Skip to main content
Dessert

Cherry Jam

A preserve made by boiling cherries with powdered sugar until jelly consistency.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
Jump to recipe ↓

Cherry Jam

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Stone the cherries and place them in a pot.

  2. Bruise the cherries as they boil until some juice is released.

  3. Once the juice is slightly reduced, add the powdered sugar.

  4. Stir the mixture and remove any scum that forms.

  5. Boil until the mixture reaches a jelly consistency.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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, pectin and juice that form the jam's body and flavour.
Powdered loaf sugar
Sweetens the jam and helps it thicken and set as it cooks down.

The step that matters

Boil until the mixture reaches a jelly consistency. Pectin sets only when enough water evaporates and sugar concentrates. Stopping too early leaves a runny jam, while boiling too long can make it stiff or scorch.

“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.

More cherry jam recipes

You might also like