No. 3669

Cherry Jelly with Kirsch

Gelee de Cerises au Kirsch

Stone three pounds of cherries, pound six ounces of the kernels with one pound of currants and strain it through a sieve. Put the cherries in a copper pan on a slow fire and reduce to half, then add three pounds of sugar and one pound of the strained currant and kernel juice, and continue to cook until a drop of it placed on a flat surface will not spread; now put in half a gill of kirsch and pour at once into jars to leave in a cool place until thoroughly cold; cover with a round of paper dipped in brandy, and close the pots hermetically with their respective covers.

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For the Modern Kitchen Do not make this as written.

This is a cherry jelly built on a large quantity of crushed cherry stones, and that single ingredient puts it outside what can be made today. The notes below explain the problem and translate the archaic details for reading purposes only.

The six ounces of kernels are the problemCherry stones contain amygdalin, which releases hydrogen cyanide when the kernels are crushed and wetted — exactly what pounding them with currants and straining does. Six ounces of pounded kernels is a bulk quantity, not the trace used to scent a liqueur, and there is no way to know how much cyanide the resulting juice carries.
Cooking does not make it safeSome hydrogen cyanide is volatile and driven off by heat, but the reduction here is done over a slow fire in an open pan with no controlled temperature or time, and the amount remaining is unmeasurable in a home kitchen. A modern cherry jelly recipe, flavored with a little kirsch or almond extract, should be used instead.
Copper panNineteenth-century preserving pans were commonly unlined copper, valued because it conducts heat evenly. Unlined copper does react with acidic fruit, though such pans are still used for preserving in some traditions.
Half a gill of kirschA gill is a quarter-pint, so half a gill is two fluid ounces, or a quarter cup. Kirsch here is a clear cherry brandy; the recipe adds it at the very end, immediately before potting.
The set test"A drop placed on a flat surface will not spread" is the cold-plate test, the standard gauge before thermometers were common in kitchens; it corresponds to roughly 220F at sea level.
Brandy paper and hermetic coversA round of paper dipped in spirit laid directly on the surface, then a tight lid, was the standard nineteenth-century guard against mold. It is a surface treatment, not a seal, and gives none of the protection of a properly processed jar.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) was Charles Ranhofer's compendium of the cooking he oversaw at Delmonico's in New York, and its preserving chapter reflects a French professional kitchen rather than an American farmhouse one — hence the copper pan and the finishing splash of kirsch. The use of cherry kernels belongs to a long European tradition of noyau, in which crushed stones of cherries, peaches or apricots supplied a bitter-almond perfume that the fruit's flesh alone does not have; ratafias, macaroons and liqueurs were all built on it. That tradition faded as the chemistry of amygdalin became understood through the nineteenth century, and as benzaldehyde-based almond flavorings made the same note available without the risk. Recipes like this one are a useful reminder that the line between a seasoning and a poison was, for a long time, drawn by taste and custom rather than by measurement.