Maraschino Cherries– So Easy!
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!
May 13th, 2020 at 2:04 pm
DUDE. I just made cherries too a couple of weeks ago! I mashed up a couple of recipes, boiling together frozen cherries, sugar, orange peel, star anise, and a cinnamon stick. Instead of lime juice I added a splash of amaretto to help with the storage / preservation.