Name: To Pickle Cherries
Ingredients: fine, sound Kentish or Flemish cherries (with about 1 inch of stalks); cold vinegar; 1 ounce coriander seed; 1 small blade of mace; a few grains of cayenne or 1 teaspoon white peppercorns; 4 bruised cochineals (for every quart); 1 pound sugar (for syrup)

Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

To Pickle Cherries

Ingredients

fine, sound Kentish or Flemish cherries (with about 1 inch of stalks)
cold vinegar
1 ounce coriander seed
1 small blade of mace
a few grains of cayenne or 1 teaspoon white peppercorns
4 bruised cochineals (for every quart)
1 pound sugar (for syrup)

Directions

Prepare

Place the cherries in a jar and cover them with cold vinegar.
Let them stand for three weeks.
Pour off two-thirds of the vinegar and replace it with fresh vinegar.

Make the pickle

Drain the cherries and boil the vinegar with coriander seed, mace, cayenne or white peppercorns, and bruised cochineals tied in muslin.
Allow the pickle to cool completely before adding it to the cherries.

Finish

Let the cherries sit for one month before using.

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.

Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,842 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Vinegar + coriandertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,829 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Coriander + macetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together281 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Vinegar + macetop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,415 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Cherries: Provide the fruit, which softens and absorbs the pickling flavours during the long steep.
Cold vinegar: Acidifies the fruit and preserves it, giving the pickle its sharp flavour.
Coriander seed: Adds a warm, citrusy aroma to the vinegar.

The step that matters

Allow the pickle to cool completely before adding it to the cherries. Adding hot vinegar to fruit can soften it and cook the flesh, leaving it mushy rather than firm. Cooling the pickle first keeps the cherries intact.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, coriander, sugar, syrup):

Cinnamonfits better
Cardamomfits better
Gingerfits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, coriander, sugar, syrup. 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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To Pickle Cherries