Sour Cherry Jam Recipe
Hooray! Can I just tell you how excited I am now that it is cherry season? It means it is the beginning of all my summer and fall canning. And I've got so much planned that I am excited to share with you. First up is Sour Cherry Jam. Have you ever heard of Sour Cherries or Tart Cherries before? They are not easily found in stores and most often at food stands or farmers' markets for a very limited time at the beginning of Cherry Season. Just like their name says, they are sour. They are beautifully bright red and are best used in another creation like jams, syrups, ice cream topping, pies, or dried and not really eaten as a table fruit. You can find dried tart cherries in the grocery stores for about $5.99/lb. At least that's how much they are in the health section of my local Kroger store.
In Utah, the best sour cherry variety is Montmorency and it is the most common tart cherry grown in the US. It is heary and can withstand more front than sweet varieties because it blooms latest in the spring avoiding late frosts.
Tart Cherries are perfect for pies or crumbles because they really let you control the sweetness factor and they hold their shape wonderfully when cooked. These are what are standard for commerical pie filling cherries. Once you find a source for Sour Cherries you'll be so excited finding ways to use them up. If you need time to decide though, pit them and freeze them because they won't last long fresh and actually really hold up to freezing well.
I happen to have found an old neighbor with a Sour Cherry tree in his yard. I was driving my girls over to a friend's house and I looked out the car window at this tree we were driving by and thought "that looks like a cherry tree" so of course I had to go have a look. Yes I am that type of person. I noticed that the cherries were quite a bit smaller than other cherries and very bright, shiny red so I figured I had just found one of these rare cherry trees. I knocked on the person's door and he was very happy to let me come back and pick as much as I wanted. I hauled my girls back there the next day and we picked 3 grocery bags full and hadn't even made a dent in the tree!
We returned all hot and sweaty from being out in the sun and sure enough when we bit in to one we found out they were tart cherries!
I thought about all the ways I wanted to use them up and we tried Sour Cherry Jam, Sour Cherry Syrup (awesome in my Tart Cherry Lime Mocktails!) and I dried a whole bunch for the kids.
Making Jam is so easy. Every recipe is different depending on the type of pectin you use. I like the low sugar one and feel like it is plenty sweet. You can even find a no sugar fruit pectin as well. Look for a recipe that has 3 cups of sugar or less for 4 cups of fruit.
DIRECTIONS ___________________________________________________________________
First you want to wash, pit and chop the sour cherries and measure the EXACT amount on your pectin box instructions into a sauce pan. (Making jam really is a science so you have to follow the amounts exactly or your jam won't set)
2. Add water and pectin package into fruit and bring mixture to a full rolling boil on high heat, which means that it doesn't stop bubbling when you stir it. And stir constantly. (You can also add a 1/2 tsp butter to reduce foaming if you want)
3. As soon as it hits a rolling boil, pour in the sugar called for all at once and return to a rolling boil. Time for 1 minute at a full rolling boil on high heat stirring constantly then remove from heat and skim off any foam.
4. Ladle quickly into clean glass jars. I like to use the 6 oz jars. You only need 1/8 inch of headspace. Wipe jar rims and cover with lid and screw on the band to finger tight.
5. Place onto water bath canner rack and lower into the water to cover jars by 1-2 inches. If you need more water, have some boiling water waiting nearby.
6. Cover the canner and bring water to a gentle boil. Process Sour Cherry Jam 10 minutes (add 5 minutes for elevations 1,0001-3000 ft and 10 minutes if your are at elevation 3,001-6,000 ft above sea level.)
7. Remove jars after alloted time and place upright. (Some people turn jars upside down but you shouldn't do this). Just set on a towel and let it cool completely for at least 24 hours. Check seals by pressing middle of lid with finger. If the lid springs back, it means it is not sealed and you can either refridgerate and use immediately or you can reprocess it again with a new lid if you have any other batches of jam to do.
That's it. It really goes so quickly. One of the best ways we love enjoying our Sour Cherry Jam is by swirling it through a little bit of plain yogurt. In fact, that was one of my tricks to slowly get my babies to start eating plain yogurt.
As an aside, I remember being an exchange student in Germany and trying to buy yogurt and being so confused why it was so sour. I didn't realize what real yogurt was supposed to taste like. Ours is like melted ice cream in the states! Slowly I got used to it and now I love it. If you want to start weaning your family off the high sugar yogurts, start with 1 tsp of Jam/ Jelly (that is only 4 grams of sugar) and compared to the amount of sugar that is dumped into store-bought yogurt, it is infinitely better. Then slowly I would add less and less til they would eat just plain yogurt with berries mixed in. Try it, it works!
I hope you find yourself lucky enough to snag some tart cherries this season. There are some U-pick farms as well as farmers' markets where they will be available for about 2 weeks in July.
Happy Canning!
Tiara
- The Provident Princess
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