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.
My wonderful wife is truly wonderful. She doesn't even like Manhattans... that's how wonderful she is.
ReplyDeleteI 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.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. Did you just skip the step or did you have to alter the recipe? Do tell!
ReplyDeleteI 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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