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Dessert

Cherries for Tarts and Puddings

This is a method for preparing cherries for use in tarts and puddings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,256 recipes. The science ↓

Cherries for Tarts and Puddings

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the cherries and break them as they boil until the juice has evaporated and the bottom of the pan is visible.

  2. Add the powdered sugar and stir well, then let the mixture boil for 2 to 3 times.

  3. Skim the pot and remove the stones that rise to the top.

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. Sugar + curranttop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,256 recipes

Sugar and currant barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,256 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 fruit bulk and flavor that the cooked mixture is built around.
Sugar
Sweetens the cherries and thickens the mixture as water evaporates during boiling.
Currant juice
Adds tart acidity and extra fruit flavor to balance the sweetness.

The step that matters

Boiling down until the bottom of the pan shows. Cooking off the juice concentrates the fruit and lets the sugar set the mixture. Stopping too early leaves it runny, while cooking too long can scorch it on the bottom of the pan.

“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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