A generous person living on the shores of Flathead Lake, allows us to pick cherries each year from her personal orchard. She has a number of different varieties, but this year she said something that piqued my curiosity. She said there was one tree that had just plain yellow cherries on it and that no one did anything with those. That rang a bell in my head and it said, why not?
I checked out the tree and the cherries were just as sweet and delicious as any of the rest, and they were yellow. I picked about a gallon and a half and thought I would make some whole cherry preserves from them as an experiment. In the old days, nothing was there without a purpose and nothing went to waste, so I decided to do a little research.
I discovered they were called white cherries, even though they are a beautiful golden color. They are the major type of cherry used for making maraschino cherries. The FDA's definition of a maraschino cherry denotes this artificial process: “The term "Maraschino Cherries" is regarded as the common or usual name of an article consisting of cherries which have been dyed red, impregnated with sugar and packed in a sugar sirup flavored with oil of bitter almonds or a similar flavor.” Not really very appetizing. No wonder I have never liked maraschino cherries.
I also discovered that these trees were often planted as a good cross pollinator for the other trees in the orchard. That makes a lot more sense because there was only one white cherry tree in Nancy’s orchard.
In case you are fortunate enough to have one of these trees in your orchard or run across some of these white cherries at the co-op or farmer’s market, here is a recipe that I’ve formulated to make a big batch of whole white cherry preserves. You can also use this recipe to make preserves for any type of sweet cherry and you can easily cut the batch in half.
Whole Cherry Preserves
1. Wash and drain, and then pit about a gallon and a half of cherries and toss them in about 1/4 cup of lemon juice. This helps keep them from turning brown while you process them.
2. Heat them slowly and simmer for about 15-20 minutes to release the juice.
3. Let cool and remove the cherries from the juice.
4. Bring the juice to a boil and add 10 cups of sugar (or half of this if you are doing a half batch).
5. After the syrup has boiled for a few minutes, add the cherries back to the juice and bring back to a boil and cook gently for 10-15 minutes.
6. Turn off the heat and let stand in a cool place overnight (12-18 hours). This allow the air in the cherries to be expelled and helps the fruit to be suspended in the preserves rather than float on top.
7. Get 12-15 half pint jars ready with lids and the equipment you will be using.
8. Divide the cherries and juice in approximately half - I did two 7-8 cup batches.
9. Sweet cherries do not have enough pectin to gel, even in the long boil process so it is necessary to add pectin. I used one box of Sure-Jell for each of my batches. I put my cherries and juice into a stock pot and added the pectin, stirring it into the cold juice.
10. Then I brought it all to a boil that could not be stirred down and boiled it for exactly 1 minute.
11. Skim and ladle the preserves into hot jars leaving 1/4 inch head space. Wipe rims, attach lids and place in your boiling water bath. At our altitude I process in the water bath for 25 minutes. Check your book or the internet for the processing time for your altitude.
12. Remove from the water bath and invert on a towel (lid down) until cool.
13. Once cool, turn the jars over and the cherries will settle beautifully and evenly from the top to the bottom of the jars.
Enjoy some now and certainly this winter the sunny color will bring a little sunshine to your toast!
Several things about myself that influence the foods that I cook and love are likely to be familiar to you as well. One, I prefer to spend my time doing something other than dishes and so if I can cook it all in one pot, that makes me happy. Two, I love local produce and that means in the winter, it’s root crops like potatoes, beets and carrots, onions, garlic, and produce that I either grew in my garden and stored or purchased at the co-op from local sources. Third, I’ve been known as the soup lady for some time now and even though I've moved on and sold my business The Art of Good Food, I still identify with art, good food, and soup because it fits all my criteria.
With my new found freedom this winter, I’ve gone back to some of the recipes and cook books that I’ve used in years past. This weekend, I dug out a cookbook written by Jeff Smith, The Frugal Gourmet On our Immigrant Ancestors, copyright 1990.
I’ve actually made this recipe before and a number of other recipes represented in this book, but it’s been many years. I was thinking about borscht last summer when I peeled, chopped, and froze a few quarts of Detroit Red beets that I grew in the garden. (I’ve never frozen beets before and they came out amazing, with good texture-like fresh cooked.)
I forgot to mention that I don’t cook from recipes. I almost always use them as a jumping off point to do my own thing with what I have on hand. I am an artist and that translates into cooking as well as all other areas of my life. Below is the recipe as Jeff published it, and how I put it together with my comments in italics. You can follow Jeff, me, or use it as a jumping off point to do your own thing.
Russian Borscht
According to Jeff, he got this recipe from Father John, a Russian Orthodox priest and he claims it is the best soup imaginable. (It is delicious for sure!)
Jeff's
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves of garlic peeled and minced
1 pound of lamb stew meat chopped
1 medium onion
1 1/4 cup green cabbage cored and chopped
1 ½ pound ripe tomatoes diced
2 pounds red beets peeled and diced
3 ½ quarts beef stock
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 bay leaves
juice of ½ lemon
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon fresh ground pepper
Mine
3-4 tablespoons olive oil (I don’t measure)
3 large cloves garlic peeled and minced
I did not use meat
1 large onion chopped
½ of a 6"green cabbage cored and chopped
1 pint of canned tomatoes or a 14oz can
3-4 cups chopped beets (I had peeled, chopped, and frozen the beets in a quart bag last summer.)
4-5 tablespoons Better Than Bouillon-Beef with enough water to cover veggies
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 large bay leaf
2 tablespoons lemon juice
I skipped the salt because of the bouillon
½ teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1 teaspoon dried thyme
Heat a heavy stockpot and add the oil, garlic, and lamb. Brown the lamb and add the onion. (If you are browning lamb or meat, it is best not to add the garlic until just before you finish with the onions.) Saute until the onion is tender and then add the cabbage, tomato, beets, stock, vinegar, bay leaves, lemon juice, salt and pepper (all of the rest of the ingredients).
Bring it all to a boil and simmer covered for 2 hours. (You could do this in a crock pot for the day too.) Add additional salt and pepper to taste. (Mine was fine with the salt from the bouillon.)
Jeff recommends dishing the soup into bowls and passing the garnish of sour cream and fresh chopped dill. (While my soup was simmering, I stirred together a teaspoon of dried dill weed with about ½ cup of sour cream and put it back in the refrigerator until serving time. For my taste, the sour cream or you could use Greek yogurt is essential to the soup.)
I also whipped up a loaf of pumpernickel bread to serve with my soup for dinner. I have 3 more quart bags stuffed with beets in my freezer and so I think overall, this was an excellent use of my summer harvest.
