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Drink

Vin De Cerises.—Cherry Wine

A fermented beverage made from acid cherries, currants, cherry kernels, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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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 ↓

Vin De Cerises.—Cherry Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Bruise the cherries and currants together in a large container.

  2. Add the cherry kernels and mix well.

  3. Transfer the mixture to a small cask.

  4. Add sugar according to the amount of juice.

  5. Fill the barrel completely.

  6. Cover it with a vine leaf.

Ferment and bottle

  1. Place the cask in sand.

  2. Let it ferment for about three weeks, ensuring it stays full by adding more cherry juice as needed.

  3. Seal the cask with a bung.

  4. Draw the clear wine into bottles after two months.

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. Cherry + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Currant + cherrytop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Acid cherries
Provide the main fruit juice that ferments into the wine and supplies its tart flavour.
Currants
Add extra acidity and fruit flavour to the juice being fermented.
Cherry kernels
Add a subtle almond-like aroma to the wine, since the kernels carry that flavour.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast during fermentation, producing alcohol and balancing the wine's sharpness.

The step that matters

Keep the cask full during fermentation. Topping up with cherry juice keeps air out of the cask. Exposure to air lets the wine spoil or turn vinegary, so a full cask protects the fermentation.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cherry, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Peachfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. 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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