To Can Cherries
Ingredients
Directions
Macerate
Pick cherries in the evening, seed them, and drain off all the juice.
Save the juice until the next morning.
In a crock, layer cherries and sugar alternately.
Let stand overnight in a cool place.
Cook and seal
The next morning, drain off part of the juice and add enough boiling water to cover the cherries.
Cook slowly on the stove, occasionally pressing down the top cherries until they are well cooked.
Ensure all cherries are cooked to prevent the can from opening.
Seal the cherries as you would for strawberries.
Can the drained juice for use in punch and ices.
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 cooks down, softens, and becomes the body of the preserve.
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and draws out juice during the overnight standing.
The step that matters
Cook the cherries until well cooked. Thorough, slow cooking softens the fruit and heats it through evenly, so that no underheated cherries remain in the jar. Undercooked fruit can keep microbes and enzymes active, which can build pressure in the sealed can.
“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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