Homemade Maraschino Cherries

Friday, August 12, 2011

Homemade maraschino cherries by Eve Fox, Garden of Eating blog, copyright 2011

I don't care how gauche or tacky they are, I LOVE maraschino cherries. I love them so much that I even eat the stems, in fact, crunching through the woody stems may be my favorite part.

My love affair with maraschinos dates back to our first meeting -- I was seven years old and my family had gone out for dinner to one of our favorite restaurants, The Little Bear, a then-newish Chinese restaurant perched on the side of a stream in Woodstock, NY. My parents let me order my first Shirley Temple. I've always had a much larger than average sweet tooth so the pink-tinted beverage was like heaven in a glass... And the crowning glory was the big maraschino cherry perched daintily atop the ice, practically glowing an unnatural and alluring shade of red. I made short work of it, stem and all.

Cherries by Eve Fox, Garden of Eating blog, copyright 2011

Although I still love them, I have since become much more aware of all the yucky ingredients in most maraschino cherries - red dye number 5 million, high fructose corn syrup, etc. And I have always wanted to try making maraschinos myself so when I saw this simple recipe on the blog In Jennie's Kitchen, I knew the time had come.

I ran out the next day and purchased a big load of cherries at Sunfrost and a cherry pitter from the new kitchen shop in town, Diane's Kitchen.

Cherries get to know the new pitter by Eve Fox, Garden of Eating blog, copyright 2011

The process of making my own maraschinos was surprisingly quick and easy. The pitting did not take long though I was a bit surprised by how violent it seemed. No doubt this impression was enhanced by cherry juice's strong resemblance to blood... Our sink and the surrounding areas looked like the set of Apocalypse Now by the time I was done. And my apron will never be the same...

Cherry pitting carnage by Eve Fox, Garden of Eating blog, copyright 2011

But it took mere minutes to juice the lemons while I heated the cherry juice, water and sugar until the sugar had dissolved completely.

Juicing the lemons by Eve Fox, Garden of Eating blog, copyright 2011

Then I tossed in the cherries, lemon juice and pure almond extract and cooked them briefly - no need to cook for very long if you plan to can them since the cherries will get cooked for 10 minutes during the hot water process.

Cooking the cherries by Eve Fox, Garden of Eating blog, copyright 2011

Meanwhile, I sterilized my jars in my canning pot and got things ready for the brief canning that followed. 15 minutes later, two jars of maraschinos were cooling on the counter. Let's hear it for the Good Shop Lollipop!

Homemade maraschino cherries by Eve Fox, Garden of Eating blog, copyright 2011

A note that this is all a fry cry from real maraschino cherries which were originally made from a type of sour cherry grown in Croatia called a Marasca cherry. The Croats crushed their Marascas to make a sweet liqueur which I am guessing derived its almond-like flavor from the cherry pits. And the cherries that were then preserved in that liqueur were called Maraschino cherries. But since I am not interested in liquor-soaked cherries, the bastardization does not bother me one bit.

-- print recipe --
Homemade Maraschino Cherries adapted from Nick Mautone's Raising the Bar
Makes one quart

Ingredients

* 1/2 cup (125 ml) water
* 1/2 cup (125 ml) black cherry or concord grape juice
* 1/2 cup (4 ounces) natural cane sugar
* Freshly juice (3 tablespoons/1 1/2 ounces/50 ml) of 1 lemon
* 1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
* 2 cups (9 1/2 ounces/266 grams) sweet bing cherries, pitted

Directions

1. Add the water, cherry or grape juice and sugar to a 2-quart pot. Bring to a boil over high heat and let cook 1 to 2 minutes until the sugar is completely dissolved. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Add the lemon juice, extract and cherries. Cook 5 minutes to let the cherries absorb the flavors, then remove the pot from the heat.

2. Transfer to a clean sterilized jar and process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes for long-term storage, or just put the jar in the fridge if you plan on using them within one month.


Here are some good-lookin' cherry recipes from other folks:
You might also like:
Homemade Maraschino Cherries on Punk Domestics

11 comments:

Jessica said...

I might make my own preserved cherries. Thanks for sharing the instructions on how to make it.

Asheville Homes said...

It all looks so good here, I'm thinking about giving the preserves a try, thank you.

Alyson said...

That's awesome. I made cherry liqueur a few years back that was pretty intense (and not in a good way, I think), so I think it's going to be all about preserving cherries differently from here on!

Mommyof2girlz/StephD said...

Thank you for the recipe! My daughter loves these and now knowing I can make them myself...she'll be stocked..lol

Mommyof2girlz/StephD said...

Thank you for the recipe! My daughter loves these and now knowing I can make them myself...she'll be stocked..lol

Jackie@Auburn Meadow Farm said...

Thanks for sharing this - I have had a secret crush on maraschino cherries for a long, long time. Love the photos....

pak said...

Wow, just found this on Pinterest. I am so excited to try this recipe this cherry season! My kids and husband LOVE maraschino cherries, and I would never buy them because of the horrid added ingredients. I can't wait to surprise them...thank you!

natalie rae said...

I have a sour cherry tree, so I am so going to try this!

natalie rae said...

I have a sour cherry tree, so I am so going to try this!

Ros said...

I love this but I need to substitute the almond because of allergies so what might one use? Thanks!

Anonymous said...

The Ball Book says to process for at least double what you've stated here (I usually process jam for 10 minutes since I'm below 1000 feet above sea level). But the heat penetration of jam and whole cherries are very, very different and thus require different processing times...the recipe sounds great however and I look forward to trying it, literally, right now!

