Dried Cherries
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cherries
Stone the cherries and measure them.
For every pound of cherries, add 1¼ pounds of fine sugar.
Beat and sift the sugar over the cherries and let them stand overnight.
Remove the cherries from the sugar.
Make the syrup
For every pound of sugar, add 2 tablespoons of water.
Boil and skim the mixture well, then add the cherries.
Let the sugar boil over the cherries.
The next morning, strain the cherries.
For every pound of syrup, add ½ pound more sugar.
Boil until slightly thicker, then add the cherries and let them boil gently.
Dry the cherries
The next day, strain the cherries again.
Place them in a warm area, turning them daily until they are dry.
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
- Morello cherries
- Provide the fruit that becomes the dried cherries, shrinking and concentrating as they dry.
- Fine sugar
- Draws water out of the fruit and, as syrup, preserves it and gives sweetness.
The step that matters
Boil the cherries in the syrup gently. Sugar syrup must be concentrated enough to draw water out of the fruit without breaking the cherries apart. Boiling too hard can split the skins and leave the fruit tough or uneven.
“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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