Why it works: Almond and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,969 recipes. Both carry 2-heptanol, which smells bitter, floral. The science ↓
Alloobokara or Cherry Brandy
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Prick the cherries or aloobokara plums with a fork and leave them on the stalks.
Place the fruit in a bottle and add the bitter almonds.
Steep
Fill the bottle with good brandy, cork it well, and seal.
Store for a year before using.
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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Almond + brandytop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,969 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cherries
- Provide the fruit flavour and sweetness that the brandy absorbs over time.
- Bitter almonds
- Add a distinctive nutty, almond aroma to the infused brandy.
- Brandy
- Acts as the solvent that extracts flavour from the fruit and almonds.
The step that matters
Sealing the bottle. Alcohol and fruit can evaporate or spoil if air gets in, so the bottle should be corked well and sealed before the long steeping period.
“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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