Nanking Cherries - freezing pie filling?

14 years ago

I am very impressed with my Nanking Cherries! They are fantastic raw (sweet-tart), but I would like to make a cherry pie from them for someone special. Unfortunately, the Nanking cherries are ready now (and at constant risk from the catbird) and he is not at my house.

How can I preserve the cherries to make a pie later? Can I make the filling now and freeze it? (and, no, I've never made a cherry pie before :) ). Does anyone have a suitable recipe? I like their slight tartness and my mother says tart cherries make the best pies.

I've also read here that some people find Nanking cherries very small, the size of currants. Either my currant are really tiny or my cherries are large. Which one is it?

Thank you for any help!

Bellatrix

Featured Answer

bella_trix
Original Author

14 years ago

Life happened (as it does sometimes) and I forgot I posted this! Thanks for the replies.

I pitted the cherries and it was quite a bit more difficult than expected. :) Still, I managed to pit and freeze them (it looked like a massacre had happened). I made the world's smallest cherry pie this weekend, but...it was the best tasting cherry pie I'd ever had. Nanking cherries make EXCELLENT pies. Bird netting is going up next year. I'm not sharing with the catbird. The pie was also very well received, so it was completely worth the effort.

The white cherries in the picture are white nanking cherries. I have both white and red bushes (but prefer the red).

Thanks again,
Bellatrix

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Comments (13)

digdirt2
14 years ago
Can't help you with the size question but you can freeze both ready-to-go pie filling or you can just pit and freeze the cherries now and make the pie filling later.

How to freeze cherries: http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/freeze/cherry_sweet.html

Cherry Pie Filling for canning (or freezing):

http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_02/can_pie/cherry_filling.html

Dave
denninmi
14 years ago
When I used to grow them, they were about half the size of a tart cherry.
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User
14 years ago
Be sure to pit the cherries before you freeze them. It's an unholy mess to pit them after they're thawed.

Oh, and what are those white cherries?
dad542
14 years ago
Bella_Trix do you have the white nanking? I see some in the photo. I would love to get some of the stones? I will pay shipping. Contact me please. ~Debbie (Dad542)
Daniel Erdy
7 years ago
Does anyone have white nanking cuttings they would like to trade or share for postage?
wjhans
7 years ago
I don't pit the cherries. I just make a normal pie filling with them with a touch of almond flavouring. You need to eat it very slowly, so not to bite a seed, and then spit the seeds out. That way you savour the flavour. But you don't want to do this with anyone other than family around to see you eat it, and if you're all doing the same, it's quite fun and super tasty.
annie1992
7 years ago
I'm late to this party, but the Nanking cherries can be frozen or canned or made into pie filling and canned, or made into jam, pretty much anything you can do with a regular tart cherry. They also make an awesome sorbet. I've never seen white Nanking cherries before, but I just got white strawberries last year, so live and learn, LOL.

I do pit cherries before I can or freeze them, and definitely before I bake with them, although making a pie with cherries AND the pits would sure slow down how quickly the pie gets eaten around here, I think!

Annie
J Lo
6 years ago
Thank you so much annie1992 and bella_trix! I have been looking for this very answer. I picked WAY too many of these beauts before I even knew exactly what they were. I sat and pitted them for HOURS. I have 3 gallon sized bags of frozen pitted nanking cherries and didn't know what I could do with them. I will proceed with a lattice top cherry pie using these cute little berries for Thanksgiving. Cheers!
annie1992
6 years ago
You are so very welcome. The pie sounds delicious, but it's pie. How could it be bad? (grin) Happy Thanksgiving.

Annie
nancyjane_gardener
6 years ago
Bed Bath and Beyond has cherry pitters that pit 6 at a time (I seem to remember about $16?) They miss every once in awhile, so warn people!
annie1992
6 years ago
I do have a Leifheit that I like a lot, just fill the hopper and start pressing the plunger. It's like this one:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Leifheit-High-Volume-Cherry-Pitter-with-Pit-Collector-White/17459555

I've used it for several years, on both sweet cherries and the smaller Montmorency pie type, and it works for both.

Annie
ddsack
6 years ago
My Nanking bushes no longer exist, but as I recall, one year I used a plastic straw to poke the pits out, and it worked pretty well for these small cherries.