If that was the name of a real store, I would be first in line.
Sweet and sour cherries are currently in the markets. And while I love the sour cherries in jam and consistently give myself at least one bellyache a season eating a bowl full of sweet cherries in one sitting, my second most favorite thing to do with sweet cherries is to put them up in booze. The last time I did this I went the classy route (well, as classy as you can get when you are adulterating fine fruit with booze and sugar – or is it the other way around?) and put the cherries up in Armagnac. This year, perhaps in anticipation of Manhattan drinking season in the fall and winter ahead, I decided the cherries would get friendly with Bourbon. With this item, I do not process in a hot water bath, but rather sterilize the jars and place the jars in the refrigerator for months on end. I believe the 45% proof that the Maker’s Mark label promises buys me a bit of time. The liquid is not boiled in this case, though it can be and I have in the past. It depends partially on what texture you would like the cherries to be and partially on what level of alcohol content you would like. These can be used in cocktails or as a parsimoniously used garnish for desserts (and believe me, your stingy handling of these cherries will have your friends thanking you the next day because they do pack a punch). I successfully used the last batch as a foil to a slice of rich chocolate cake.
Cherries in Bourbon
This isn’t an exact recipe, since it depends on how many cherries you want to booze up. The general ratio is 1 lb of cherries = 2 cups bourbon mixed with 1/2 cup sugar. Some suggest leaving the cherries whole, which adds a different flavor element to the brew, but I prefer pitted, because I don’t like the slightly bitter almond flavor the stones impart and I also don’t like having pits in my drinks (or in my desserts. or in my salads. or in any arranged plate. call me crazy).
And now, I will perhaps justify the existence of this blog by sharing with you some randomly acquired knowledge that has come in handy time and time again and for which I wish I could give proper attribution. Perhaps, like me, you do not have space to have crazy tools in the kitchen that only fulfill one purpose. The cherry pitter would fall under this category. So it was with great happiness when I read about the suggestion of a relatively common household object as an extractor of cherry pits:
the paper clip.
You read it here (and I read it somewhere else and I really wish I could remember where).
While probably not as exact a science as the cherry pitter, an unbent paper clip, inserted into the stem side of the cherry, does an admirable job at extracting the pit.
Allow the cherries to soak up the bourbon for at least one month before using.
