Cooking features
Preparing cherry confiture is not a very complicated process, but knowing some of the subtleties will definitely not hurt the housewife.
- Cherries picked in sunny weather will be sweeter than those ripened in cloudy weather.
- Jam is made from seedless berries. They are difficult to extract from unripe berries. There are varieties of cherries in which the bones are difficult to separate from the pulp. For jam you need to choose berries that are easy to peel.
- There are special devices for extracting pits from cherries. You can remove it with a pin. Its head plunges into the pulp, pries up the bone and lifts it to the hole through which it penetrated. The same method can be used to remove the bone using a pin or paper clip.
- The berries are first washed, dried and only then the seeds are removed. If you wash the berries afterwards, moisture will get inside and make them watery, making it difficult to prepare jam.
- If the recipe indicates the weight of pitted cherries, then with their presence it is advisable to take 7-10% more.
- If you need to quickly thicken the syrup, it is better to add pectin, gelatin or other gelling ingredients to the jam. Instead, you can use fruits and berries that contain a lot of pectin, such as apples.
- The jars in which the jam will be stored should be washed with baking soda and sterilized in any convenient way. Iron caps are used to ensure sealing. They are boiled before twisting.
Cherry jam can be stored at room temperature. The opened jar is transferred to the refrigerator, its contents will be eaten within 2 weeks.
Classic cherry confiture recipe
Composition (per 1 l):
- pitted cherries - 0.5 kg;
- sugar - 0.5 kg;
- water - 0.4 l.
Cooking method:
- Sort the cherries and wash them. Place it on a towel so that it dries faster due to the fabric absorbing excess moisture.
- Peel the cherries using any convenient method.
- Mix sugar with water and place over low heat. Cook until the syrup is thick enough. It should flow off the spoon like a thread.
- Place the boiled berries in the syrup and cook them for 10-15 minutes.
- Sterilize the jars, fill them with hot jam and roll them up.
Chilled confiture can be stored in the pantry. When adding cherries to the syrup, you can add a little cinnamon or vanilla - with them the confiture will be even more aromatic and tastier.
Cherry jam without seeds
Fragrant and tasty cherry jam is a favorite treat for both children and adults. It’s quite simple to prepare, even easier and faster than jam.
Ingredients:
- 2 kg of fresh cherries;
- kilo of sweet sand;
- one lemon;
- teaspoon of soda.
Cooking method:
- We wash the berries, be sure to remove the stems from the fruits, pour them into a saucepan and place on high heat.
- As soon as the mixture boils, reduce the heat, add baking soda and cook for 40 minutes.
- Then pour in lemon juice and add slices, add sweetener, mix, keep on fire for another 40 minutes and roll the finished jam into sterilized jars.
Cherry confiture with starch
To get tasty and thick jam, you need to use starch as a thickener and apply a few more tricks.
You will need:
- Pitted cherries - 1 cup.
- Regular starch - 1 tsp.
- Sugar - 2 tbsp. l.
- 10 g butter.
- Water - 30 ml.
What to do:
- Cover the cherries with sugar and place on low heat.
- When the berries begin to release juice and the sugar has melted, add butter and mix well.
- Dilute the starch with a small amount of water and pour into the pan.
- Stir the resulting mixture constantly so that the jam does not burn.
- When the jam becomes thick and viscous enough, you can finish cooking.
- Let the confiture cool and you can spread it on bread.
Cherry confiture with gelatin
Gelatin can also act as a thickener. If the cherries are very juicy (usually small varieties), then such special ingredients are simply necessary. Use our recipe to make the jam thick (you can even use it in baking).
Products:
- Peeled cherries - 1 kg.
- Gelatin - 5 gr.
- Sugar - 1 kg.
- Water - 500 ml.
How to cook:
- Soak the gelatin in cool water until it begins to swell.
- At the same time, put a pan of water on the fire and add sugar for the syrup, then throw in the berries and bring to a boil.
- As soon as the composition boils, pour in the gelatin and turn the heat to low.
- Cook until done, periodically skimming off the foam.
- Once the desired consistency is reached, cool and the product is ready to use.
How to make cherry jam with gelatin
Most often, jam is prepared in the summer, when cherries ripen en masse. But even in the cold season, you can make a delicious dessert from frozen fruits.
The delicacy is prepared only from fully ripened berries. Moreover, they must reach technical maturity directly on the tree. This greatly affects the taste. When harvesting, the fruits are picked with the stalks, and the branches are cut off only before preparing the jam. If you pick clean berries right away, the juice will leak out, which will significantly shorten their shelf life.
