Canned Sweet Cherries

Gather

Ingredients

• 17½ lb sweet cherries per 7 quarts
• Water, apple juice, white grape juice, or USDA syrup

Preserve

Instructions

1. 01

   Remove stems and wash the cherries. Pitting is optional; hold pitted cherries in ascorbic-acid water to protect their color. If leaving pits in, puncture each cherry on two opposite sides with a clean needle.

2. 02

   Use water, apple juice, white grape juice, or a prepared canning syrup as the packing liquid.

3. 03

   For a hot pack, combine each quart of drained cherries with 1/2 cup packing liquid and bring it to a boil. Fill hot pint or quart jars with fruit and liquid, keeping 1/2-inch headspace.

4. 04

   For a raw pack, begin each hot jar with 1/2 cup hot packing liquid. Add drained cherries, settle them gently, then add enough hot liquid to leave 1/2-inch headspace; remove bubbles and apply lids.

5. 05

   At 0-1,000 ft, boiling-water process hot-pack pints for 15 minutes or hot-pack quarts for 20 minutes. Raw-pack pints and quarts require 25 minutes. Increase the time.
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