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Sour cherry recipes?

18 years ago

This week I've been harvesting sour cherries from my tree, Montmorency, I think. The tree was here when I moved in. The cherries are bright red, sour as all get out, and they're clear inside, no red juice. Sounds like a Montmorency, anyway.

I want to do something with them, like a pie or cobbler, but the cookbooks I have are way too modern. They talk about opening up a can of cherry pie filling. Not much help in my case.

Anybody know where I can find recipes for sour cherries straight off the tree? Any cookbooks that deal with produce straight from the garden? Anything online? I'd also like to know how to properly freeze them, in case I want to have cobbler this winter.

I, and my cherries, thank you.

Comments (4)

  • 18 years ago

    I personally don't have any, but a quick google search of "fresh cherry recipes" popped up a number of promising things.

    As to freezing them, I'd probably do them much like I do blueberries. Pit them (well, not this step with blueberries), place them on a single layer on cookie sheets, freeze, then bag in freezer bags. Do NOT wash them until you're ready to use. By freezing them in a single layer first, it'll be much easier to measure out how much you want, rather than having to thaw the whole bag first. Also, you can use a foodsave (if you have one) if they're already frozen.

  • 18 years ago

    I picked 2 gallons of Montmorency cherries this year. I pitted them and added one part sugar to 4 parts cherries, so what I did was for every 4 cups of cherries I added one cup of sugar. I then froze them in quart size plastic containers. My wife has already made one pie and one tart using them. No additional sugar was added to either recipe. The pie recipe was found using google search engine asking the question "how to keep my cherry pie from being too runny". This approach was taken because last year's pie was too runny. There was an entire thread with comments on this subject and someone had mentioned some TV show person's recipe so we googled that and ended with an excellent cherry pie. So, I believe there are enough cherries to make three more pies now the we have the right recipe.

  • 18 years ago

    The new Better Homes and Garden has fresh cherry recipes for pie and cobbler.
    Although their amounts aren't set up for freezing your own. Too many cherries per pie for quarts. Too little sugar per quart to freeze for cobbler.

    For freezing I would go with 1-1 1/2c sugar per qt of cherries depending on your taste and how sour the cherries are and not worry about following recipes exactly.
    Don't pit without washing, they will be very soupy when you thaw them (my Montmorency is very soupy before freezing this year), plus pitting without washing will ram anything (bird poo, chemicals, etc) on the outside through the inside. And you need the syrup to protect them from freezer burn.
    Your local USDA co-op has a lot of free (you paid for it with your taxes) information on this kind of stuff.
    I suggest you take a trip or call them to get their recommendations for safe food preservation as the recommended food handling is always changing.

    If you don't like runny homemade style pies use gelatin and can your cherries similar to the pie filling you buy.

  • 18 years ago

    For freezing cherries, I wash, then pit the cherries with a crank cherry pitter. It crushes the fruit, but then your pies or cobblers or sauces are entirely cherry rather than a few whole cherries with lots of filler around them and you can go through a gallon of cherries in just a few minutes. Hand pitting individually is way too time consuming. The pitted cherries are placed in a quart plastic container or a bag, then frozen. I don't add any sugar when freezing, though you can. Just don't know how they will be used, so don't add sugar until cooking later. A quart of frozen cherries is about right for making a pie. When cooking the cherries later, I usually reduce the sugar by 1/4 to 1/2, depending on just how tart the cherries are--I don't like syrupy sweet cherry pie and prefer a sweetened pie that still has some of the tartness of the cherry--much more flavor, and you don't get a stomach ache from all the sugar so you can eat more! Also, Minute Tapioca is a great way to thicken the cherry juice. There is a recipe on the box, just reduce the sugar. A quick version is 4 cups frozen, pitted cherries in their own juice, 3/4 cups sugar, 2 tablespoons tapioca, a tablespoon of butter, and 3 or 4 drops of almond extract.

    Another great way to thicken the cherry juice when making toppings is to add a tablespoon or two of corn starch with your sugar and cook. When the corn starch thickens, the juice will turn clear.

    As long as you warn everyone, for a topping you can freeze the cherries whole, then make sauce, and people can just spit out the pits.