Advice! The jam will be the most flavorful if you add the seeds at the end of cooking.
Cherries have low gelling properties. Therefore, achieving good density is very difficult. To do this, it is necessary to carry out long-term cooking, which almost completely kills the beneficial elements. Gelatin is added to achieve the desired consistency.
For cooking, use only enamel containers, otherwise the color of the workpiece may change. Before sterilizing jars, they are thoroughly washed with soda.
Fragrant and thick jam - ideal for the winter
Cherry and strawberry confiture
Cherries and strawberries are inseparable friends because they go well together. If you make jam from these 2 berries, you will get a very sweet mass, ideal for adding to pies, buns, cheesecakes and much more. But no one forbids enjoying sweet jam on a piece of bread.
You will need:
- Cherry - 1 kg.
- Strawberries - 300 gr.
- Ground cinnamon - 5 gr.
- Gelatin - 20 g.
- Sugar - 800 gr.
- Water - 30 gr.
What to do:
- The scenario is the same - soak the gelatin, boil the berries (peel the cherries and remove the strawberry tails).
- Then briefly cook the cherries in a small amount of water for about 5 minutes to allow the juice to come out.
- Remove the berries and grind them through a sieve until smooth, remove the peel.
- Place back into the pan, add sugar and cinnamon and cook for another half hour.
- Then place the whole strawberries in the pan and cook for 20 minutes.
- At the end of time, pour the prepared gelatin into the mixture and bring to a boil.
- After the jam boils, turn it off and cool. Pour into jars.
Cherry jam: classic recipe
Thick jam, where clear thickened juice envelops the berries, takes almost a day to prepare. Several stages of preparation give such an amazing result.
Ingredients:
- 1 kg of berries;
- 800 gr. granulated sugar.
This proportion of sugar allows the syrup to obtain the necessary thickness, but the jam will turn out very sweet and tart.
Attention! Berry ripened in a cloudy or rainy year is more sour. In this case, the amount of sugar required (by weight) is the same as the berries themselves.
Cooking method:
- Washed, pitted, ripe berries are placed in a saucepan.
- Sand is poured on top of them, in a slide.
- During the process of infusion for many hours, the berries should give juice, into which the sand is gradually immersed.
- Without stirring the contents, the pan must be moved to the burner.
- After bringing the jam to a boil, reduce the gas to a minimum.
- If thick foam appears on the surface, it should be removed into a separate container.
- After half an hour of cooking, the gas under the pan is turned off.
- The cooled jam must be brought to a boil again and cooked for another half hour, stirring occasionally.
- After 3-4 stages of cooking, which depends on the initial juiciness of the berries. The last stage of cooking is the shortest - after the berries boil, they should be cooked for no more than 5 minutes.
- All that remains is to cover the jam with plastic lids or food tracing paper.
Jam cooked with a lot of sugar will not ferment. The glossy layer of tracing paper protects the product from bacteria as reliably as a self-absorbing polyethylene lid.
Cherry and apricot jam
Bright and very tasty, thick jam is made from cherries and apricots. Since ripe apricots are very sweet, you can add a little less sugar than the 1:1 ratio. Jam goes well with buns, so serve it for breakfast with tea or coffee, and your family will certainly appreciate your culinary efforts!
Ingredients:
- Cherries - 1 kg (weight without seeds).
- Apricots - 1 kg (pitted).
- Granulated sugar - 2 kg.
Cooking process:
- Wash the cherries and apricots under water. Remove the stems from the cherries, then dry the berries in a colander, and you can place the apricots on clean paper towels to dry.
- Cut the apricots, remove the pits and chop the flesh as desired.
- Add 0.5 kg of sugar to the apricots and stir. This should be done in an enamel or plastic bowl, but not in an iron bowl, so that the bowl does not oxidize under the influence of juice - this will spoil the jam. Apricots are infused with sugar until it is all dissolved in the juice.
- During this time, you need to remove the seeds from the cherries in any convenient way. Be sure to wear rubber gloves to prevent the berries from staining your hands.
- Pour the juice that comes out of the cherries during pitting into a separate saucepan, and add the juice from the apricots and the remaining sugar.
- Boil the sweet syrup in the juice until the sugar dissolves.
- Pour the cherries mixed with apricots into boiling syrup and leave to steep for 3-4 hours.
