If the brandy was added during the boiling process, there is a good chnace that most of the alcohol has been cooked away. Cranberries are very high in natural pection, so they set up with just sugar and without added pectin. Did you use a pectin for making the black cherry jam? Adding regular pectin to any jam, also needs a lot of sugar to set. Sometimes, a jam needs a month to set up, like a citrus based jam.

cherries are really low in pectin, so my guess would be that's the problem. what kind of pectin did you use? If it doesn't set up brandied black cherry desert topping sounds fantastic.

I agree, cherries are low in pectin and that is more likely to cause your problem than the alcohol.

I made blueberry jam with Cointreau, I made plum conserve with Drambuie, I made peach preserves with Triple Sec. All set just fine, in spite of the alcohol, so I doubt it was the alcohol that did it.

I know lpinkmountain, readinglady and RobinKate all canned preserves or jam with alcohol too, and they were all successful, so there's some evidence that it can be done successfully without problems.

Annie

It would be helpful to see the recipe. Sweet cherries are high-pectin if they're underripe, but generally for best flavor we'll use ripe ones. The riper they are the less reliable they are as setters unless commercial pectin is added.

As previous posters said, a tablespoon or two of brandy in the recipe shouldn't prevent a good set, so I'm also guessing some other factor was the culprit.

In fact, now that I think of it, I made a peach jam with brown sugar; it had 3/4 of a cup of rum for 6 cups of peaches and it still set just fine without commercial pectin, despite the fact that peaches are even lower than cherries for natural pectin/acid levels. (Now that was truly a "knock your socks off" jam!)

Carol

OK, Great tips. What you all have said is what I expected. I have been canning for 30 years now and this is the first time I have made cherry anything. I used frozen unsweetened black cherries. I just followed the Sure Jell re-set instructions and it still seems way too runny for jam. It may very well set up after a month or so but if not it will be killer Brandy Black Cherry Pancake Syrup! YUMMMM! It tastes fantastic! I also just made Pina Colada Jam, it came out yummy! and set up immedietly. It is a gorgeous color. I make is a personal challenge to make my canned items as "pretty" as possible. I looovveee pretty preserves and pickles. I have the canninjg season bug so bad it isn't funny. :) Putting up beets this weekend that are in our garden, after that it will be pickles, I went way overboard planting cucumber plants! Fortunately me and hubby love pickles.

Thanks for the advice.
Susan in NC

If you want "pretty", you've got to make Annie's Habanero Gold jelly. Little bits of red and green floating in an amber jelly!

I made Anaheim Amber just 'cuz we're a bunch of wusses around here and I needed to use my Anaheim peppers. My husband LOVES this over cream cheese, served with crackers.

Also LindaLou's Apple Pie Jam. Bits of apple in a cinnamon colored jam. Yummmm!

I made mine before I learned (from all the great people here) to flip the jar upside down, then back upright a few times while it's cooling to keep the bits suspended so all my apples are at the top. Still tastes great and I stir it up when I open it.

Ohhh yum, sounds great. Are the recipes posted here? I especially like the sound of the Apple one.

Thanks,
Susan

Here's the Apple Pie Jam Linda Lou posted. I think the recipe is also on the Cooking Forum somewhere. You can see Linda Lou's comments in the last paragraph clarifying the measurement of the apples:

Apple Pie Jam
4 cups tart apples, peeled and finely chopped
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
4 cups sugar
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 box powdered pectin
1/2 teaspoon butter

Add water to chopped apples to measure 4 cups. Place apples and water into large, heavy saucepan. Stir in lemon juice, cinnamon and allspice.

Measure sugars. Stir pectin into fruit. Add butter. Bring mixture to full rolling boil on high heat, stirring constantly. Quickly stir in both sugars. Return to full rolling boil and boil exactly 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim off any foam with metal spoon.

Ladle quickly into hot, clean jars, leaving 1/4" headspace. Wipe jar rims and threads. Cover with two-piece lids. Screw bands on finger tight. Process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

Ok, I get LOTS of questions about the apples/water measurement. Dice 4 cups of apples. Place in a 4 cup measuring cup, then add water to cover the apples up to the 4 cup mark. It is NOT 4 cups of each. Hope this helps clarify this for you.

~Linda Lou~

And here's the other recipe, the Habanero Gold Jelly:

Habanero Gold Jelly

1/3 cup finely sliced dried apricots
3/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 up finely diced red onion
1/4 cup finely diced sweet red pepper
1/4 cup finely diced habanero peppers, including seeds
OR 1/4 cup diced, combined jalapeno and Scotch Bonnet peppers
3 cups granulated sugar
1 pouch Bernardin liquid pectin

Cut apricots into 1/8 inch slices. Measure into a large deep stainless steel saucepan with vinegar; let stand 4 hours. Individually, cut onion and seeded peppers into 1/8 inch slices; cut slices into 1/4 inch dice. Measure each ingredient; add to apricots. Stir in sugar.

