Cherry is a favorite berry of many; in the season it is readily eaten by both children and adults.
But for the winter it is harvested relatively rarely.
The reason, probably, is that the conservation of cherries requires some conditions, the subtleties of its preparation are not known to everyone.
General principles for the conservation of cherries for the winter
To make a really wonderful canned sweet cherry, you need to choose good fruits. They should not be small and crooked: if the berries are tasteless, how will they make a tasty workpiece?
Sweet cherries are often worms. Check for wormholes. If found, do not take berries from this tray: probably all the cherries are infected here, it's just that it is not yet noticeable.
Cherry twigs are not removed before sale. If not, they were probably in very poor condition. It is not worth taking such a berry, as well as the one in which the branches have dried or rotted. You can’t prepare delicious canned cherries from such raw materials.
By touch, the cherries should be firm and smooth. They will be delicious and juicy. Watery or rough fruits are not suitable for the conservation of cherries.
Cherry contains very little acid. To fix this, it is customary to add citric acid or natural citruses to canned cherries.
Cherry jam must be cooked in several stages: only in this case the berries will remain dense, poured with sweet juice. However, sometimes these fruits are not cooked at all, but only poured several times with boiling syrup: this will make the sweetened cherries tastier.
When preserving cherries, various spices are often used. Usually it is vanilla, but cinnamon, star anise, cardamom are also often added. This gives the finished dish an indescribable aroma and delicate taste.
Recipe 1. Preservation of cherries in their own juice
Ingredients
Cherry - 2 kg
Citric acid - 6 g
Cooking method
For this method of conservation it is necessary to select dense and very ripe berries, without signs of spoilage and not crumpled.
They must be thoroughly washed: first place in a bowl with slightly acidified water, and then rinse again, pouring into a colander, under the tap.
Using a special device, release the berries from the seeds.
It is very tight to put the prepared cherries in liter jars, trying to ensure that there are no voids. Every now and then you need to lightly sprinkle the berries with citric acid.
At the bottom of a large pan lay a towel and pour cold water. Put jars of cherries there (open, of course) so that they are in the water "on the shoulders". Pasteurize in boiling water for about 20 minutes, then roll up.
Recipe 2. Canned sweet cherries: compote
Ingredients
Sugar - 400 g
Water - 800 ml
Vanilla Sugar - tablespoon
Citric Acid - Teaspoon
Cherry light and dark - about one and a half kg; it's tentative, actually as much as fit in banks
Cooking method
In an enameled pan, heat the water and pour sugar and vanilla sugar into it. Stir. Warm to a boil.
Rinse the cherries very carefully and put them tightly in sterilized jars.
Pour boiling syrup over the cherries and cover with sterilized lids (do not roll up!).
Allow to stand for 5 minutes, after which the syrup is drained back into the pan and brought back to a boil. Cans, as soon as the syrup is drained, immediately cover with lids so that the cherries do not get too cold.
Pour citric acid into boiling syrup, stir immediately and, without stirring, pour it back into the jars with the top. Roll up immediately (syrup displaced by it should come out from under the lid), wipe with a damp cloth, turn upside down. Cover the jars with a terry towel or something similar and leave it until it cools completely.
Recipe 3. Preservation of sweet cherries with assorted garden berries
Ingredients
Sweet cherry - 1 kg
A mixture of berries (strawberries, apricots, red currants, etc.) - 1 kg
Sugar - 2 kg
Water - approximately 2 cups
Orange zest
Cooking method
Rinse all the berries very carefully, first in a bowl and then with running water. Peel, leaf, twig.
In an enameled pan, heat the water, into which then add sugar and chopped orange zest. Heat until it boils, constantly stirring the syrup so that it does not burn.
Berries placed in a bowl for cooking. Pour them with boiling syrup, put on medium heat and bring to a boil, but do not boil.
Allow to stand for at least 6 hours, then put on fire again and bring the jam to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes and leave for another 6 hours, then repeat the procedure.
Arrange still hot jam on sterilized jars and close the lids. It is better to store the workpiece in the refrigerator.
Recipe 4. Canned sweet cherry "Jam with a surprise"
Ingredients
Lemon - 1 pc.
Large black cherries - 1 kg
Sugar - 1 kg
Almonds - about half a cup
Water - one and a half glasses
Cinnamon - a teaspoon
Cooking method
Scald and peel almonds. Divide each nut into several particles the size of a cherry stone.
Rinse the berries well and get rid of twigs and seeds. It is better to use a special device for this purpose, but you can also slightly cut the petioles with the tip of a knife. Insert a piece of nut inside each berry.
In an enameled pan, make syrup from sugar and water, add cinnamon to it.
Pour boiling syrup over the berries and let stand for a couple of hours.
Again put the jam on the fire and warm it up, not letting it boil for about half an hour.
Cut lemon into thin slices. Gently lower the lemon circles into the jam and cook it in the same way over low heat for another five minutes.