- Then cook the thick jam until cooked. If the berry is very dense right away, add a little water so that the jam boils but does not burn. Cook the jam, stirring and skimming off the foam. Cooking time - at least 30 minutes, then - as desired, until the desired thickness.
- Pour the finished jam into dry, sterilized jars and seal with iron lids (or screw-on lids).
- Turn the jars upside down, cover them with a blanket and let them cool completely.
- Store the jam in a cool, dark place.
Bon appetit!
Cherry jam “Pyatiminutka”
To preserve the tart taste of the berries, you need to use a minimum of granulated sugar. If you plan to store the jam in the refrigerator, then you need less sand than when storing the product in a cool place - a pantry, a barn.
Ingredients:
- Sand – 2 kg;
- Cherry – 5 kg;
- Water – 100 ml.
When making pitted cherry jam, you don’t need to use water if you let the berries brew under the yoke of granulated sugar.
Cooking method:
- The washed berries are placed in an enamel or copper container.
- The entire volume of sand is poured on top.
- In this form, the pan is moved to the burner.
- When heated slowly, the berries should begin to boil.
- During the cooking process, the sand will gradually settle, but when the jam boils at the edges of the container, it must be stirred evenly.
- As the boiling process becomes uniform over the entire surface, the gas must be reduced to a minimum.
- After boiling, the jam is kept on fire for 5 minutes.
- After half an hour, it must be brought to a boil again and boiled for another 5 minutes.
- After the third boiling, the jam is rolled into a container prepared in advance.
Cherry and redcurrant jam
Very sweet, moderately sour taste and rich ruby color has a thick jam, similar to jelly-like jam, prepared in the traditional way from cherries and red currants (with added sugar 1: 1).
To avoid consuming a lot of sugar, prepare this jam only from the ripest berries - they will already be quite sweet. Cherry and redcurrant jam is simply ideal for open shortbread pies, as well as for small, yeast or puff pastries.
This jam is also often used as a base for making sweet mousses, creams and sauces.
Ingredients:
- Cherries - 1 kg (weight with pits).
- Red currants - 1 kg.
- Granulated sugar - 2 kg.
Cooking process:
- Wash the cherries and currants, remove the seeds and stems, and then dry the berries in a colander.
- You need to remove the seeds from the cherries in any way convenient for you. Cherry juice stains your hands very much, so it is advisable to work with cherries in disposable rubber gloves.
- When you remove the seeds from the cherry, its weight will decrease slightly. However, you need to take more cherries than currants, because they have a sharper taste: if there are more of them, then the currants in the jam will be difficult to distinguish. Place cherries and currants in a saucepan.
- Beat the berries with a blender until smooth. Be careful not to get any cherry pits - they can damage the blender blade.
- Pour sugar into the berry mixture (the weight of berries and sugar should be the same), stir well and put on fire.
- After boiling, cook the jam to the appropriate consistency for 30-40 minutes. The longer you cook, the thicker the jam will be. Cook over low heat, stirring.
- Pour the prepared cherry and currant jam into dry, sterilized jars and screw on the iron lids.
- Turn the jars over, cover with a blanket and let them cool.
- Store the jam in a cool, dark place. Shelf life: no more than 2 years.
Bon appetit!
Tip: if you want to make a completely homogeneous jam, you should first rid the red currants of small seeds by filtering them using several layers of gauze. Next, according to the recipe, cook not whole currants, but their juice. Remove the currant pulp - it is not needed for jam.
Recipes for pitted cherries for the winter (jam, marmalade, confiture)
Cherry jam is not as popular as raspberry or strawberry jam, and this is completely undeserved. Juicy, tender, sweet and sour cherries are very beneficial for human health. Cherry berries contain vitamins: B1, C, folic acid, succinic acid, zinc, molybdenum, manganese, iodine, iron, calcium, potassium, copper. Eating cherries increases the hemoglobin content in the blood, improves immunity, normalizes high blood pressure, and strengthens the human heart muscle. Cherries are good for everyone: both children and adults.
Opening a jar of cherry jam in winter, you feel the aroma of summer, long sunny warm days. You can drink tea with jam or bake pies.
How to pit cherries
All our winter preparations are made from pitted cherries. It is best to remove pits from cherries using a special machine - quickly and easily. You can do this using a regular hairpin: hook the bone and carefully pull it out.
And some housewives use a garlic press for this purpose. There is a round hole at the base of the handle, a cherry is placed there and pressed with an iron pin. The cherry remains in the hole, and the pit is outside.
