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Dessert

Brandied Cherries

Preserved cherries soaked in brandy with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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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 ↓

Brandied Cherries

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Fill wide-necked bottles two-thirds full with small cherries.

  2. Add enough sifted sugar to fill more than half of the remaining space.

  3. Pour in enough good French brandy to cover the fruit and reach the necks of the bottles.

  4. Cork the bottles securely.

Steep

  1. Let them stand for two months before opening.

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. 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

Small cherries
Provide the fruit that softens and flavours the brandy as it steeps.
Sifted sugar
Adds sweetness and helps draw flavour from the fruit into the brandy.
French brandy
Acts as the alcohol base that preserves the fruit and carries its flavour.

The step that matters

Corking the bottles securely. Alcohol evaporates and air can enter if the seal is loose, so a tight cork keeps the brandy strength and aroma intact 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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