Yesterday, I dove into preserving the cherries I had pitted. After everything I had heard about real Luxardo maraschino cherries, 12BottleBar happened to post about how to make imitation ones, which apparently require sour cherries to be most authentic. Since I had sour cherries, and I wasn't sure if they would really be good for jam, and we have real Luxardo maraschino liquor, I decided to dive in and make "imitation" maraschino cherries -- which are more real than the stuff at most stores that is legally labeled "maraschino cherries". First, I had to brine the cherries and make the cherry syrup. A lucky find of bottled sour cherry juice at the nice grocery store where I went to pick up our Michigan maple syrup meant that I did not have to sacrifice a third of the cherries for making the syrup. Bringing the cherries for a day helps to preserve them and allows them to soak up more of the syrup when they are transferred later. The syrup also had to cool and sit for a day before adding the maraschino liquor. By this afternoon, everything was ready -- except for a pretty container. I combined it all, and in a few weeks the salt and syrup will be balanced out and they will be ready to use.
Luxardo maraschino liquor with my imitation maraschino cherries.
No comments:
Post a Comment