Step-by-step recipe for making cherry jam
To make cherry jam, only ripe berries are taken. For 1 kilogram of cherries - 800 gr. granulated sugar.
They need to be washed and briefly filled with salted water / if there are worms in the berries, they will float off, remove them. / Select the cherries that are not spoiled, tear off the stalks. Remove the seeds using a special device for removing seeds; if you don’t have one, you can do this with the handle of a teaspoon. The cherry pit is easily separated from the pulp.
Place the prepared cherries in a container for making jam (it’s better to take a pan with a thick bottom to avoid burning), add sugar and mix gently.
After this, put it on the fire, reducing the flame to a minimum. As the mass of future jam warms up, the cherries release juice, the sugar melts, so it needs to be stirred. Bring to a boil and cook over low heat until tender, without letting the jam boil too much.
Remove foam with a spoon as needed. At the same time, prepare containers for storing jam. Wash glass jars thoroughly and sterilize. Pour the finished jam into dry jars, cover with lids and roll using a rolling machine. Place the jars upside down to cool and cover with something thick.
Cherry jam with proofing in syrup
Cherries - 1 kg, sugar - 1 kg, water - 2 cups. Rinse the cherries, remove stems and seeds, transfer to a deep enamel container and mash slightly. Pour sugar into a saucepan, add water, cook until a homogeneous consistency is formed. Pour sugar syrup over the cherries and set aside. After 3 hours, place the container with the cherries and syrup on the stove, cook over low heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally and removing the foam in a timely manner. Cool the finished jam, put it in jars, close the lids tightly, and put away for the winter.
Cherry jam “Ruby bliss”
Cherries - 3 kg, sugar - 1 kg, soda - 1 tsp. Remove pits from washed cherries. Bring the berries to a boil without sugar and simmer over low heat for 40 minutes. Add soda and, when the foam rises, vigorously stir the cherries until a ruby red color appears. Add sugar, bring to a boil and another 40 minutes. boil down.
Place the jars, neck down, on a wooden board in a deep saucepan of warm water. Water should cover 2/3 of the jars. When the water boils, keep the jars on the fire for 5 minutes. Pour hot jam into sterile jars, close the lids, turn upside down, cover with a blanket and let cool completely.
Unusual confiture “Cherry in chocolate”
For the recipe we take: 1 kg of cherries, 1 kg of sugar, 1 tbsp. l. cocoa powder. Peel the cherries (you need to take only very ripe berries) from stems and leaves, rinse, and remove the seeds from the cherries. Place the cherries in a saucepan or bowl, sprinkle with sugar and leave for a while to release the juice (usually this takes at least 2 hours). After this, turn on the heat and slowly bring the future confiture to a boil, constantly removing the foam. During the cooking process, do not stop stirring the berries so that they do not burn. After boiling, let them cook for 3-4 minutes, remove from heat and wait until they cool. Then puree the cherries with a blender until a smooth puree is obtained.
Add cocoa to the mixture and put it back on the fire, remembering to stir. Cook for 20 minutes, turn off the heat and let cool. At this time, sterilize the jars and lids. Place the cooled confiture into jars, close the lids and put them in the cupboard, so that later in the winter you can surprise your family and guests with a delicious dessert.
What else can you combine with?
A tasty product can be prepared by adding various ingredients to the cherry mass. Suitable for this:
- Gooseberry. At the end of cooking, add 0.15 kg of gooseberry juice to 1 kg of cherries and sugar.
- Black currant. Grind 0.5 kg of berries in a meat grinder, add 60 ml of water and cook until thickened. Grind 1 kg of cherries and boil 150 ml of water. Then mix everything, add 0.75 kg of sugar and cook until tender.
- Apples. For 1 kg of rubbed through a sieve, take 0.5 kg of sugar. The resulting mass is cooked over fire until the sugar is completely dissolved. Cherry is infused separately in equal proportions. Everything is mixed and cooked until it becomes jam.
- Plums. 500 g of cherries are needed for 1 kg of plums. All ingredients are whipped in a mixer, then 2 kg of sugar and 10 g of citric acid are added. The mixture must be boiled over high heat for 10 seconds. Next, gelatin is introduced, previously dissolved in a small amount of water, the mixture is brought to a boil and poured into jars.
