Jamming Cherries

I bought a couple (*cough* 6) quarts of cherries up in Michigan over the July 4th weekend. I got a bit carried away, but no regrets! I’m even eating more cherries right now….

Here’s how they ended up:

• Sweet Cherry Basil Preserve

Half of this recipe (featuring 4 small basil leaves from our garden). Yield: 2 half-pints and a bit of refrigerator preserve.

Verdict? Delicious! I was leery that basil wouldn’t be a good combination, but it combines well with the cherry for a tiny sweet punch. I think preserves was the way to go with this one. It makes a delicious syrup on frozen yogurt.

pour the wine

(love Oliver’s wines!)

• Drunken Cherries

simmering cardamom pods, cloves, allspice, and cinnamon in sugar, water, & lemon juice

 

Halved this recipe (be sure to read their story about picking the cherries!). Yield: 2 pints.. after a couple cherries were consumed.

Verdict? Oh. My. No words. Just imagine drunken spiced cherries.

• Sweet Cherry Jam

I didn’t take photographs of this one, but it’s a standard cherry jam. Recipe from here using my favorite Ball No-Sugar Pectin.

• Cherry Almond Jam

Aren’t these cherries pretty? They’re light-skinned sweet cherries. I thought they would look best in the cherry almond jam.

Nearly double recipe from Ball Blue Book. Yield: 8 half-pints.

Verdict? Ok.. pretty good, I think. Not the best though. I added ~1/2 cup chopped almonds to the total batch and after a snafu involving doubling everything except the pectin (re-jam time!) I think it’s decent. I think we need to open a jar of these to really know. They have potential & I have faith. :)

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