Home › Preserves › Cherry Preserves
Cherry Preserves
Choose sour ones the early Richmond is good-seed all very carefully, allow an amount of sugar equal to the fruit; take half the sugar, sprinkle over the fruit, let stand about an hour, pour into a preserving-kettle, boil slowly ten minutes, skim out the cherries, add rest of sugar to the syrup, boil, skim and pour over the cherries; the next day drain off the syrup, boil. skim if necessary, add the cherries, boil twenty minutes, and seal up in small jars. -Mrs. J. M. Southard.
A classic equal-weight preserve, worked in stages so the cherries stay whole rather than collapsing into jam. The staged sugaring is the whole technique, not a quirk.
- Why the sugar goes in twiceSprinkling half the sugar over the pitted fruit draws out juice and firms the cherry flesh by osmosis before any heat is applied. Dumping all the sugar in at once, or boiling hard from the start, gives you shrivelled skins in a thin syrup.
- Early RichmondAn old sour (pie) cherry variety, still grown but rarely sold by name. Montmorency is the standard substitute; any tart cherry works. Sweet cherries such as Bing lack the acid and will give a flatter, duller result.
- Proportions"Sugar equal to the fruit" means equal by weight, measured after pitting: 2 lb pitted cherries to 2 lb (about 4 1/2 cups) sugar. This is what makes the preserve keep, so do not reduce it.
- Seeding"Seed very carefully" means pit without tearing the fruit. A hand pitter does this well; the point is to keep each cherry intact, since whole fruit in clear syrup is what distinguishes a preserve from a jam.
- Preserving-kettleA wide, shallow pan, typically brass, copper or lined ironware in this period. Use the widest heavy-bottomed stainless or enamelled pot you have; surface area speeds evaporation and shortens the boil.
- The overnight restStanding in syrup overnight lets the sugar penetrate the fruit more fully, which helps the cherries stay plump rather than shrunken in thin syrup. Keep the pan covered at room temperature.
- Judging the final boilTwenty minutes is a guide, not a rule; it depends on your pan. Cook until the syrup sheets from a spoon or reaches about 220F (105C) at sea level.
- SealingNineteenth-century "seal up" meant hot syrup into hot jars and a wax or clamped lid. Current practice is a boiling-water bath for the filled jars, and a current canning guide should be followed for times and headspace.
- YieldTwo pounds of pitted cherries with equal sugar fills several half-pint jars, the exact number depending on how far the syrup is reduced.
Buckeye Cookery (1877, and reprinted for decades after) collected contributions from Ohio housewives by name, which is why this entry carries Mrs. J. M. Southard's signature; the credit was a courtesy to the contributor. Preserves of this kind, equal weights of fruit and sugar with the fruit kept whole, were a distinct undertaking from jams and butters, and sour cherries were prized for them because their acid holds the fruit firm and keeps the syrup bright. The Early Richmond was one of the commonest tart cherries in American orchards through the nineteenth century, valued for hardiness and heavy bearing over a short, frantic June season, which explains the domestic urgency behind recipes like this. The two-day working, with the syrup rested and reboiled, was standard before reliable pectin and processing times; sugar concentration and repeated boiling were the only preservation the cook had.<br><br>Note that sealing practice in the 1870s varied, with wax, corks and early screw-band lids all in use, so a modern canning guide should govern the sealing step.</br>