Why it works: Sugar and brandy 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 ↓
Cherries in Brandy
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Make a syrup by boiling sugar and water in a 2:1 ratio until dissolved.
Boil the syrup until it forms a thread when dipped in cold water.
Strain the syrup through a jelly bag to clear it.
Cook the cherries
Add the well-drained cherries to the syrup and bring to a boil.
Bottle and seal
Measure the syrup and mix it with brandy in a 2:1 ratio.
Place the cherries in wide-mouthed bottles and pour the brandied syrup over them.
Ensure the cherries are fully covered, then cork the bottles securely when cold.
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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Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,939 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar and brandy 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
- Sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and, dissolved in water, forms the syrup that preserves it.
- Brandy
- Adds alcohol that helps preserve the cherries and gives them a warm flavour.
- Cherries
- Provide the main fruit flavour and a firm, juicy texture once cooked in the syrup.
The step that matters
Boil the syrup to the thread stage. Boiling until the syrup forms a thread when dipped in cold water concentrates the sugar. Too little cooking leaves a thin syrup that dilutes the brandy and spoils sooner, while overcooking makes it thick and prone to crystallising.
“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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