Name: Brandy Cherries, Grapes, Fyc.
Ingredients: morella cherries; brandy; sugar

Why it works: Brandy and sugar 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 ↓

Brandy Cherries, Grapes, Fyc.

Ingredients

morella cherries
brandy
sugar

Directions

Prepare

Cut off part of the stalks and leaves from the morella cherries.
Place the cherries in a glass jar.

Steep

Mix equal parts of brandy and sugar; when the sugar dissolves, pour it over the fruit.
Cover the jar tightly and keep adding brandy as it evaporates.

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.

Brandy + sugartop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together11,939 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Brandy and sugar 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 fruit that softens and flavours the brandy during steeping.
Brandy: Acts as the preserving liquid, keeping the fruit from spoiling while it steeps.
Sugar: Dissolves into the brandy to add sweetness and help draw flavour into the fruit.

“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.