Friday, August 12, 2011

Homemade Maraschino Cherries

Homemade maraschino cherries by Eve Fox, Garden of Eating blog, copyright 2011

I don't care how gauche or tacky they are, I LOVE maraschino cherries. I love them so much that I even eat the stems, in fact, crunching through the woody stems may be my favorite part.

My love affair with maraschinos dates back to our first meeting -- I was seven years old and my family had gone out for dinner to one of our favorite restaurants, The Little Bear, a then-newish Chinese restaurant perched on the side of a stream in Woodstock, NY. My parents let me order my first Shirley Temple. I've always had a much larger than average sweet tooth so the pink-tinted beverage was like heaven in a glass... And the crowning glory was the big maraschino cherry perched daintily atop the ice, practically glowing an unnatural and alluring shade of red. I made short work of it, stem and all.

Cherries by Eve Fox, Garden of Eating blog, copyright 2011

Although I still love them, I have since become much more aware of all the yucky ingredients in most maraschino cherries - red dye number 5 million, high fructose corn syrup, etc. And I have always wanted to try making maraschinos myself so when I saw this simple recipe on the blog In Jennie's Kitchen, I knew the time had come.

I ran out the next day and purchased a big load of cherries at Sunfrost and a cherry pitter from the new kitchen shop in town, Diane's Kitchen.

Cherries get to know the new pitter by Eve Fox, Garden of Eating blog, copyright 2011

The process of making my own maraschinos was surprisingly quick and easy. The pitting did not take long though I was a bit surprised by how violent it seemed. No doubt this impression was enhanced by cherry juice's strong resemblance to blood... Our sink and the surrounding areas looked like the set of Apocalypse Now by the time I was done. And my apron will never be the same...

Cherry pitting carnage by Eve Fox, Garden of Eating blog, copyright 2011

But it took mere minutes to juice the lemons while I heated the cherry juice, water and sugar until the sugar had dissolved completely.

Juicing the lemons by Eve Fox, Garden of Eating blog, copyright 2011

Then I tossed in the cherries, lemon juice and pure almond extract and cooked them briefly - no need to cook for very long if you plan to can them since the cherries will get cooked for 10 minutes during the hot water process.

Cooking the cherries by Eve Fox, Garden of Eating blog, copyright 2011

Meanwhile, I sterilized my jars in my canning pot and got things ready for the brief canning that followed. 15 minutes later, two jars of maraschinos were cooling on the counter. Let's hear it for the Good Shop Lollipop!

Homemade maraschino cherries by Eve Fox, Garden of Eating blog, copyright 2011

A note that this is all a fry cry from real maraschino cherries which were originally made from a type of sour cherry grown in Croatia called a Marasca cherry. The Croats crushed their Marascas to make a sweet liqueur which I am guessing derived its almond-like flavor from the cherry pits. And the cherries that were then preserved in that liqueur were called Maraschino cherries. But since I am not interested in liquor-soaked cherries, the bastardization does not bother me one bit.

-- print recipe --
Homemade Maraschino Cherries adapted from Nick Mautone's Raising the Bar
Makes one quart

Ingredients

* 1/2 cup (125 ml) water
* 1/2 cup (125 ml) black cherry or concord grape juice
* 1/2 cup (4 ounces) natural cane sugar
* Freshly juice (3 tablespoons/1 1/2 ounces/50 ml) of 1 lemon
* 1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
* 2 cups (9 1/2 ounces/266 grams) sweet bing cherries, pitted

Directions

1. Add the water, cherry or grape juice and sugar to a 2-quart pot. Bring to a boil over high heat and let cook 1 to 2 minutes until the sugar is completely dissolved. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Add the lemon juice, extract and cherries. Cook 5 minutes to let the cherries absorb the flavors, then remove the pot from the heat.

2. Transfer to a clean sterilized jar and process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes for long-term storage, or just put the jar in the fridge if you plan on using them within one month.


Here are some good-lookin' cherry recipes from other folks:
You might also like:
Homemade Maraschino Cherries on Punk Domestics

11 comments:

Jessica said...

I might make my own preserved cherries. Thanks for sharing the instructions on how to make it.

Asheville Homes said...

It all looks so good here, I'm thinking about giving the preserves a try, thank you.

Alyson said...

That's awesome. I made cherry liqueur a few years back that was pretty intense (and not in a good way, I think), so I think it's going to be all about preserving cherries differently from here on!

Mommyof2girlz/StephD said...

Thank you for the recipe! My daughter loves these and now knowing I can make them myself...she'll be stocked..lol

Mommyof2girlz/StephD said...

Thank you for the recipe! My daughter loves these and now knowing I can make them myself...she'll be stocked..lol

Jackie@Auburn Meadow Farm said...

Thanks for sharing this - I have had a secret crush on maraschino cherries for a long, long time. Love the photos....

pak said...

Wow, just found this on Pinterest. I am so excited to try this recipe this cherry season! My kids and husband LOVE maraschino cherries, and I would never buy them because of the horrid added ingredients. I can't wait to surprise them...thank you!

natalie rae said...

I have a sour cherry tree, so I am so going to try this!

natalie rae said...

I have a sour cherry tree, so I am so going to try this!

Ros said...

I love this but I need to substitute the almond because of allergies so what might one use? Thanks!

Anonymous said...

The Ball Book says to process for at least double what you've stated here (I usually process jam for 10 minutes since I'm below 1000 feet above sea level). But the heat penetration of jam and whole cherries are very, very different and thus require different processing times...the recipe sounds great however and I look forward to trying it, literally, right now!