So my organic sour cherry jam that was more like treacle was still delicious when the jar was slightly heated in hot water…not exactly spreadable, SO sticky sweet and addictive and horrible for your teeth.
My pickled cherries, however, were perfect. They’re not shelf-stable, so you have to keep them in the fridge, but they last awhile, AND you don’t need to be as anal about sterilizing jars! Yes! The vinegar pickling liquid is SO addictive. Sweet and sour and perfect. The trick of the recipe is to prick every gosh darn cherry with a needle so the pickling liquid infuses it. And the recipe is otherwise completely simple because you don’t need to pit the cherries. Get yourself some scissors, a needle, and the following ingredients and count down to pickled cherry heaven. That’s a thing. It exists.
Another David Lebovitz recipe, I just had to try it because I’d never though of pickling cherries. He also references another website with lots of comments from happy cherry-picklers. I believed him when he wrote that these were great, and he did not lead me astray..
Pickled Sour Cherries
Adapted from a recipe at Chez Loulou
1/2 cup (125ml) white vinegar
1/3 cup (180ml) water
4 ounces (115g) sugar (about 1/2 cup, but you should use a kitchen scale to measure the cherries below anyway, so do the sugar by weight too if you can)
20 black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
1/2 pound (225g) sour cherries, rinsed, stems clipped in half
Instructions:
1. In a large pot bring the vinegar, water and sugar to a boil. Stir occasionally until the sugar dissolves. Don’t take a big whiff of this stuff.
2. Remove the pot from the heat and toss in the whole peppercorns and bay leaves. Cover to keep warm
3. While the pickling liquid is steeping, wash the cherries and snip the stems in half with scissors (do a few at a time for efficiency), prick each cherry with a pin all over, and drop them into the hot liquid. (If the liquid’s not hot anymore, reheat it to a simmer.)
4. Pour the contents into a “clean jar” (You don’t need to sterilize the jars in the dishwasher or a huge pot of boiling water, but wash them well in hot, soapy water at least. David Lebovitz says he pours boiling water into the jars then lets them dry). Cover the jars (you can use old lids here if you want, since you’re going to eat the cherries fairly quickly), and refrigerate until you want to eat them. They’ll be delicious right away, accompanied by sips of the pickling liquid, but they’re best in a day or 3 when the cherries have infused.
It’s best to let the cherries sit at least one week before serving. They’ll keep in the refrigerator for at least one year.
How do you eat these guys? As a snack. As a garnish for dessert, as a garnish for meat. As a garnish for a drink, like a sweet and sour maraschino cherry.
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