Sour cherry preserve with whole fruit, cooked in two stages
A preserve in which the cherries stay whole and firm and the syrup is clear and thick. The secret is two short boils with a night's rest in between: the fruit takes up sugar slowly instead of collapsing in one long boil. No added pectin; it thickens with lemon and the cherries' own pectin. Four jars from a kilo of fruit.
Your own work in that: 1 h 15 min.
- Pitting 30 min
- Cherries releasing juice 720 min
- First boil 10 min
- Resting 720 min
- Second boil 15 min
- Jars 20 min
Step by step
0 / 7 donePit the cherries
Wash the cherries, pull off the stems and pit them with a cherry pitter or a paperclip over a bowl to catch the juice. Weigh after pitting: the recipe counts on 1 kg of stoned fruit.
Ingredients: 1000 g sour cherries · 600 g sugar · 1 pcs lemon, juice
TipPitting over a bowl isn't fussiness: the cherries lose a good deal of juice, and that juice is part of the preserve. Wear an apron; cherry juice doesn't wash out.
Stones out, juice into the bowlCover with sugar overnight
Put the cherries with their juice into a wide pot, cover with the sugar, add the lemon juice and stir. Cover and leave 12 hours, ideally overnight. By morning the sugar will be nearly dissolved and the cherries floating in syrup.
TipMacerating draws the juice out before the fruit meets the heat. That is why you boil briefly and the cherries keep their shape instead of cooking down to a purée.
Sugar, lemon, a night under a coverFirst boil: brief
Set the pot over medium heat and bring slowly to the boil, stirring gently from the bottom so the sugar doesn't catch. Boil 5 minutes from the boil, skimming the foam. Take off the heat.
Five minutes at the boil, foam skimmedRest overnight
Cover with a cloth and leave 12 hours at room temperature. In that time the fruit slowly absorbs the syrup, turns glassy and firms up. Put a small saucer in the freezer.
TipThis stage can be repeated twice, five minutes of boiling and a night's rest each time. The preserve becomes even clearer and the fruit almost candied.
A night under a cloth, the fruit turns glassySecond boil and the saucer test
Bring back to the boil and cook over medium heat 10–15 minutes, stirring now and then and skimming. Drop a little syrup onto the cold saucer, wait 30 seconds and push it with a finger: if the surface wrinkles, the preserve is ready. If it runs like water, boil 3 minutes more and test again.
TipSour cherries are fairly low in pectin, so the syrup won't set to a jelly like redcurrants. It should be thick and flowing, not stiff. It thickens further as it cools.
Wrinkles under the finger: readyInto jars
Scald the jars and lids. Ladle the hot preserve into hot jars, leaving about 1 cm of headspace and making sure each gets a similar share of fruit and syrup. Wipe the threads, screw the lids on tightly and process for 10 minutes in a pan of hot water reaching three-quarters of the way up the jars. Lift out, stand upside down briefly, then turn upright and leave to cool; the lids pull down.
Hot into hot, fruit and syrup shared evenlyStore
Sealed jars keep up to a year in a cool pantry. Keep an opened jar in the fridge for up to a month. For crepes, cheesecake, buttered bread, or a spoonful in tea.
Four jars of June
Before you start
With the stones in
Cherry preserve with the stones in is the old, traditional version: it has a deeper, almond-like aroma. Cook it the same way, but warn the household and eat it within a few months, as the stones turn it bitter over time.
With rum or vanilla
A spoon of rum stirred in off the heat, or a split vanilla pod boiled with the fruit. A preserve for desserts and doughnuts.
Too runny
Too little pectin in very ripe fruit, or too short a second boil. Pour it back into the pot with the juice of a second lemon and boil 5 minutes. Too thick loosens with a spoon of hot water before use.