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Dessert

Cherries, Compéte of

A sweetened cherry compote made by simmering cherries in a sugar‑water syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Cherries, Compéte of

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the stems from the cherries.

Make the syrup

  1. Boil 5 ounces of sugar with ½ cup of water to make a syrup.

Stew and serve

  1. Stew the cherries in the syrup for 20 minutes.

  2. If the cherries are very ripe, stew for only 10 minutes.

  3. Stone the cherries if desired.

  4. Serve the cherries with the syrup.

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

What each ingredient does

Cherries
Main fruit; stewing softens the flesh and draws its flavour into the syrup.
Sugar
Sweetens the syrup and helps the cherries keep their shape and body while stewing.

The step that matters

Stewing the cherries in the syrup. Stewing too long breaks the fruit down into a mush, especially when the cherries are very ripe. Keeping the time short, as the record advises for ripe fruit, helps them hold their shape while still softening.

“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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