Cherry Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Weigh the cherries before stoning, and allow half the weight of sugar.
Stone the cherries.
Cook the jam
Boil them in a preserving‑pan until nearly all the juice is dried up, about 3/4 to 1 hour.
Add the sugar, crushed to powder, and the red‑currant juice, allowing 1 pint per 6 lbs of cherries and 1 lb of sugar per pint of juice.
Boil all together until it jellies, about 20 minutes to 1/2 hour.
Skim the jam well, keep it well stirred.
A few minutes before it is done, crack some of the stones and add the kernels.
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. See the original page.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Cherries (in the method)
- Forms the bulk of the jam and provides the main fruit flavour and body.
- Red-currant juice
- Adds acidity and pectin, helping the jam set into a firm jelly.
- Sugar (in the method)
- Sweetens the jam and, with acid and pectin, helps it thicken and set.
The step that matters
Boil until it jellies. Setting depends on sugar, acid and pectin reaching the gel point. Stopping too early leaves the jam runny, while boiling too long can make it stiff and dull in flavour.
“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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