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To Preserve Cherries

Preserves cherries by boiling with sugar, using whole cherries and currant juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and red currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,156 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

To Preserve Cherries

Ingredients

Directions

Sugar and rest the cherries

  1. Weigh the cherries and use 1 pound of sugar for each pound of cherries.

  2. Stone the cherries using a sharp quill and save the juice.

  3. Place the stoned cherries in a large pan and sprinkle half the sugar over them.

  4. Let them sit for 1-2 hours.

Cook in syrup

  1. Transfer the cherries to a preserving kettle with the remaining sugar and boil, skimming until the syrup is thick and clear.

  2. For whole cherries, prick each cherry with a needle and leave the stalks short.

  3. Use 1¼ pounds of sugar for each pound of cherries.

Dry-sugar method

  1. Spread cherries on large dishes and sprinkle with powdered sugar, about ¼ pound per pound of cherries.

  2. Let sit overnight.

Currant syrup and finish

  1. In the morning, squeeze ripe red currants through a cloth to extract juice and mix with the remaining sugar in a preserving kettle.

  2. Boil the sugar in the currant juice until melted, then add the cherries and simmer for 30 minutes until clear.

  3. Remove cherries one at a time to cool.

  4. If the sugar hasn't penetrated, return them to the syrup and boil longer without breaking.

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. Sugar + red curranttop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,156 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Ripe cherries
The main fruit, which softens and turns clear as it absorbs the sugar syrup.
Loaf sugar
Preserves the fruit and thickens the syrup as it boils down to a clear coating.
Powdered sugar
Draws moisture out of the cherries when spread over them, concentrating their flavor and sweetness.
Red currants
Adds tart juice that brightens the sweetness of the syrup.

The step that matters

Boil longer if the sugar has not penetrated. Sugar must replace the water inside the fruit for the cherries to keep their shape and turn clear. If the fruit still looks cloudy or wet, the sugar has not penetrated, so the cherries need more time in the syrup. Boiling gently avoids breaking the skins.

“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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