Sour Cherry Jam

Buzz OnNature
Jun 29, 2023
4 min read

I love the month of July! The days are longer, the flowers in the garden are blooming and the sun shines (well most of the time). Not to forget the most exciting thing for me - watching my gorgeous little cherry tree glow red with the fantastic ruby fruit. This year I seem to have a smaller harvest than the bumper crop I was blessed with last year. A combination of fewer shower spells and my own lack of diligence against the pigeons, I suspect is to blame.

There is some debate as to when to harvest cherries. Personally, as my lovely tree is a sour cherry (who knows what variety), I prefer to harvest my cooking cherries when they are a wonderful dark red. Though waiting so long does leave your crop vulnerable to the gracious blackbirds and greedy pigeons. Some people choose to cover their fruit trees with nets to prevent this, which I totally understand when the cherry-laden birds snap branches and make a mess, though I do enjoy to share my wealth of fruit with the local wildlife, even if it means I'm a few jars less of jam this year.

It only took one harvest this year with the few cherries left to me - it's my fault for putting it off so long I suppose! However, last year was a bumper year and took several harvests over a few days with the help of family members, both little and tall!

*Note - there's nothing wrong with harvesting and prepping cherries in batches and freezing them for a later date. In fact, freezing can help some fruits break down faster and release juice for the jam making process. Just remember to freeze them in weighed batches to make the recipe scaling up/down easier. No need to defrost - just throw it in the pan to heat up!*

The prepping process can take considerable amount of time. I'd even argue that sometimes the late evening rush to finish off the bowl doesn't feel worth it for the jam, even if it is my favourite - call me impatient I know! Once picked, the cherries must be washed, stems removed and destoned alongside the sorting process. Remove parts/whole mushy or eaten cherries to prevent tainting your batches of jam as part of this process. If you can't squeeze this in the same day, them save your picked cherries unwashed by putting them in the fridge. This extends their freshness for as long as needed, though I would recommend prepping and freezing instead if you can squeeze it in.

Now a little bit of advice I wish I took myself, if you want to purchase a cherry destoner, do it now! Don't wait and forget about it until your hundreds of cherries deep and really hating on life. I for one will never learn, but after years and years of finding halving cherries to destone them annoying, I really need to purchase a cherry destoner.

Onto the jam...

When making jam people have all different methods of getting to the setting stage, a lot of people buy sugar thermometers, which is great if you plan on making a lot of jams and preserves but not necessarily needed, I have used both methods and for jam I like to use a plate. Place a couple of plates in the freezer and when you want to check for the setting stage place a little jam on a plate and using the back of a teaspoon push it up if it wrinkles or becomes firm then it is ready. Sometimes you will need to check again, hence the other plate. Take jam off the heat be prepared though because as it cools the jam does become thicker - something that has caught me out more than once for other recipes with stubborn preserves that won't go in the jar!

*Top Tip - Unless you eat jam every day, lots of jam in smaller jars will keep for longer as once the seal has popped, your lovely jam is exposed to the elements. Smaller jars will allow you to finish your preserve before it goes mouldy, meaning less waste!*

The magic jam ratio

For this jam, like many others, the perfect ratio of fruit to sugar is about 1:1

Though the general rule in life is less is more, so start with slightly more fruit than sugar and try your jam (cook a spoon down quickly on a setting plate) before adding more sugar if necessary.

Now, onto the recipe for my favourite preserve - a tart but sweet sour cherry jam...

This recipe requires:

2.5 lbs pitted sour cherries

1 ¼ lbs of sugar

Juice of 1 lemon (2 tbsp for sour cherries)

Method:

1.) Prepare your cherries: wash, sort, destone and half if preferred.

2.) Place the fruit in a large heavy based saucepan, I use a preserving pan. Add the lemon juice. Bring to the boil over a medium heat.

3.) Cook mixture, stirring continuously to avoid it boiling over, for about 20 minutes, until fruit has fallen apart.

4.) Add sugar now. *Note: this is where you can add pectin if you would like to, personally I don't use it as I feel this jam recipe sets nicely*

5.) Continue cooking the jam until it reaches setting stage or gel stage, about 25-30 minutes (without pectin).

6.) Test for setting point on a plate, push up to see if it wrinkles or if you are using the jam thermometer 220 degrees F.

7.) Turn off heat, let cool a little, then ladle into warm sterilised jars. Try to reduce gaps of air bubbles to ensure the jam keeps as long as possible, tap the jars to try to remove any and avoid contamination with unsterilised equipment. Wipe away any messy bits on the rims. If you have wax discs, place these of top before sealing the jars.

Storage Instructions: Once opened jams should last up to a month in the refrigerator up to a year in the store cupboard. I hope you like this jam as much as I do!

Personally this jam is just the best for peanut butter jelly sandwiches or for slathering on warm butter toast. Yum!