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 ↓
Cherry Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Crush the cherries and stones in a strong lemon squeezer.
Pour 1 gallon of hot water over the crushed cherries and let them stand overnight.
Strain the mixture and add cold water equal to the amount of syrup.
Add 1 pound of sugar for each quart of syrup and let it stand until the sugar dissolves.
Ferment
Transfer to stone bottles and let it stand for 2-3 days to work, adding more wine daily to fill the bottles.
Place in a warm location for 3 weeks, then lightly cork the bottles.
Allow to ferment completely, then tightly seal the corks.
Age and bottle
Let it stand for 6 months or longer for better flavor.
Bottle carefully to avoid disturbing the sediment.
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 + syruptop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,842 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Marble cherries
- Provide the fruit flavour, colour and the natural sugars and yeast-feeding juice for fermentation.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast, which turns it into alcohol and carbon dioxide, and adds sweetness to the finished wine.
The step that matters
Seal the corks only after fermentation is complete. Sealing too early traps carbon dioxide produced by active yeast, which can build pressure and push out corks or burst bottles. Lightly corking first lets gas escape while fermentation continues.
“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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