out of the fruit.
- Brandy
- Acts as the alcohol base that extracts and preserves the flavors of the fruit and spices.
- Cinnamon
- Contributes warm aromatic spice flavor to the infusion.
- Cloves
- Contribute strong aromatic spice notes to the infusion.
The step that matters
Cork the bottle tightly and let it stand for 14 days. A tight seal keeps alcohol and aromas in and prevents air from spoiling the infusion, while the full steeping period lets the fruit, spices, and sugar flavor the brandy.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cinnamon, sugar, brandy):
- Nutmegfits better
- Clovethe original
- Allspicefits less well
- Cardamomfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, sugar, brandy. 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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