- Melons. You need 0.5 kg of cherries combined with 0.25 kg of melon, cut into thin slices. To them add 0.75 kg of sugar and a cinnamon stick for taste. Leave the fruit for a couple of hours and then cook over high heat for 4 minutes. At the end, add 3 tablespoons of cherry vodka and cook over low heat until tender.
Find out what you can prepare from gooseberries, black currants, apples, plums, and melons for the winter. Did you know? The very popular alcoholic cocktail Harry's Daiquiri contains cherry jam.
Cherry jam with gelatin in a slow cooker
If you don’t know how to make cherry jam in a slow cooker, then this recipe will definitely come in handy.
You need to take:
- cherry - 2 kg;
- granulated sugar - 1 kg;
- gelatin - 20 g.
Preparation:
- Before you begin the cooking process, be sure to soak the gelatin in 200 ml of water.
- While the gelatin is swelling, it would be advisable to pit the washed cherries. To do this faster, you can use a hairpin, a pin, or a special machine.
- Then the berries should be crushed using a blender. It is not necessary to achieve a completely homogeneous mass, because jam with pieces of berries is also very tasty. If you still want the structure of the jam to be uniform, then the cherry mass obtained after grinding in a blender should be rubbed through a sieve.
- Then you must put the cherries in the multicooker bowl and bring the mass to a boil using the “Stew” or “Simmer” mode. Usually the time is set to 30 minutes. After half an hour, add the swollen gelatin to the cherry jam and mix well.
- Then add granulated sugar in small portions. After this, you should mix the jam with a silicone ladle and put the multicooker in the “Multi-cook” mode, setting the temperature to 100 degrees. Now you need to wait until it boils and cook the jam for 5 minutes with the lid open (not forgetting to stir).
- Place the hot jam into sterile jars, roll it up, and cover with a thick blanket. Once cooled, the jam can be stored in the basement or cupboard.
Recipe for classic thick pitted cherry jam
A thick consistency is obtained by boiling cherries with sugar for a long time. This is how they cooked it before, when they didn’t use special thickeners.
Take:
- Granulated sugar – 800 gr.
- Berries - kilogram.
How to cook:
- Wash the berries and remove the seeds - this unpleasant manipulation cannot be avoided when making jam.
- Pour the pulp into a saucepan and boil. Boil for a third of an hour, remove from heat and cool.
- Chop the cooled pulp with a blender. To what degree to grind, decide for yourself. Personally, I like the mass that is not completely ground. I like jam with small pieces of cherries.
- Sprinkle the cherry puree with granulated sugar and let it cook. Start with low heat and heat the mixture while stirring. The sugar should dissolve completely.
- Skim off the foam; it is not needed when preparing for the winter. Cook for at least 20 minutes.
- Turn off the gas and wait for the jam to cool.
- Put it back to cook for 20 minutes. When the time is up, remove from the stove and cool.
- Then do the third and final cooking. You will have to stand nearby as the jam begins to thicken. Stir frequently to prevent the mixture from burning.
- When you decide you are happy with the consistency, finish cooking. Jam is perfectly stored in the pantry if you put it in sterile jars and screw on the lids.
Cherry jam with wine and rum
This is a rather unique Spanish recipe. Served with ice cream and grilled meat. Despite the sweet taste, the combination is simply amazing.
Need to:
- 1 kg pitted cherries;
- 800 g sugar;
- 3 glasses of dry red wine;
- 1 glass (100 ml) rum;
- 2 tablespoons of instant gelatin.
Preparation:
- Pass the cherries through a meat grinder, mix with 400 g of sugar and leave for 2-3 hours.
- Then bring the mixture to a boil over low heat, stirring constantly. Remove foam. Cook for about 15 minutes.
- Soak the gelatin in cool water (at least 45 minutes), then add to the wine and sugar, then heat until the crystals are completely dissolved.
- Pour wine and sugar into the cherry base and cook for 5-7 minutes.
Add rum, mix well and place the jam in dry jars heated in the oven.
How to properly store jam
Finished products can be stored from 3 months to 3 years. It depends on what it will be stored in. In aluminum and thermoplastic cans - no more than 6 months. If the containers are glass and the jam is sterilized, then it can be stored for up to 3 years.
The best place for storage is a dry cellar with a constant temperature of 15 ° C. Jars of jam can be stored here for up to 3 years. In city apartments, as a rule, there are special pantries, which are also suitable for storing supplies for the winter.
They have a stable temperature and no sunlight, which makes it possible to store jam in such conditions for up to two years. Opened glass jars can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 4 weeks.