Brandied Cherries

There was a pretty good sale on cherries, and I just ordered a ridiculous number of canning lids.  What I need to get are more jars.

Brandied cherries, or any spirited fruit, are way overpriced.  You tend to find them at niche markets with charcuterie items.  They're just fruit poached in syrup with enough alcohol to taste.  If you're making it fresh to serve that day, it takes less than half an hour, and most of that time is waiting for water to boil.

While I did process can these, it's a water bath recipe, so it doesn't have to be canned to achieve the desired effect.  There will be regular stovetop directions.

The recipe I found said you can make these whole, which is good because these were huge cherries that didn't fit in my pitter.  There is nothing wrong with pitting them first, but they should be treated with lemon or a crushed aspirin in water to preserve color.  What I didn't realize was that when a cherry is cooked the flesh naturally separates from the pit.  As long as you know it's in there, it's very easy to eat the fruit and tactfully spit out the pit.

I'm giving sample quantities, about as much as you would need for a dinner or cocktail party.  Does anyone do those anymore?  You can scale it to what you need.

1 quart (about 1 to 1-1/2 lb) red cherries
1 C water
1/4 C sugar, or less if the cherries are very sweet
*2 Tb brandy

1.  If canning, prepare water bath canner, jars, and lids for your expected quantity.  These can be done as pints or quarts.  For non-canning, you only need a non-reactive final container like glass or ceramic.

2.  Remove stems from cherries, pit if desired, and wash thoroughly.  If pitted, soak in a water with either lemon juice or a crushed aspirin to preserve the color.  Drain.  For whole, pricking the bottoms with a sterilized pin will reduce splitting.  It's also a lot of work when you bought five pounds of cherries, so I skipped it.

3.  Stir together water and sugar in a large saucepan.  Bring to a boil over medium heat.  Add the cherries and return to a strong boil.  Stir to make sure all cherries have touched the boiling syrup, then remove from heat.  The cherries will be par-cooked and softening.

4a, non-canning: Allow mixture to stop boiling, then stir in brandy.  Allow to steep as mixture cools.  Once room temperature, transfer to a non-reactive container and store in the fridge for up to three weeks.

4b, canning: Ladle 1/2 C of syrup into the bottoms of the jars.  Fill with cherries to 1/2" headspace.  Add 1 Tb brandy to each pint, then fill with syrup to 1/2".  Debubble and adjust headspace as necessary.  If you run out of syrup, add boiling water for the last little bit.  Wipe rims, center lids, and screw bands down finger-tight.  Process 15 minutes for pints and 20 minutes for quarts.  After 24 hours, check seals, clean jars, and store.  Despite quite a bit of siphoning, all of my jars sealed.  I was surprised.  I wiped a lot of syrup off the rims and really didn't expect all of them to seal, even before they went in the canner.  The syrup level in two of them is below the one-inch mark, so I'll use those first.  The rest should be good for at least a year.

Makes 1 quart

Difficulty rating  :)