Cherry Jam
Cherry Jam is a classic way of preserving a glut of wild cherries, it goes well in cakes and on toast, but don’t feel limited by sweets – it can also go in to savoury dishes instead of sugar, for example I make a great Chinese dipping sauce with cherry jam and soy sauce.
Ingredients:
· A carrier bag full of wild cherries (1kg)
· 2 Cooking Apples peeled and sliced
· 1 kg Jam Sugar
· Juice of 1 Lemon
. 100ml water
Method:
1. Take three quarters of the Cherries and put them in a large pan with 100ml boiling water, cook with the lid on for 15 minutes until soft
2. Whilst they’re cooking using a slotted spoon or knife, remove the stones from the left over 1 quarter cherries.
3. Pass your softened and cooked cherries through a wide sieve to remove stones
4. Add the pre-cooked and sieved cherries and uncooked de-stoned cherries back to the large pan with the peeled and sliced apples, 1kg of jam sugar, lemon juice
5. Boil all for 10-15 mins until the jam has reached its setting point (to test put a tblsp on a small plate, put in the fridge for 2 minutes, remove and see if it has a skin over – if it does you have the setting point, if not keep cooking and repeat until you do)
6. Place in well cleaned jars and use within one year or two weeks once opened.
