Condiments
Sweet cherry jam, without gelling sugar
Sweet cherries and sour cherries need two different recipes, because acidity and pectin change, the two factors that make jam set. This version is calibrated for sweet cherries: grated apple and lemon juice compensate for what is missing, without gelling sugar, with the cold-plate test deciding when it is ready.
Method
- Denocciola le ciliegie sopra una ciotola fonda, raccogliendo il succo che cola. Taglia a metà circa metà dei frutti e lascia interi gli altri: le metà legano prima, le intere danno pezzi su cui il cucchiaino trova qualcosa.
- Metti ciliegie, succo raccolto, zucchero, mela grattugiata e succo di limone in una pentola larga di acciaio inox. Copri e lascia macerare in frigorifero da quattro ore a tutta la notte: lo zucchero richiama l'acqua e ti fa risparmiare cottura dopo.
- Prima di accendere il fuoco metti tre piattini in freezer. Bolli vasetti e capsule per dieci minuti e lasciali asciugare capovolti su un canovaccio pulito, senza passarci sopra lo strofinaccio.
- Porta a bollore lentamente a fuoco medio, mescolando finché lo zucchero è del tutto sciolto, e schiuma via la spuma che sale. Se usi la vaniglia, incidi il baccello per il lungo e mettilo ora nella pentola.
- Alza la fiamma e cuoci 20-25 minuti mescolando spesso. Il bersaglio è 104-105 °C: le bolle diventano più lente e più grandi.
- Spegni il fuoco e fai la prova del piattino freddo: versa un cucchiaino di confettura sul piattino gelato, rimettilo trenta secondi in freezer e poi passa il dito in mezzo. Se la superficie si raggrinza e il solco resta, è pronta.
- Se il solco si richiude subito, riaccendi e prosegui a scatti di tre minuti, ripetendo la prova ogni volta con un piattino pulito.
- Togli il baccello di vaniglia. Se usi l'amaretto, versalo adesso e lascialo cuocere un minuto, il tempo che l'alcol evapori e resti solo l'aroma.
- Riempi i vasetti caldi fino a cinque millimetri dal bordo, chiudi subito, capovolgi per cinque minuti e lascia poi raffreddare in piedi.
- A freddo controlla che la capsula sia rientrata: se resta bombata, quel vasetto va in frigorifero e si consuma per primo. Scrivi sull'etichetta il tipo di ciliegia e la data.
Minnelea products for this recipe
The preserves used in this recipe.
Minnelea
Extra Black Blueberry Jam – Award-Winning Artisan
€8,90
Minnelea
Sweet Awakening Kit – 6 Artisan Jams
€39,00
• Sweet cherry (Prunus avium) and sour cherry (Prunus cerasus) are two different species, not two flavors: pH 3,8-4,5 versus 3,2-3,5, acidity 0,5% versus 1,5-2%, pectin 0,2-0,4% versus 0,4-0,7%. Gelling needs pectin, acid and sugar together.
• That is why the quantities change: sweet cherries need 550-600 g sugar per kilo of already pitted fruit plus the juice of two lemons; sour cherries need 700-750 g and at most the juice of half a lemon. Exactly the opposite, and it is the step almost every recipe skips.
• Sweet cherry without corrections gives at most a thick pancake sauce: you bring in pectin from outside with a large grated tart apple with its skin, with the yellow peel of an untreated lemon, or with 100 ml redcurrant or gooseberry juice per kilo, which also adds acidity and color. If you do not want apple pieces in the jar, tie the peels and cores of two apples in gauze and remove the bundle at the end of cooking.
• Gelling sugar is not needed here: you lose predictability, because you decide with the cold-plate test instead of counting four minutes, and you gain a jam that tastes of cherry rather than sweetness, with a softer but firm set on bread.
• Pitting one kilo by hand takes half an hour; with plier-style pitter, ten minutes. From three kilos upward, the model with hopper and tray is worth it, even if it bruises the fruit, because for jam that does not matter. Alternatively, place the cherry on the neck of an empty bottle and push the stone out with a stick, or use an opened S-shaped paper clip, which works very well on sour cherries.
• Work in the sink, in a deep bowl and with an apron: the juice splashes everywhere. On fabrics, rinse it immediately with boiling water before soap, because soap sets the stain.
• Cherry stones contain amygdalin, which if the stone is broken or kept for a long time in a warm, damp environment can release hydrocyanic acid: do not break them and do not leave them infusing for hours in hot jam. A whole swallowed stone passes through the intestine without opening. For the bitter almond note, amaretto or two drops of bitter almond flavor are better.
• The red comes from anthocyanins, sensitive to time, temperature and metal: cook in stainless steel or enamelled cast iron, because copper and bare aluminium gray everything, use a wide pot (more evaporation, shorter cooking, more red in the jar) and do not skimp on the lemon, which fixes the color.
• The cold-plate test is always done with the heat off: on the stove the jam keeps cooking while you evaluate it. Three small plates in the freezer before starting are enough for three attempts.
• Frozen cherries work well and are often sour cherries, hard to find fresh: account for 10% more cooking because of thawing water and thaw them over a colander, then cook the collected juice too.
