Sour cherry recipes? Preferable jams or conserves or the like?

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

Anyone got any 'omg, this is fantastic stuff' recipes that they've tried at home?

I've got two cherry trees and a bush cherry. The cherry trees are sweet, supposed to be 'black lapin', but to be honest, I've never seen the fruit get anywhere near black. But there's some bug that loves them, and basically any cherry I don't lose to brown rot, I lose to larvae eating them from inside and blue jays eating them from the outside.

The sour cherry bush, however, is producing fine, and has (knock on wood) no signs of brown rot, and apparently no bugs that like the fruit. Over the last couple of days, I pulled a salad bowl's worth of fruit off it, and now have 2 cups of pitted and halved sour cherries. I'll possibly get another 2 cups of fruit off it this year, but I want to make something now, before the fruit I've picked and cut goes off. It won't make a lot, but I bet I can get three or four 8 oz jars out of it.

So, any must try favorite recipes for sour cherries?

[Warpy]

1. I'm not terribly fond of sour fruit

so my favorite way was macerated in sugar with a splash of kirsch and served with something very sweet, like a double chocolate brownie.

In looking over Le Google, I found a lot of people prefer to dry them and use them as an out of hand snack.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

2. Sounds tasty, but I can't do alcohol any more.

Don't want to trigger a gout attack.

I'm doing googlish stuff too, and I'm thinking I'll try adding some almond extract and maple syrup or sugar if I can find a decent base recipe.

[Major Nikon]

4. You can mascerate fruit with just sugar

Just sprinkle about 2 tbs of sugar(more or less depending on how sweet the fruit is) on sliced fruit and let sit at room temperature for about 30 mins and refrigerate. The sugar will draw out the moisture from the fruit and make a syrup. The fruit will keep in the refrigerator much longer this way or you can freeze it for even longer storage. If you want something more like the consistency of jam or preserves you can use a stick blender or just mash them up with a potato masher.

[Warpy]

5. So leave out the kirsch

and throw in some orange extract or something. It'll work.

[mopinko]

3. when i make jellies

i like to spice them up. a little candied ginger, or cinnamon, or whatever seems to go with that fruit.
i love sour cherries, myself.
i do dry some, too. they are great in cookies.

[spinbaby]

6. Pie!

Sour cherries are pie cherries and darn hard to come by in these parts. If you want to do a jam or conserve, just buy a box of pectin and follow the directions.

[japple]

7. I checked the Ball Glass Canning "Blue Book" and there are several recipes for cherries (both sweet

and sour) including one for Cherry Pineapple Marmalade. Their recipe uses fresh pineapple and doesn't require fruit pectin.
There is also a recipe for Cherry Marmalade that has chopped orange, sugar, cherries and lemon juice. It does not require fruit pectin either.

This popped up when I googled Cherry Pineapple Marmalade


http://recipecurio.com/sour-cherry-conserve-vintage-recipe/

SOUR CHERRY CONSERVE
Makes 8 half pints

3 pounds sour cherries, stemmed and pitted (3 cups)
1 can (about 9 ounces) crushed pineapple
1/2 cup raisins
7 cups sugar
1 bottle (6 ounces) liquid fruit pectin
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

1. Combine sour cherries, crushed pineapple, raisins and sugar in a large kettle.
2. Bring quickly to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly; then boil hard for 1 minute.
3. Remove from heat; stir in liquid fruit pectin. Mix well; skim off foam. Add walnuts.
4. Stir and skim for 7 minutes to cool and prevent floating fruit. Ladle into hot sterilized jars or glasses; seal, following manufacturer’s directions. Label and date.