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Drink

Black Cherry Water

A distilled infusion of black cherries and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Rosemary and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 178 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Black Cherry Water

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Bruise the black cherries well.

  2. Chop the herbs finely and mix them with the bruised cherries, dried violets, aniseeds, and sweet fennel seeds.

  3. Distill the mixture in a cold still.

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. Rosemary + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together178 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Rosemary + fenneltop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together157 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Marjoram + fenneltop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together39 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Marjoram + angelicatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together24 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Rosemary + angelicatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together32 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Black cherries
Provide the fruit base and juicy flavour carried into the distilled water.
Rosemary tops
Add a resinous, aromatic note through volatile oils released during distillation.
Aniseeds
Contribute a sweet, licorice-like aroma from their volatile oils.
Sweet fennel seeds
Add a sweet, anise-like aroma that complements the fruit.
Dried violets
Add a delicate floral aroma to the infusion.

Swap the spearmint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rosemary, marjoram, angelica, fennel):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Spearmintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rosemary, marjoram, angelica, fennel. 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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