Thursday, May 27, 2010

Maraschino Cherries, Day 1

My wonderful husband requested homemade maraschino cherries. He'd had them once, in a Brandy Manhattan, a long time ago. A few weeks ago he was traveling for business and rediscovered the bar and those homemade maraschinos. He even took a photo of his drink (left) and sent it to me, saying, "you really need to make these."

The one problem: the recipe calls for 4.5 pounds of cherries, and they were, until recently, $8 a pound. Today I found them with a much lower price so I bought enough and got to work.

Today the cherries were washed and pitted. It is necessary to have a cherry pitter. I'm not sure there is a way to do this without one. This particular gadget is also a source of amusement for the children; I think the only reason the 5 year old eats cherries is because of that thing. It's very easy, just watch your fingers.

The cherries are being soaked overnight in a brine solution, just 1 T. pickling salt with 2 quarts of water. Tomorrow they get rinsed and put into a sugar solution.

4 comments:

  1. My wonderful wife is truly wonderful. She doesn't even like Manhattans... that's how wonderful she is.

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  2. I don't understand why the brine soak. I tried that and it ruined the color and the taste. Made another batch without it - much better.

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  3. Interesting. Did you just skip the step or did you have to alter the recipe? Do tell!

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  4. I just skipped the brine step for the second batch. Perhaps after the first batch soaks in the jars awhile the flavor will improve. Thanks for your response.

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