Starfinancer

There cherry jam prepares in period of maximum ripeness of these small precious fruits, or in June, and is perfect both as an accompaniment to bread and rusks, and as a filling with sweets of various kinds.

C.iliegie: properties and varieties

The cherriesin addition to being very good, they have excellent nutritional values ​​and numerous properties: they are not too caloric and are rich in vitamins and mineral salts. Fruits of a plant native to western Asia that has been cultivated in Europe since ancient times. In Italy the major productions come from Piedmont, Veneto, Emilia Romagna, Lazio, Campania, Puglia, Sicily. The variety on the market they are numerous and all are appreciated for some peculiarity: from the Bella di Albenga, a small juicy and bright red color, to the larger and darker Bigarreau. From the small Napoleon, with shaded orange tones, to the sweet Ferrovia and the famous Duroni di Vignola.

If you want to prepare cherry jam, know that the most laborious stage of the whole recipe is the elimination of the stones. If you do not want to use the knife to remove the stones, you will find special tools in the household goods stores to do it faster. Let’s see how prepare the cherry jam according to traditional grandmother’s recipewithout the help of gelling agents, pectin powder, citric acid or other tricks (which are always valid if you have little time available for cooking).

Cherry jam: the recipe with or without sugar

First, get some ripe cherries then rinse them carefully under running water and let them drain. You can use the strains you like best. Of course, soft cherries are among the most suitable … but i too are fine black corns or the sour cherries. It is therefore time to eliminate all the stones, do it over a bowl in order to speed up the operation and recover any lost juice, and to weigh the pulp.

Remember to weigh the cherries only after having pitted them and never go to the eye, because to make a good jam like those of the past it is necessary that fruit and sugar are used in the same quantity. Never go down, respect the proportion 1: 1 and if you want to cut the calories at the most, rely on another type of sweetener, for example stevia, or add apples.

Now put the pitted cherries in a pot and add half a glass of cold water. Heat first over a fairly moderate heat. Then, when you see that the fruit has released a good amount of liquid, turn up the heat. Add the sugar and, when the cherries start to boil, stir. As we mentioned earlier, to shorten cooking times, you can choose to use homemade pectin or gelling agent for jams: in this case, follow the preparation of the quick cherry jam recipe of Donna Moderna first checking with the instructions on the package. In any case, remember to regularly eliminate the foam during cooking using the special perforated spoon, called a skimmer. The cooking time can vary, to understand if the jam is ready you can simply do the consistency test: pour a few drops into a cold dish, wait 1 minute and touch it with the tip of your finger: the surface must wrinkle. It is not so? Extend cooking.

While the cherry jam thickens just right, you take care of sterilize the jars and keep new screw caps on hand if necessary (preferably still packaged). Once ready, pour the boiling jam into the jars, filling them up to 1 cm from the edge. Remove any excess jam and close immediately. Turn them over and, after 5 minutes, turn them over again. Let them cool and store them in a dark, cool and dry place.

Do you want to prepare one original cherry jam? Click here to read how cherry and currant jam is made. This multi-fruit version is also very good.

How to sterilize jam jars

Before using them for preserving jams and preserves, it is always very important carefully sterilize jars and lids. The methods are many (there are also with the microwave oven), the classic one involves the complete immersion of the empty jars for at least 5 minutes in boiling water and then drying in a hot oven at 100 ° C for 30 minutes.

Once filled with hot jam, you can then place them on the bottom of a large pot with a clean cloth (useful for cushioning the blows). Fill the saucepan with cold water until it is at least 4 cm above the jars. Bring to a boil, simmer over low heat for 20 minutes and let them cool in the water.

With what to combine cherry jam

You can serve the black cherry jam or the homemade cherry jam with slices of brioche bread possibly also spread with soft cheese such as robiola, mascarpone or stracchino. It is excellent for stuffing original moelleux au chocolat (the soft hearted sweets of French tradition), the soft cakes, the tarts, biscuits, crepes or omelettes. You can obviously enjoy it on ice cream or with yogurt and use it to garnish Bavarians and panne cotte. There are even those who bring it to the table to accompany with an unusual sweet touch i aged cheeses they roastsespecially the pork ones!

If you choose the jars carefully, you can also use it as gourmet gift idea and propose it to friends, colleagues and relatives in cadeau version. Decorate the jars with a crazy piece of fabric useful to cover the cap, then add a raffia cord and a rough cardboard in which you will have written the production date and possibly the ingredients.