To Dry Cherries the Best Way
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cherries
Place the cherries in a pan with a little water and heat until scalding hot.
Remove the cherries and dry them.
Layer the cherries in the pan.
Sprinkle sugar between each layer.
Let the cherries sit to melt.
Heat the pan again until scalding hot.
Remove the cherries and dry them.
Repeat steps 3-5 two more times.
Dry and store
Drain the cherries from the syrup and lay them out to dry on dishes in the sun or on a stove.
Once dry, dip a sieve with the cherries into cold water and quickly remove it.
Pour the cherries onto a soft cloth to dry, then place them back in the sun or on a stove.
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.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Cherries
- Provide the fruit that is dried, shrinking and concentrating in flavour as moisture leaves.
- Double-refined sugar
- Draws water out of the cherries and, as a dense syrup, preserves them and adds sweetness.
The step that matters
Repeated heating and sugar layering. Sugar must dissolve into the cherry juices and the fruit must be re-heated and drained each round. Sugar draws water out of the fruit by osmosis, and the repeated cycles build concentration gradually, so the cherries dry evenly and keep their shape instead of toughening or fermenting.
“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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