Cherry Preserves
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cherries
Choose fine, sound cherries and stem them.
Stone the cherries using a quill to avoid bruising.
Save all the juice from the fruit.
Weigh the stoned cherries and use an equal amount of sugar.
Sprinkle the sugar among the cherries and let them sit for several hours or overnight.
Cook the preserves
Combine the cherries, sugar, and juice in a preserving kettle.
Gradually heat the mixture and boil gently until the cherries look clear, removing any scum.
Remove from heat, cover, and let cool.
Jar and store
Transfer the cherries to glass jars, place brandied paper on top, and seal airtight.
Store in a cool, dark place.
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
What each ingredient does
- Cherries
- Provide the fruit that forms the body and flavor of the preserves.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and draws out juice, helping preserve the cherries.
The step that matters
Boil gently until the cherries look clear. Heating too hard can break the fruit apart and toughen or darken it, while too little heat leaves the sugar undissolved and the fruit cloudy. Gentle boiling lets sugar penetrate the cherries evenly and removing scum keeps the preserves clear.
“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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