Cool, arrange in sterilized jars and store in a cool place.
Recipe 5. Preservation of cherries: pickling
Ingredients
Cherry - about one and a half kilograms (as much as it takes to fill the jars)
Sugar - 800g
Allspice - 2-3 peas
Clove - 2-3 buds
Star anise - 1 star
Cinnamon - a centimeter piece of stick
Acetic acid (80%) - half a tablespoon
Water - 1 liter and 1 glass
Cooking method
Sort the berries carefully and rinse, peel the tails.
Grind all the spices with your hands or a rolling pin and pour them into jars.
Arrange the cherries in the jars.
In a saucepan (it is better to use enameled), boil water and pour sugar into it. It is better to strain the syrup, after which pour acetic acid into it and stir.
Immediately pour jars of hot marinade, immediately place them in a large pan, the bottom of which is pre-coated with a napkin, add hot water so that it reaches the banks "on the shoulders", and pasteurize jars covered with roofs, but not rolled up, about 10 (for the floor -liter) or 15 (for liter) minutes at the slightest boil (so that the water only trembles a little).
Roll up jars, turn them upside down and cover with a terry towel or a plaid. Leave it until cool.
Recipe 6. Canned sweet cherry in the form of marmalade
Ingredients
Sweet cherry (it is better to choose red or black varieties to make the color more beautiful) - 2 kg
Sugar - 1 kg
1 medium lemon
Cooking method
Wash the lemon thoroughly with a special brush.
Sort the cherries with attention, then thoroughly rinse and dry.
Free berries from twigs and seeds (you can use a special device to extract seeds, or you can just cut each berry and shake out the bone with the tip of a knife).
Pour berries in a glass of water, mix and let stand so that the berries give juice.
Pour literally a couple of tablespoons of water into the cooking bowl, pour the cherries and start cooking on the smallest fire, then shaking the bowl or stirring its contents with a wooden spoon or spatula.
After about five minutes, mash the contents of the bowl with a blender and pour another glass of granulated sugar. Boil again, gradually filling up the remaining sugar.
Separately grind a lemon with a peel with a peel, but preferably seedless. Put the gruel in the marmalade and boil for some more time until the marmalade becomes quite thick.
Arrange marmalade in previously sterilized jars and cover with sterilized lids.
Keep this blank in a cool place.
Recipe 7. Preservation of cherries: syrup
Ingredients
Sweet cherry (strictly dark: dark red or black) - about 3 kg
Sugar - about 1 kg
Citric acid - 10 g
Cooking method
First you need to rinse and sort out the cherries, ruthlessly removing the rumpled and especially spoiled berries. Remove also the ponytails and leaves, and then the seeds, and then squeeze the juice from the cherry using a juicer, since it should be without pulp.
“Cake” can be boiled separately with sugar and a small amount of water - you get a wonderful gravy for the cottage cheese or fritters. And you can cook jelly, but this is not for everybody: it is somewhat too neutral in taste.
Pour the finished juice into an enameled pan and heat, pour sugar into hot juice and stir until it is completely dissolved.
Cook for five minutes. Light foam on the surface does not need to be removed, it is enough to simply stir it, but the one that appears later - dense and thick - must be removed. Syrup at this point should also become thick.
Pour citric acid and cook for another five minutes, then turn it off, cover and cool. Pour into sterilized bottles, filtering thoroughly. Close and store in a cool place.
Recipe 8. Canned cherries with spices
Ingredients
Water - 1 L
Cherry - 1 kg (different varieties are possible, but be sure to select large berries)
Citric acid - a teaspoon
Sugar - 2/3 cups (lovers of very sweet can have more)
Vanilla - Fifth of a Small Pod
Cinnamon - a slice of about 3 cm
Carnation - a pair of buds
Star anise - 1 star
Cooking method
Rinse and dry the sweet cherry, free from twigs and seeds (you can just cut and shake the stone).
Arrange the berries in jars, filling them almost to the top.
Dissolve sugar in water, put spices and boil for 2 to 3 minutes. Add citric acid.
Bring the syrup to a boil again. Pour the boiling syrup over the berries, cover (but don’t close!) The lids, put in a large pan with a napkin at the bottom and pasteurize 10 (half-liter) or 15 (liter) minutes.
Roll up, put upside down and cover with a thick towel.
Cherry Tips and Tips
- Berries of light varieties do not look very beautiful. If you decide to take yellow or pink cherries for conservation, add a little red or black. However, you can use some other berries of bright color: strawberries, black currants ... Cherry is just not very good: it looks like sweet cherries, but smaller, so it will look unpresentable.
- To make the cherry jam seem to be transparent, the berries must be chopped with a pin in several places (this is suitable only for a dark berry: ugly dots will be noticeable on a light one) and cook at a temperature slightly below the boiling point, and in two or three doses, cooling the jam between cooking.
