Corduroy Orange

You probably don’t remember– I barely do!– that back about 14 years ago, I looked at what the Industrial Maraschino Cherry Complex does to produce their maraschino cherries.  It seemed complicated.  I gave it very little thought.

Then, in what must be the most first world of first world problems, I ran low on cherries to garnish my Manhattans.  Heavens to Betsy, whatever is one to do?

As it turns out, I have been stocking my freezer for a pandemic for years. So I dug into the back, where about 18 months ago, I stashed a rather large bag of tart cherries that I bought so I can make a cherry pie on a whim, and I figured, how hard can it be to make sugar-preserved cherries for garnishing?

I boiled a couple of cups of them in a simple syrup made from .67 cups each water and sugar.  The syrup turned red.  I poured them into a sanitized mason jar.  I added a couple of teaspoons of lime juice to cut through the sugar and also guard against crystallization as they sit in storage.

They’re good. Not perfect.  But good enough that I feel no need to buy artificially dyed cherries again– which ain’t half bad for version 1.0!