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 ↓
Another Way to Make Cherry Brandy
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Bake the cherries.
Press out the juice.
Pound the stones in a marble mortar.
Steep
Mix the juice, pounded stones, and sugar-candy.
Add the brandy to the mixture.
Put the mixture into a large glass bottle.
Shake frequently for three months.
Strain and bottle
Strain through a jelly bag and bottle for use.
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
- Morella cherries
- Provide the main cherry juice and flavor for the liqueur.
- Common cherries
- Add more juice and cherry flavor to the base.
- Sugar-candy
- Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the fruit and brandy.
- Brandy
- Extracts flavor from the fruit and acts as a preserving alcohol.
The step that matters
Shake frequently for three months. Regular shaking keeps the sugar dissolving and spreads flavor from the fruit and stones evenly through the brandy during the long steep.
“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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