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Cherry Brandy

A fruit brandy made by macerating cherries and strawberries with sugar, spices, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Cherry Brandy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Place the stoned cherries and strawberries in a cask.

  2. Bruise the fruits well with a stick.

Macerate

  1. Add the sugar, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cherry stone kernels.

  2. Pour the brandy over the mixture.

  3. Cover the cask with a thin piece of muslin and let it sit open for 10 to 12 days.

  4. Afterward, close the cask and let it sit for 2 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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + cherrytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together551 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Clove + cherrytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together474 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

What each ingredient does

Ripe cherries
Provide the main fruit flavour and sweetness that the brandy will extract over time.
Strawberries
Add fruity aroma and a softer, rounder fruit note to the blend.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the liqueur and helps draw juice out of the fruit.
Brandy
Acts as the base spirit that extracts and preserves the fruit flavours.

The step that matters

Covering the cask with muslin for the first 10 to 12 days. Leaving the cask loosely covered lets the mixture breathe while the fruit ferments slightly and releases its juices. Sealing it too early can trap pressure and dull the flavour, so the open rest should be followed before the cask is closed.

Swap the cherry

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Cherrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, brandy. 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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