Final Tart or Sour Cherry Jam Recipe

[JudyJB]

I have discovered several things about tart cherries and making jam from them. First, like most stone fruits, they contain almost no pectin, so you have to add a lot. Second, they are very acid, so no lemon juice is required. Third, because they are very tart, you do need to add more sugar than you would to something like strawberry jam. Fourth, many of the recipes are wrong because they tell you to use a candy thermometer and boil the jam to 220 degrees F. It really requires closer to 225-227 degrees F.

Finally, note that tart cherries are bright red and very sour if you try to eat one without cooking it with sugar. These are the cherries you use to make cherry pies, and they are mostly grown in Michigan. If you substitute the darker eating cherries, you will need to use a different recipe because those are naturally sweet.

So, here is my recipe for tart cherry jam that works and gels. I am giving you the recipe for 1 pound of frozen, pitted cherries, but you can double or triple it, depending on the size of your cooking pan:

1. Start with 1 pound of frozen pitted cherries. This will make about 3.5 half pints of jam. Duplicate or triple, as desired. (Best place to buy frozen, pitted tart cherries is Gordon Foods. This is a chain of restaurant supply stores with retail stores, but they are mostly located in the eastern part of the U.S.)

2. Weigh cherries with a scale and put them in pan to thaw. When they are mostly thawed, you can add 3 cups of sugar and one box of SureGel or other pectin product. (i.e. for two pounds of cherries, use 6 cups of sugar and two boxes of pectin.)

3. Turn on heat to low and stir cherries, sugar, and pectin until all is melted, but not hot or boiling.

4. At this point, I use my immersion blender in the pan to chop the cherries into smaller pieces. I do this while the mixture is just slightly warm so I do not burn myself with boiling jam. (I also wear a top that can be bleached to remove cherry stains!) You can skip this step and make jam that is mostly liquid with some floating cherries, but i think the mixture of ground-up cherries cooks more evenly and is easier to spread.

5. Turn heat up and boil until jam reaches a candy thermometer temp of about 125-127 degrees F. Keep stirring it periodically so it does not burn. Beware because boiling jam can spatter and burn you. I use a wooden spoon.

6. Skim the foam off the top. Note that people do this because foam-less jam looks prettier, and i do some skimming, but am not a perfectionist here.

7. By now you should have washed and dried all the jars, tops, and screw-on lids, and have them drying on a clean towel. Use one of those wide-mouth canning funnels and a small measuring cup to scoop jam into each jar. Wipe off the top of the jar with a clean damp paper towel before you put on the lid and then the screw ring. (It will be very hot so use a hot pad or dry dishcloth to handle.) Hand tighten each jar--this means to tighten it but not use all of your strength.

8. Prepare a hot water-bath canner. This can be just a very large pan, does not have to be a pressure cooker for jam. However, it should have a wire rack, but you can also use silicone things you put in the bottom so the jars are not touching the bottom of the pan. (Check Walmart for these.) Note: Put hot water in canner before you put hot jars in because you don't want to crack jars by putting them in cold water. Make sure jars are covered by at least 1" of water.

9. Bring water to a boil and boil for 10 minutes. Take jars out using canning tongs, and set on a dry towel to cool. Tighten lids by hand again to make sure they have not loosened in processing. Should be tight, but not strongman tight, if you know what I mean. As they cool, tops will become indented a tiny bit, unless they already are, showing that they are sealed. Any jars that do not seal when they are completely cool will have to be put in refrigerator and used within a few weeks. Sealed jars can be stored in a dry, room-temperature place for up to a year or so. (I also write the date and what is in the jar on the top.)

Good luck!! I tired several batches of this and had a lot of trouble getting it to gel until I started measuring stuff and adding the right amount of sugar and pectin. Boiling it to a high temperature also helped.

Here is a site that discuss how to test for doneness of jam, even for high altitude:

https://blog.thermoworks.com/sides/pectin-best-temperatures-cooking-jams-jellies/#:~:text=The%20target%20temperature%20range%20of,vary%20slightly%20for%20each%20recipe.