• The four-hour or overnight maceration is not included in the times above: it is passive time in the refrigerator and serves precisely to shorten the real cooking.
• Storage: jars and lids boiled for ten minutes and left to dry upside down on a kitchen towel, without wiping them. Properly closed, they keep twelve months in a cool, dark pantry; once opened, refrigerate and consume within three weeks. On the label, also write the cherry type, not just “cherries”: in eight months you will not remember.
• Allergens: none in the basic ingredients. Amaretto adds alcohol and comes from almonds or apricot kernels, so the version with liqueur should not be offered to anyone allergic to nuts.
• Variations: with sour cherries, go up to 700 g sugar per kilo, use the juice of half a lemon, remove the apple and cook 15-20 minutes, stirring more carefully because they stick to the bottom. Amaretto: three tablespoons per kilo at the end of cooking with one minute of boiling, four with sour cherries. Vanilla: half a split bean from the start, which softens the acidic edges of sour cherries and gives depth to sweet ones; extract is fine, but off the heat, one teaspoon.
A Minnelea recipe built around Extra Black Blueberry Jam: we do not make cherry jam, because in Cilento cherry is not a serious crop and we work only the fruit from the hills around us. Black blueberry is the closest jar in character - dark, with the same balance between sweet and acid, no added pectin and a short ingredient list - and we cook it under vacuum at low temperature precisely to work around the color problem described above, something that cannot be replicated on a home stove.
• That is why the quantities change: sweet cherries need 550-600 g sugar per kilo of already pitted fruit plus the juice of two lemons; sour cherries need 700-750 g and at most the juice of half a lemon. Exactly the opposite, and it is the step almost every recipe skips.
• Sweet cherry without corrections gives at most a thick pancake sauce: you bring in pectin from outside with a large grated tart apple with its skin, with the yellow peel of an untreated lemon, or with 100 ml redcurrant or gooseberry juice per kilo, which also adds acidity and color. If you do not want apple pieces in the jar, tie the peels and cores of two apples in gauze and remove the bundle at the end of cooking.
• Gelling sugar is not needed here: you lose predictability, because you decide with the cold-plate test instead of counting four minutes, and you gain a jam that tastes of cherry rather than sweetness, with a softer but firm set on bread.
• Pitting one kilo by hand takes half an hour; with plier-style pitter, ten minutes. From three kilos upward, the model with hopper and tray is worth it, even if it bruises the fruit, because for jam that does not matter. Alternatively, place the cherry on the neck of an empty bottle and push the stone out with a stick, or use an opened S-shaped paper clip, which works very well on sour cherries.
• Work in the sink, in a deep bowl and with an apron: the juice splashes everywhere. On fabrics, rinse it immediately with boiling water before soap, because soap sets the stain.
• Cherry stones contain amygdalin, which if the stone is broken or kept for a long time in a warm, damp environment can release hydrocyanic acid: do not break them and do not leave them infusing for hours in hot jam. A whole swallowed stone passes through the intestine without opening. For the bitter almond note, amaretto or two drops of bitter almond flavor are better.
• The red comes from anthocyanins, sensitive to time, temperature and metal: cook in stainless steel or enamelled cast iron, because copper and bare aluminium gray everything, use a wide pot (more evaporation, shorter cooking, more red in the jar) and do not skimp on the lemon, which fixes the color.
• The cold-plate test is always done with the heat off: on the stove the jam keeps cooking while you evaluate it. Three small plates in the freezer before starting are enough for three attempts.
• Frozen cherries work well and are often sour cherries, hard to find fresh: account for 10% more cooking because of thawing water and thaw them over a colander, then cook the collected juice too.
• The four-hour or overnight maceration is not included in the times above: it is passive time in the refrigerator and serves precisely to shorten the real cooking.
• Storage: jars and lids boiled for ten minutes and left to dry upside down on a kitchen towel, without wiping them. Properly closed, they keep twelve months in a cool, dark pantry; once opened, refrigerate and consume within three weeks. On the label, also write the cherry type, not just “cherries”: in eight months you will not remember.
• Allergens: none in the basic ingredients. Amaretto adds alcohol and comes from almonds or apricot kernels, so the version with liqueur should not be offered to anyone allergic to nuts.
• Variations: with sour cherries, go up to 700 g sugar per kilo, use the juice of half a lemon, remove the apple and cook 15-20 minutes, stirring more carefully because they stick to the bottom. Amaretto: three tablespoons per kilo at the end of cooking with one minute of boiling, four with sour cherries. Vanilla: half a split bean from the start, which softens the acidic edges of sour cherries and gives depth to sweet ones; extract is fine, but off the heat, one teaspoon.
A Minnelea recipe built around Extra Black Blueberry Jam: we do not make cherry jam, because in Cilento cherry is not a serious crop and we work only the fruit from the hills around us. Black blueberry is the closest jar in character - dark, with the same balance between sweet and acid, no added pectin and a short ingredient list - and we cook it under vacuum at low temperature precisely to work around the color problem described above, something that cannot be replicated on a home stove.