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Cherries in Brandy

Cherries soaked in brandy, steeped with cinnamon and cloves, then sweetened with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Cherries in Brandy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut off half the stems of the cherries and soak them in cold water.

  2. Drain the cherries and place them in jars or wide-mouthed bottles.

Steep

  1. Fill the jars with brandy and add a stick of cinnamon and some cloves to each.

  2. Seal the jars tightly and let the cherries steep for one month.

Sweeten and age

  1. After a month, measure the brandy; for each quart, add ½ pound of sugar.

  2. Pour the sweetened brandy over the cherries and seal the jars.

  3. Let them sit for two months before using.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Brandy + cinnamontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,199 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Brandy + clovetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,362 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Brandy + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Cherries
Fruit that gives the main flavor and absorbs the brandy and spices as it steeps.
Brandy
Liquid that extracts flavor from the fruit and spices, and its alcohol helps preserve the cherries.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the strong alcohol and rounds out the flavor.
Cinnamon
Adds warm, woody aroma to the steeping brandy.
Cloves
Adds sharp, warm aroma that complements the cherries and cinnamon.

The step that matters

Measure the brandy before adding sugar. Sugar dissolves into the brandy, so the amount must match the brandy's volume to keep the sweetness balanced. Measuring first avoids too much or too little sugar for the quantity of liquid.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Allspicefits less well
  4. Cardamomfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against brandy, cinnamon, 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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