Over high heat, bring to a full roiling boil. Stirring constantly, boil hard 1 minute. Remove from heat. Immediately stir in pectin, mixing well.

Pour jelly into hot jar, dividing solids equally among jars and filling each jar to within 1/4 inch of top rim. Wipe rims. Apply lids.

Process 10 minutes in BWB. Cool upright, until lids pop down, about 30 minutes. When lids are concave but the jelly is still hot, carefully grasp jar without disturbing lid and invert, twist, or rotate each jar to distribute solids throughout jelly. The jar can be inverted temporarily but do not allow it to stand upside-down for prolonged periods.

Repeat as necessary during the cooling/setting time, until solids are nicely suspended.

As an experienced canner you may be aware of this already, but for newbies who might copy-and-paste this recipe, just a reminder that the amount of peppers should not be increased. It's an issue of food safety. Milder peppers could be subsituted or the amounts of sweet and hot peppers could be adjusted as long as the 1/2 cup total doesn't change.

Happy preserving,
Carol

Oh, Thank you so much! They both sound wonderful. I might tone down the pepper one with a bit cooler variety of pepper. :) Haberneros are very hot.

I am definitly going to make both of these.

Thank you again,
Susan

Susan,
That's what I did. I used Anaheim peppers in the same quantity and it's definitely more sweet than hot, but has the flavor.
Deanna

Yeah Deanna, I will probably use an assortment of temperatures, I like sweet/medium hot. If I serve it on cream cheese like someone here suggested I could take it more on the medium side than mild.

It is weird I can't take "pepper" heat but I love horseradish and wasabi heat. It's just no fun unless the tears are running and my face is deep red when I eat wasabi! :O

In recipes using pectin you add the alcohol after cooking it. In most of the cooked jams, you cook for a while, then add the alcohol and cook for 5 more minutes. The alcohol can mess up the gelling in the ones with pectin. Same goes for adding vanilla or other extracts since they have alcohol.

Also, this isn't a pectin issue, but some preserves with liquor benefit from aging. That peach-rum recipe, for example, needs about 6 months.

Carol

I left a small amount in a bowl in the fridge and it seems to have thickened up just in 24 hours, so maybe it will be even better in a few months. I doubt it will ever be jam consistency. But it sure is good, I plan on giving it for Christmas presents with homemade pound cake, YUM!

Black cherries are delicious; your preserves will be a real treat next Christmas.

If you get an opportunity to make the preserves with fresh cherries, try to use about 1/4 underripe with 3/4 ripe ones. That will assist the set.

Carol

Friends,

Ok, I couldn't stand it anymore I had to break in to a jar. It had thickened into a noce thick syrup consistency with the cherries in it. I poured some over vanilla ice cream and OH MY GOSH! It was so good!

Thanks for all the tips.
Susan

Susan, could you share your recipe for the Brandied Black Cherry? I would love to try it.

Thanks,
Becky

Easiest cordialed fruit - Bombed Cherries. Put cherries (bing, black, what have you) in rum, leave to set for a month or so in a cool place.

Sure Becky,
I hope I can share accurately, I am famous for improvising but here goes.

I used two 16 oz bags of frozen unsweetened black cherries. I put them in quart canning jars covered with white brandy. I did this last Sept and let it mingle in a cool dark place till Christmas. I then drained the cherries and saved the brandy sweetening it to make liquor. I saved the cherries in the freezer. Last week when I wanted to make black cherry jam but could not afford fresh cherries I remembered I had the black ones in the freezer. So being the improviser I am, I took them out and boiled with 4 cups unsweetened black cherrie juice, bottled, that I found at the supermarket. I added 4 cups of sugar and 1 packet of pectin. I followed the jelly directions from the pectin package but it didnt set up. I then followed the "Re-setting" directions and added another packet of pectin. It thickened a little more but is still considered syrup or sauce. It thickened up nicely to use on vanilla ice cream which I tried the other evening with a cup of coffee, it was wonderful! The brandy really enhances the cherries and it will be great at the Holidays. Anything with brandy reminds me of Christmas time.

That is the best I can give you for a "recipe", sorry. Hope you can adjust to suit your desired outcome. I love experiementing with cooking of all types and not to brag but I only remember about 3 times that I had to toss out my efforts. Usually I have good to great success.
Let me know if you try it and how it turns out.
If you secceed at making it jam consistency please tell me your secret. LOL

Thanks,
Susan in NC

That sounds wonderful, Susan. Definitely a cut-and-paste. Thank you for sharing.

I have some canned brandied dark cherries. I might try something like that, maybe tossing in 1/2 a vanilla bean.

Ironically, commercial pectin requires additional sugar to set up. It's kind of a vicious cycle. I'm guessing to set the original recipe (sans the second pectin packet) you'd need about 6-7 cups of sugar and probably some lemon juice or other acid. Even then, black cherries are notorious for not setting.

But I'm with you. Used on cheesecake or ice cream, who's complaining?

Carol