Why it works: Sugar and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,939 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Cherry Brandy
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cherries
Cut off the stalks of the cherries, leaving about 1 inch.
Wipe the cherries with a soft cloth.
Bottle and steep
Place the cherries in perfectly dry wide-necked bottles, filling them more than half full.
Layer the cherries and sugar in the bottles.
Fill the bottles with brandy, cork them tightly, and seal the tops with melted wax or bladder.
Let the mixture sit for at least 2 months before using.
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 + brandytop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,939 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar and brandy 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
- Cherries
- Provide the main fruit flavour and colour that the brandy extracts over time.
- Castor sugar
- Sweetens the liquor and draws juice from the cherries, helping to balance the brandy.
- French brandy
- Acts as the alcohol base that extracts flavour from the fruit and preserves it.
The step that matters
Sealing the bottles tightly. Alcohol evaporates and air can spoil the infusion, so the bottles must be dry and tightly corked and sealed to keep the brandy strong and the fruit from fermenting.
“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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