Like Sarah wrote about last week, it's cherry season. While she had a gadzillion sweet cherries, I have only a heck of a lot of sour cherries. The other day my friend Risa stopped by and dragged me off to her friend Sharon's house to help pick sour cherries. Thirty minutes and thirty mosquito bites later we took a break. I ended up with six quarts of the ripest and sweetest sour cherries I have ever seen. They were so sweet and tart that you could eat them as is, but I had plans for them. I got home and washed and weighed the cherries, ten and a half pounds. Sweet! And sour too!
I love sour cherries. In tarts and pies, marinated in vermouth and bourbon to use in my Manhattan cocktails, infused for months in white rum to make sour cherry liqueur, and in the depths of winter I like to reach into my pantry and grab a jar of sour cherry preserves to bring back the taste of summer. Now was the time to make sour cherry preserves to cheer me up next winter.
Recipe and photos after the jump.
Sour Cherry Preserves
3 pounds of pitted red sour cherries
6 cups of sugar
Juice of one fresh lemon
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 package of powdered pectin
Put cherries and pectin in a large pot and bring to a boil, stirring gently and often.
Add sugar and bring back to a boil, stirring gently and often.
Bring to a rolling boil for one minute while stirring constantly.
Remove from heat and skim any foam if needed.
Stir gently for 3-4 minutes to distribute the fruit evenly.
Ladle into hot prepped canning jars leaving 1/4 of head space.
Wipe tops clean and put on the two piece lids.
Seal finger tight. Don't tighten too hard.
Process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.
Add sugar and bring back to a boil, stirring gently and often.
Bring to a rolling boil for one minute while stirring constantly.
Remove from heat and skim any foam if needed.
Stir gently for 3-4 minutes to distribute the fruit evenly.
Ladle into hot prepped canning jars leaving 1/4 of head space.
Wipe tops clean and put on the two piece lids.
Seal finger tight. Don't tighten too hard.
Process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.
Another shot of those juicy suckers on the tree.
Risa had a ton of old quart containers to make the picking and transporting easier. Here are the cherries back at my place.
All washed and ready to go.
The only thing is that all those cherries had to have the pits removed. One By One with a little cherry pitter, working as fast as I could and actually breaking a sweat, I finished in 75 minutes. Whoo-eee, what an annoying job that was.
Cherries brought to a boil with pectin, and then sugar added. The cherries will give off lots of juice as they heat.
Canning jars being sterilized in boiling water for ten minutes.
The preserves are finished, taken off the heat, and stirred for several minutes.
Jars and canning funnel all ready to go.
Jars filled and ready to be wiped clean and lids put on.
Sour cherry preserves after heat treating. All ready to go into the pantry.
Cherries brought to a boil with pectin, and then sugar added. The cherries will give off lots of juice as they heat.
Canning jars being sterilized in boiling water for ten minutes.
The preserves are finished, taken off the heat, and stirred for several minutes.
Jars and canning funnel all ready to go.
Jars filled and ready to be wiped clean and lids put on.
Sour cherry preserves after heat treating. All ready to go into the pantry.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-01-2007 @ 9:40AM
Holly Gates said...
We went sour cherry picking for the first time this year, at Smolak Farms in North Andover, around 4th of July. We picked 30lbs! Pitted them using a hand cranked vintage pitter I bought off ebay, and we made up 6 lattice topped pies to put in the freezer as well as some mini galettes with the leftover pastry and cherries that we ate right away. Yum!
I never liked cherry pie before since the filling was gluey, too sweet, and chemically tasting. But made with fresh sour cherries with reduced sugar, the filling is amazing.
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8-01-2007 @ 12:33PM
lauralemay said...
Oh I am sooooooo jealous. It is impossible to find fresh or frozen tart cherries out here in California -- all we get is the canned presweetened "pie filling" goo. I found some fresh tart cherries at whole foods this last week for the completely exorbitant sum of $6/lb and snapped them up regardless. They made the best cherry pie I've ever had. And you have a whole tree full of them. sob.
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8-01-2007 @ 1:20PM
MJ said...
Lovely pics!! That only Jonathan can do. Love that you uses vanilla flavoring in your recipe. Almond would have been great too! But only a very small amout. I use it when making cherry pies!
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8-01-2007 @ 2:01PM
Dave said...
This may sound strange but make some Wine! I don't remember the exact recipe, but the one my Pop made couple of years ago was absolutely delicious. What I do remember was that it used sour cherries like these and part of the process included leaving the pits in. Part of the mash I think its called.
Anyways it's some of the best stuff I've ever had, and only get brought out on extra special occasions.
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8-01-2007 @ 3:47PM
BaS said...
They have a faster cherry stoner on amazon and I'm sure elsewhere if you want to save yourself some effort. They work really quickly by squeezing the pits out, without damaging much of the rest of the fruit. Not for if you want super pretty ones but if you're just going for preserves it saves a lot of time just turning the handle vs the individual pitter.
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8-01-2007 @ 3:47PM
JMForester said...
Dave- thanks for the suggestion about making sour cherry wine. I started a batch of liqueur for the holidays but I'll have to ask Sharon whose tree it was if I can pick more for wine. -JMF-
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8-01-2007 @ 6:53PM
Angela said...
I'm about to indulge in my "life is a bowl of cherries" right now!
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8-01-2007 @ 10:29PM
eva said...
The combination of the frost/drought we had here in the South made it a no-cherry year here on our microfarm. And precious little of everything else except blueberries, which is a small consolation.
I look on with cherry envy . . .
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8-04-2007 @ 4:03PM
Em said...
Try infusing vodka with just the pits. It is out of this world -- perfumed with almonds and a hint of cherry. I made a small test batch, and am now wishing I had that giant bowl of pits in your photo.
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8-06-2007 @ 9:13PM
Naom said...
Sour cherries are really delicious when prepared something like cranberries. Boil them up with a little sugar. You can it them inadvance. Of course as they soften up simmering in the sugar just mash them a little to get out the pits. Cook them until they taste sweet enough or tart enough for YOUR taste. Then serve them with any meat dish---exactly as you might serve any other condiment. Conserve whatever is left over. P.S. there won't be any left over.
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