Morello Jam And What Are All The Pits Doing On My Floor
I found some Morello cherries on the farmer market this morning and now my jam pot is softly bubbling on the stove. I love the sour taste of this great fruit and I am always very excited to discover new sorts and try out new recipes.
I use my mother’s very very old de-pitting device, watch out: it does not catch all the pits but while cooking they will all some come to the surface. This reminds me of the days in my youth when summer was part holiday and part hectic activities in the kitchen: my mother would pickle gherkins, make jams and gelée (jelly). No extra help or machines except for the rather unreliable depitter: an upended stool with a cheesecloth tied to its four legs would serve as a fine mesh sieve for her gelée, fascinating how the blackcurrant juice would instantly colour the pristine white cloth a drab dark blue shade.
It might be a good idea to invest in a new Cherrystone Remover which will catch the pits in a closed container instead of distributing it evenly over the parquet.
Best to cover the working surface in plastic
Pit alert
Late Bloomers Morello Jam
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Yield
5 x 290 ml jars
Ingredients
1 kg Morello cherries (de-pitted)
750 g sugar*
1 TS grated ginger
1 TS vanilla extract or 1 vanilla pod
1 red chilli
2 TS Baselbieter Kirsch (cherry brandy)
Some of the ingredients
Method
Wash cherries, destalk and de-pit them.
Put cherries and sugar in a jam pot, use a wooden spoon for stirring.
Heat gently and add the other ingredients except for the cherry brandy.
Increase heat and cook for 25 – 30 minutes or until the desired consistency has been reached.
Remove chilli (and vanilla pod) and stir in cherry brandy.
Fill jam in sterilised and hot jars, sterilise them in the steamer or hot water bath.
My Weck jars
I love my Weck 290ml Preserving Taper Jar which come in all sizes and are perfect for sterilizing, much better than the jars with metal lids which do not fare that well with sterilizing. A further advantage of Weck jars is the white plastic lid you put on your opened jars.
Store open jars in the fridge.
Notes
Make sure to remove all pits or put a warning on your jar!
Other uses:
This jam goes well with boiled meats or use it as a filling in a whoopie pie.
* Cherries do not contain much pectin, the gelling agent, use 15 g to 1 kg of fruit of natural pectin or use gelling sugar.
Do you remember the summers of your youth and what are your fondest memories? Did you go to summer camp, did you stay home and help your mother make jams or pickles? Did you sometimes feel bored out of your mind because none of your friends were around to play with?
Comments 26
Barbara, what a lovely post. Transported me back to my childhood, making use of the garden excess at my Gran and Grandads house. I’ve never made cherry jam, but there is a tree near us that is starting to bare fruit so this may be thst year. My Mum has just bought me a fab preserving recipe book so I’m hoping to make some more unusual jams and pickles this year with the excess veg in our garden. I’ll be popping back for more recipes…no pressure! 😉
@lucylastica1 Hi Lucy, thanks a ton. Wow, the cherry tree is only starting now, this is a crazy year, has the rain finally stopped in England? You know, we always get it some days later, nice perspectives!
What’s the title of that recipe book you mum gave you – I am always interested in new books.
No pressure felt – you can always look up the “older” recipes on the blog, hehe! By the way, I am starting a new thingie in September: YOUR TURN! featuring guest posts of recipes, fantastic meals and restaurant, just in case … but no pressure 😉
@Late_Bloomers The name of the book is ‘The complete book of preserves and pickles; jams, chutneys and relishes – original hey?! – It’s by C Atkinson & M Mayhew.
The cherry tree is really late and not baring much fruit this year as most of the blossooms were blown off in the hideous high winds we had a few weeks back.
Loving the guest post ideas. Kind of like a recipe swap club 🙂
@Lucylastica2 Thanks, Lucy, for the very original book title. I think my mum has it, too and it is a great reference thingie giving you a basic idea and taking it from there.
On GP idea: absoutely!
Hi Barbara! That is one heavy-duty cherry pitter! I recently got myself a small one that works for olive pits as well – I love it!
One of my fondest childhood memories is picking blueberries, wild ones, in the field behind our house. Mom would give is each a bowl of blueberries with milk and sugar and she’d make a pie for us too! Mom made a lot of jams and jellies! The sound of the lids “popping” in the kitchen during the evening after a day of jam making is familiar to me. I’ve not been as diligent about canning and preserving, though it is always my intention!
Now you know you’re going to have to tell us how to make whoopie pie, right?
