Dried Cherries
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the syrup and cherries
Remove the stalks and stones from the cherries using a quill.
Boil the sugar with water until it reaches the blown stage.
Add the cherries to the syrup and boil briefly.
Steep and boil
Set the mixture aside in an earthen pan until the next day.
Strain the syrup, add more sugar, and boil until thick.
Return the cherries to the syrup and boil for five minutes.
Set aside for another day, then repeat boiling for two more days.
Dry
Drain the cherries and lay them on wire sieves to dry in a stove or a nearly cold oven.
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
- Supply the fruit itself, which shrinks and concentrates in flavour as its water is drawn out.
- Sugar
- Draws water out of the fruit to preserve it, while adding sweetness and body to the syrup.
The step that matters
Returning the cherries to the syrup and boiling for five minutes. Sugar pulls water out of the fruit gradually, so the cherries need repeated soaking and short boils over several days. Boiling too hard or too long can shrivel or split the skins before the sugar has penetrated.
“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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