To Dry Cherries
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cherries
Combine the stoned cherries and a small amount of water in a preserving kettle. Heat until scalding hot.
Remove the cherries and dry them immediately.
Sugar and dry
Layer the cherries in the kettle, sprinkling sugar between each layer. Let it sit to melt.
Heat the kettle again until scalding hot. Remove and repeat this process two more times.
Drain the cherries from the syrup and lay them out to dry on dishes in the sun or on the stove.
Once dry, dip the cherries in a sieve into cold water and quickly remove them.
Pour the cherries onto a fine, soft cloth and dry them. Set them out again in the hot sun or on the stove.
Store
Store the dried cherries in a box with layers of white paper in a dry 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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Cherries
- The fruit itself; repeated heating and drying concentrates it into a chewy, shelf-stable piece.
- Double-refined sugar
- Replaces the cherries' water as they soak, adding sweetness and helping preserve the fruit.
The step that matters
Repeated scalding and drying. Each heating and drying cycle lets sugar penetrate the fruit gradually. Rushing the cycles or leaving the cherries wet can cause spoilage or a syrupy, sticky result instead of a dry, preserved fruit.
“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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