Why it works: Cherry and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,598 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Cherry Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Bruise the cherries and currants together.
Add the cherry kernels to the mixture.
Place everything in a small cask with sugar according to the amount of juice.
Ferment
Let the cask stand in sand and cover the bung tightly for about three weeks.
Ensure the cask is full.
Adjust the juice quantity if necessary.
Ferment as you would for grape or gooseberry wine.
Once fermentation is complete, seal the cask.
After two months, the wine will be ready to draw off and bottle.
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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Cherry + sugartop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,598 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Currant + cherrytop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,256 recipes
Currant and sugar 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 main juice and fruit flavour of the wine.
- Currants
- Add acidity and extra fruit flavour to balance the wine.
- Sugar
- Feeds the fermentation and provides sweetness, which sets the final alcohol level.
The step that matters
Ensure the cask is full. A partly empty cask leaves air above the fermenting juice, which invites spoilage and vinegar-producing bacteria. Keeping it topped up limits oxygen exposure during fermentation.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cherry, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Peachfits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cherry, sugar. 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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