It seemed that it could be easier than processing fresh cherries into a “winter” dessert? But given the characteristics of the berries, you must first choose one of the cooking methods. At the same time, you still need to find out some properties of the finished dish before you start cooking cherry jam. With stones, it has special qualities characterized by a specific taste and wonderful aroma. The fact is that the inner core of the berry is impregnated with tart "notes" when cooking the surrounding pulp and syrup. Due to this, many gourmets prefer cherry jam with pits to a similar dessert, consisting entirely of juicy mass without solid “interspersed”. Other lovers of sweets do not want to spoil the fun, choosing a dessert that consists entirely of a single mass structure (in other words, spitting kernels). Which one is better to choose your culinary choice? It all depends on the taste preferences of each. This article gives recipes on how to make cherry jam with stones and without them. The technology of these two dishes is slightly different from each other. Information is also provided on the features and duration of storage of the workpiece.
How to make cherry jam with pits?
To make the berries neat in shape and beautiful in color, it is better to work in several stages:
- Make sugar syrup (1-1.2 kg) and 1 cup of water.
- Pour selected and washed cherries (1 kg) with a hot solution. Let it brew for 1-2 hours.
- Boil the jam, collecting the foam, for 5 minutes.
- Repeat the previous step two to three times. Do not boil too much mass. It should consist of berries and a sufficient amount of liquid. To do this, observe moderate boiling, stopping it when the shade changes to slightly brownish.
- Pour the berries and syrup into jars.
Tips for Making Pitted Cherry Jam
This method is more time-consuming, but worth it. If you do not have a special tool for removing nucleoli, you can use an ordinary large pin. Immersing it in the berry through the hole where the stalk was previously attached, pry off the bone, directing it outward. During processing, a lot of cherry juice-like liquid is released, so you do not need to specially boil the syrup. Sprinkle the prepared mass with sugar in equal proportions. After a few hours, you can start cooking, which will be similar to the previous description. Keep in mind that pitted jam will “reach” readiness faster, since water is not used in the composition of the dish.
How long can I store cherry jam?
It all depends on how you cooked it. The shelf life of cherry jam with pits should not be more than one season (autumn-winter-spring), that is, seven to eight months. The fact is that inside the nucleolus contains hydrocyanic acid , which is not very useful for health . Over time, it penetrates the flesh of the berry and syrup. Therefore, you need to eat dishes from whole canned cherries (preserves, compotes) until fresh. This restriction does not apply to seedless blanks that can be stored for up to three years.