Why it works: Sugar and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,168 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Cherry Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Cook and strain
Bring 1 quart of sour cherries and 1 quart of water to a boil.
Strain the mixture through a fine sieve.
Return the juice to the stove.
Thicken and serve
Add sugar to taste and 1 tablespoon of corn-starch dissolved in a little water.
Bring the mixture to a boil again and serve hot or cold.
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.
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Sugar + corntop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,168 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sour cherries
- Provide the main fruit flavor and tartness, and the juice that becomes the sauce.
- Corn-starch
- Thickens the juice as it heats, giving the sauce body.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the sour cherry tartness.
The step that matters
Bring the mixture to a boil again after adding the corn-starch. Starch granules only swell and thicken the liquid once they reach boiling temperature. Stopping short leaves the sauce thin and cloudy, while the dissolved starch must be fully stirred in first to avoid lumps.
“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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