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Cherries, Morella, to Preserve
Choose sound, ripe Morella cherries, and allow one pound and a quarter of sugar, and half a cupful of red or white currant juice for every pound of cherries. Pick and stone the cherries, or, if preferred, merely prick each one with a needle. Put the sugar and syrup into a preserving-pan, and let it boil for ten minutes. Throw in the cherries, and simmer them gently until they look bright and clear. Turn the fruit into jars. Cover with oiled papers, and tissue paper dipped in strong gum. Time to boil, about half an hour. Probable cost of cherries, 10d. per pound.
A straightforward sugar preserve that depends on the acidity and pectin of currant juice rather than on long boiling. The main things to sort out are the wording (the "syrup" is the currant juice) and the sealing, which is the one part of the method that no longer stands up.
- Morella means MorelloThe sour dark cherry sold today as Morello, and its close relatives Montmorency and English Morello. Sweet cherries (Bing, Rainier) have too little acid and will give a flat, cloying preserve; if that is all you have, add the juice of a lemon per pound of fruit.
- The "syrup" is the currant juiceThe recipe asks for sugar and half a cupful of currant juice, then tells you to boil "the sugar and syrup" — the same thing. The book does not define the size of its cupful, so the half-cupful cannot be converted with any confidence.
- Why currant juiceRedcurrants and whitecurrants are among the most pectin-rich fruits in the kitchen, and sour cherries have very little. The currant juice is doing the setting work; without it you get cherries in syrup rather than a preserve, which is not a disaster but is a different thing.
- Sugar ratioOne and a quarter pounds of sugar per pound of fruit is above the usual pound-for-pound, and it is what makes the finished jars keep. Do not cut it; the sugar concentration is the preservative.
- Stone or prickStoning gives a better texture and a preserve you can spread; pricking each cherry with a needle keeps the fruit whole and glossy but leaves the stones in, which the eater must deal with. A cherry stoner or a sturdy piping nozzle makes short work of a pound.
- Judging the set"Bright and clear" is a fair visual cue, but a thermometer settles it: 220F/105C at sea level, or a wrinkle on a spoonful chilled on a cold saucer. The "about half an hour" at the end most likely covers the whole boiling rather than an extra half hour of simmering, but the recipe does not say which it means.
- SealingOiled paper and gummed tissue were the Victorian answer and are not a seal. Use sterilised jars with two-piece lids and either process the filled jars in a boiling-water bath for 10 minutes or, simpler, let them cool and keep them in the refrigerator, where a preserve at this sugar level will hold for months.
- Yield and costThe 10d. per pound is pre-decimal pence and belongs to the book's own market, not to any modern conversion worth making.
Cassell's dictionary was assembled at a moment when British households preserved as a matter of routine rather than as a hobby, and sour cherries were a natural candidate: they crop heavily over a short season, they do not eat well raw, and their acidity suits sugar. The Morello is generally traced to central Europe and had long been the standard English cooking cherry, grown against north-facing walls where sweet varieties would not ripen. The instruction to borrow currant juice from another fruit is characteristic of the period's practical chemistry — cooks understood, well before pectin was isolated and sold in bottles, that certain fruits made other fruits set, and currants, apples and gooseberries were used as setting agents across dozens of recipes. The oiled paper and gummed tissue closure is equally of its time: a preserve this sweet was expected to keep on the strength of its sugar alone, with the covering there to keep out dust and mould spores rather than to make an airtight seal.