Simple Cherry Jam Recipe

A break from the cheap easy meals for now and a short-term return to preserving.  Here’s a recipe for cherry jam I cooked up last night.

Cherry Jam Recipe

Cherry Jam Ingredients

• 2kg ripe cherries
• 1kg sugar
• juice of one lemon

Make sure the cherries are not overly ripe or you may have trouble getting the jam to set properly.  I used sweet black cherries but sour ones could be used for a more tart preserve.

Cherry Jam Method

First of all stone and de-stem the cherries.  For the first year I now possess a Cherry Stoner/Pitter and cannot begin to thank J enough for gifting it to me as a rather odd but very useful Christmas present.  Stoning cherries with a knife is perfectly acceptable but definitely takes longer.

Mix the cherries and sugar in a large saucepan, cover and leave for 3 hours.

Squeeze the lemon juice over the cherries and put onto the stove.

Slowly bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar.  Once boiling, reduce the heat to moderate and let the jam simmer energetically for 90 minutes.

Once the time is up, remove from the heat and test for set by putting a teaspoon of jam onto a cold plate.  If the skin wrinkles when you push the jam it is ready.  If not, boil for another 5 minutes and test again.

Ladle into hot sterilised jars and seal.

This jam will keep for over a year, sealed somewhere dark, dry and cool.  Once opened keep it in the fridge for up to 3 months.

For a more self sufficient future