😉
Lori
Hi Lori! Yes, heavy-duty hellish machine, I also managed to damage my antique kitchen table some more!
Ah, the blueberries, when we went up to the mountains for summer holidays we would go berry picking in the forests, a smaller variety of blueberries and they tasted so good!
Who knows, a whoopie pie might be in the bushes somewhere?
Heading over to your place now, have a wonderful Friday!
Looks yummy; the way I ‘de-pitted’ them was to put each one in my mouth, bite the pit out and then spit the cherry in the pot…….I wonder why no one would eat any of it afterwards………………hmmmm…………..
Thanks for sharing, do you need my address to send it to me?
Hi Bill! Thanks, you should not have filmed it and put it on YouTube …
Address, yes please, if I can have one of your recent perks (has the sports car been delivered?), I will come and collect it!
Ooooohhhhh cherries with ginger and spicy stuff…..talk about interesting!!! Some of my fondest childhood memories would have to involve spending summer break at my grandma’s house in the province/country. She is amazing in the kitchen (among other things) and I remember all the smells and tastes and it all spells out ‘home’ somehow.
@jpage.manuel Thanks, Joy, is it not great how smells transport us back to happy memories? You mentioning your grandma reminds me of my two grandmothers and the different smells in their kitchen.
I would love to taste some of your cooking (I keep repeating myself) and taste how you combine the two worlds …
This is so interesting and looks delicious. I am reading this during my fast (for Ramadan) and I am tempted! 😉
Some of my fondest memories has been about spending time at my grandparents for summers and a whole big fat family get together. One favorite is a jam made out of guavas and another of mangoes (two of the most abundant fruit found during summers in India) and yes, the aroma still lingers… in my head!
@Hajra Don’t you dare! I know you will not. I love the idea of fasting and taking a break from routine, concentrating on life’s essentials and go into a spiritual (or religious) retreat, was this not the original idea of Ramadan?
Like I said in my reply to @jpage.manuel happy memories, I love big fat family gatherings and regret that we do not have them anymore. I am going to make mango chutney today, how I love the sweet Alfonso sort, hope they will make it into the pot and that I am not too much tempted to eat them right away!
@Late_Bloomers It is! The spirituality and self control is one motive of Ramadan.
I do have the mango chutney all made for Ramadan!
@Hajra … and will you share the recipe?
@Late_Bloomers Here? Or should I send you an email? It is the spicy version though! 🙂
@Hajra Why not make it a contribution in the upcoming YOUR TURN! series? Spicy is great, I love it!
@Late_Bloomers Would love to! 🙂
@Hajra Great, Hajra, thanks! This will be so much fun, I’d better start writing that introductory post for it …
This reminded my of my childhood. My grandmother used to make cherry jam…I can remember the smell. I have never tried but probably should!
@JSJ2020 Do, make some cherry jam, Muriel, and share the recipe! And do the memories also bring back the sensation of heat, of how in the hottest summer weather our grandmothers made jams and preserves in a steamy kitchen? Wish I had some pictures, I can remember my grandmothers always looking so neat and collected even in hottest weather!
Mmmm…I’m sure this is delicious, Barbara. We don’t get many cherries in this part of India. However, mangoes and limes are turned in to pickles – always messy but always worth the effort – because they last the whole year through. When we were young I enjoyed licking off the dishes in which my grandmother made mango jam.
@CorinneRodrigues Hi, Corinne, I hope it is delicious, I have not tasted it yet! I will let it sit for a week or so, then the all the flavours should come out best!
Whenever I cut a mango Chica, my dog, will come and beg for a piece, but she is rather picky and will only eat the most ripe and sweetest! Too bad, she cannot sniff them like a truffle dog!
What I loved best as a child was eating the raw dough for a cake, the heavenly mixture of butter, sugar and eggs, sometimes with ground almonds or chocolate.
Have you ever made sugar-free Jam, Barbara?
@JanineRipper Good question, Janine, would you call it jam then? No, I have never made sugar-free jam and I always use real sugar, Demerara mostly. Why? Do not tell me you are forbidden to eat sugar now?!
@Late_Bloomers Well Sugar has been on the ‘don’t eat’ list since December…I haven’t been that good at abiding by that rule! Sugar free jam was on a list of foods suggested to me, but I hadn’t been able to find it until I went to a little crafty market in the burbs a few weeks back – and what do you know, I found someone selling sugar free strawberry jam! And you know what, it doesn’t taste too bad at all 🙂
Looks tasty! will definitely try it!