The Tenth Day of Christmas
Pitting cherries!
2011 was an outstanding cherry year here in Rappahannock, the kind we get every five years or so. Back in June, I made both sweet and sour cherry liqueur. They need to age with the fruit for 6 months or so. At bottling time, I was loath to just throw out the cherries that had been macerating. They still had a good color, firm texture, a decent cherry taste… although a little too boozy to just eat, and a distracting pit. The solution: pit them, cook them gently and briefly in a simple sugar syrup, and now I have a great dessert topping. Lets’ call them Tipsy Cherries!
In the process I confirmed that the cherry pitter I bought after the season was over last year, is indeed a great purchase because it pits not only fresh cherries, but also canned cherries, boozy cherries, and thawed cherries! I generally dislike single purpose gadget, but this was was worth the $20 I paid for it!
Eating local in winter! What a gift!
Magnifique! I got lots of cherries in ’11 too, all sorts. I love your drunken ones. We did a cherry bounce this year (a fifth of bourbon, 2 cups brown sugar, and a bunch of sweet cherries somewhat crushed, left to rest 6 months) and it’s how I rang in the new year. mmm.
You’re killing me though with all your citrus recipes.