Summer is a magical time where it seems there is no shortage of good eating. The only downside: That summer too must come to an end. So, why not preserve the best of summer quite literally in a jam? At the top of our list is cherry jam, which is both sweet and tart. Plus, it has that gorgeous red color! Discover the recipe below.
Cherry Jam: A Family Recipe
I come from a family of jam fans. For every breakfast, as long as I can remember, there was at least one kind of jam on the table, which everyone generously helped themselves to. For our morning toast though, there was always one jame that was particularly popular: cherry jam.
Both my parents and my grandparents have a cherry tree in their garden. Every year it is a real event to harvest the bright red, plump fruits and process them directly into an equally bright jam. These jars are then treated as a true culinary sanctuary for the rest of the year and are usually opened with reverence, and always with great appetite.
Making it is a lot simpler than you might think. First, pit the cherries. This is best done with a special cherry pitter. Then, mix the pitted cherries with gelling sugar: My family swears by 3:1 sugar to fruit ratio. Add a splash of lemon juice in a large pot and stir well to distribute the sugar, then slowly bring everything to a boil. Cook until the cherries are soft, then do a gel test by placing the jam on a cold plate. If it sets, it’s done. If not, let the cherries a little longer. Once ready, pour the jam into the jars while its still hot. Make sure that jars are air-tight so that the jam will keep for several months and you can enjoy your cherries all throughout the year.
It’s called the cherry on top for a reason, after all. There’s just something so special about this fruit. Which is why we have designed such recipes as our cherry-filled puff pastry crumble squares, pudding-cherry cake, and cherry meringue cake.
Cherry Jam
Equipment
- 6 Canning jars
Ingredients
- 3 lb cherries
- 1 lb gelling sugar
- lemon juice
Instructions
- Pit the cherries and place them in a pot.
- Add the sugar and stir well. Heat slowly, stirring constantly, so that the cherries release their juices. Add a splash of lemon juice.
- Once the cherries are boiling, let them simmer gently until soft.
- Perform a gel test by placing a small amount of jam on a cold plate and seeing if it sets. If not, continue simmering.
- Pour the finished jam into jars and seal them tightly.