MSU Extension Michigan Fresh

Food Safety and Storage

• Select cherries that are not bruised or damaged.
• Wash hands before and after handling fresh produce.
• Wash cherries thoroughly under cool running Do not use soap.
• Store cherries in the refrigerator at or below 41 °F.
• Keep cherries away from raw meats and meat juice to prevent cross-contamination.
• For best quality and nutritive value, preserve only what your family can consume in 12 months.

Yield

How To Preserve

Freezing

Freeze pitted or unpitted cherries. If cherries are pitted, add ½ teaspoon of ascorbic acid to each quart of syrup used to prevent discoloration, or use a commercial ascorbic acid mixture and use according to label directions.

Tart cherries:

Select bright red, tree-ripened fruit. Stem, sort and wash thoroughly. Drain and pit. Pack using one of the following methods:

• Syrup pack method: This is the best method to use for serving cherries uncooked. Pack cherries into containers and cover with cold medium or heavy syrup depending on the tartness of the cherries (see “Syrups for Use in Freezing Fruits” table that follows). Leave ½- to 1½-inch headspace depending on container Seal, label, date and freeze.
• Sugar pack method: This is preferable for cherries to be used for pies or other cooked products. To 1 quart of cherries, add ¾ cup sugar. Mix until sugar dissolves. Pack into containers, leaving ½- to 1½- inch headspace depending on container. Seal, label, date and freeze.
• Pectin pack method: This alternative uses pectin and less sugar than the syrup pack and retains the fresh cherry flavor, color and texture. In a saucepan, combine 1 box of powdered pectin (1¾ ounces) with 1 cup Stir and boil 1 minute. Stir in ½ cup sugar and dissolve. Remove the pan from heat; add cold water to make 2 cups of syrup. Chill. Put cleaned and prepared fruit in a 4- to 6-quart bowl; add enough pectin syrup to glaze the fruit with a thin film. Gently fold fruit to coat each piece with syrup. Pack into freezer containers, leaving ½- to 1½-inch headspace depending on container type. Seal, label, date and freeze.

Sweet cherries:

Canning

Sweet or sour cherries:

Choose mature, bright, uniformly colored cherries, ideal for canning. Stem and wash cherries. Remove pits, if desired. Place pitted cherries in water containing ascorbic acid to prevent stem-end discoloration. With a clean needle, prick skins of unpitted cherries on opposite sides to prevent splitting. You may can cherries in water, apple juice, white grape juice or medium or heavy syrup. Measure and mix the quantities of sugar and water necessary to make the kind of syrup you desire (see the “Preparing and Using Syrups” table that follows). Bring sugar and water mixture to a boil and stir to dissolve the sugar. Keep mixture hot until ready for use.

All fruits can be safely canned or frozen without sugar. But be aware that some home-canned foods lose color, flavor and texture when canned without the usual sugar and you may then end up with a less plump and flavorful product. Sucralose will allow you to use the same measurement as sugar, which in turn will produce the same amount of syrup to cover the fruit in the jars. Saccharin and aspartame-based sweeteners turn bitter when processed and USDA (2015) does not recommend them for heat-treated products. If you are making jams or jellies without sugar, always use a commercial sugarless gelatin mixture or a special pectin designated for sugar-free or lower sugar jams and jellies (Andress, 2014; USDA, 2015).

Can cherries using one of the following methods:

• Hot pack method: Place cherries in a large saucepan, add ½ cup of water, juice or syrup for each quart of drained fruit and bring to a boil. Fill hot jars with cherries and cooking liquid, leaving ½-inch headspace. Fill jar to ½ inch from top with hot Remove air bubbles; adjust headspace if needed. Wipe jar rims with clean paper towel, adjust lids and process (for recommended processing times, see the table at the end of this document “Recommended Process Time [in Minutes] for Whole Cherries in a Boiling Water Canner”).
• Raw pack method: Add ½ cup of hot water, juice or syrup to each hot jar. Fill hot jars with drained cherries, shaking down gently as you fill. Add more hot liquid, leaving ½-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles; adjust headspace if needed. Wipe jar rims with clean paper towel, adjust lids and process (for recommended processing times, see the table at the end of this document “Recommended Process Time [in Minutes] for Whole Cherries in a Boiling Water Canner”).

Recipes

Cherry Jam with powdered pectin

Yield: 6 half pints

Ingredients:

• 4 cups pitted, ground cherries (about 3 pounds)
• 1 box (1¾ ounces) powdered pectin
• 5 cups sugar

Sterilize canning jars and prepare two-piece canning lids according to manufacturer’s directions. Sort and wash fully ripe cherries, removing any stems and pits. Grind cherries.

In a kettle, mix cherries and pectin. Place on high heat. Stirring constantly, bring quickly to a full boil with bubbles over the entire surface. Add sugar, continue stirring and heat again to a full bubbling boil. Boil hard for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; skim foam off top. Fill hot jam immediately into hot, sterile jars, leaving ¼-inch headspace. Wipe rims of jars with a dampened clean paper towel; adjust two-piece lid. Process in a boiling-water canner.

“Cherry Jam With Powdered Pectin” recipe is adapted from the National Center for Home Food Preservation recipe of the same name at https:// nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_07/cherry_jam_powder.html. That recipe was adapted from “How to Make Jellies, Jams and Preserves at Home.” Home and Garden Bulletin No. 56. Extension Service, United States Department of Agriculture. 1982 reprint. National Center for Home Food Preservation, June 2005.

Cherry Syrup

Yield: 9 half-pints

Ingredients:

• 6½ cups of fresh or frozen cherries
• 6¾ cups of sugar

You may also use this procedure with fresh juices from fresh or frozen strawberries, and with fresh or frozen blueberries, grapes or raspberries.

Select fresh or frozen fruit. Wash, cap and stem fresh fruit and crush in a saucepan. Heat to boiling and simmer until soft, 5 to 10 minutes. Strain hot cherries through a colander, and drain until cool enough to handle. Strain the collected juice through a double layer of cheesecloth or a jelly bag. Discard the dry pulp.

The yield of the pressed juice should be about 4½ to 5 cups. In a large saucepan, combine the juice with sugar. Bring to a boil, and simmer 1 minute. To make syrup with whole fruit pieces, save 1 or 2 cups of the fresh or frozen fruit, combine these with the sugar, and simmer as in making regular syrup. Remove from heat, skim off foam, and fill clean, hot, half-pint or pint jars, leaving ½-inch headspace. Wipe jar rims, adjust lids and process (see table that follows for recommended processing times for cherry syrup).

“Cherry Syrup” recipe is adapted from the recipe “Berry Syrup” from the National Center for Home Food Preservation (NCHFP) Selecting, Preparing and Canning Fruit¸ reviewed February 2018 (https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/ can_02/berry_syrup.html). The NCHFP adapted it from the Complete Guide to Home Canning (Agriculture Information Bulletin, No. 539). USDA, 2015.

References

• Andress, E., & Harrison, J. A. (2014). So easy to preserve (Bulletin 989). (6th ed.). University of Georgia Cooperative Extension
• Michigan State University Extension. (2022). How much should I buy? A guide to fresh fruits and vegetables for home cooking. https://www.canr.msu.edu/resources/how_much_should_i_buy
• U.S. Department of Agriculture. (2015). Complete guide to home canning (Rev. ed.). (Agriculture Information Bulletin No. 539). http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/publications_usda.html

More information:

• Michigan Fresh
• Michigan Fresh - Fruits