Last week put up a couple of jars of Basque-style black cherries to go with cheese courses. Very simply, juicy, not overly sweet preserve.
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Pilgrim, if I may ask, what makes them Basque style? (Maybe a couple T of picon punch?
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Nothing in terms of recipe. It’s just the kind of cherry preserve sold in Southwest France and served with Ossau-Iraty and other sheep milk cheeses. Good with many/most cheese. Again, just not as sweet as “Jam”.
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Thanks. So I assume that black cherries are a different variety than Bings? So one last question - are they shelf stable or need refrigeration due to lesser amounts of sugar? TIA
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I really must be in an enigmatic mood today! Just ripe bings. I watered bathed them for 20 minutes. All jars pinged. Shelf stable. I have in the past just put them in the freezer but room’s tight at the moment.
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Thanks for the info, thought maybe there was a black cherry I haven’t heard of.
With my over purchase of Bings, decided to make a clafoutis for dessert tonight. If the rest don’t get eaten I’ll probably just make a very small batch of cherry something and store it in the fridge.
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You are quite right that the authentic Basque black cherry preserve would be from a different kind of black cherry. My moniker should be Substitute Sue. Most of what I produce should be labeled ‘a la’ rather than the original name.
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Great article in the link above, especially if you’re a fan of alliums.
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I’m not yet but I would like to be. There’s nothing I love more than the combination of sweet, spicy, and salty so I have my eye on making red pepper jellies like this.
I’m looking forward to fall so I can try my hand at canning salsa, apple pie filling, and pickled jalapenos. We like our spicy food in my house!
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Pepper jelly is my JAM! 
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So far this summer we’ve made wineberry, raspberry, and blueberry freezer jams with foraged fruit. Still working on getting the consistency right with pectin.
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I like this Cooks Illustrated story about Easy small batch fruit jam .
Hopefully you can find your way around the pay walls if interested,
What kind of pectin do you use?
I think it was SureJell
For an unusual but totally addictive pickled jalapeno give this recipe a try.
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When I use SureJell low sugar (in the pink box) my basic recipe is 8 cups of fruit, 4 cups of sugar & 1 pak plus 1 or 2 tablespoons of surejell. You have to know which fruits are high or low in pectin. Peaches are very low especially when they are ripe. Cranberries are so high that they don’t need any pectin added.
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I’m going to try this one.
Do you make it as written with all that sugar and the Sprite? Sounds really sweet to me but I think you are not a big carbs/sweets eater if I recall correctly.
I make the recipe as written- partly because sugar is a preservative and therefore important for long term storage and partly because there is so little in the individual rings of pepper that it’s a non-issue. I’m not drinking the sugary liquid or eating an entire jar in a sitting. Half a dozen rings of jalapeno chopped up on a taco salad really doesn’t retain a whole lot of the liquid, just enough to be super tasty!
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Am not a jam maker, not actually a jam eater, but when we found that the last of the season Blenheim apricots we bought at an orchard yesterday were REALLY, REALLY RIPE, we had to act fast today.
We were able to pull out several dozen for out-of-hand eating, then triaging the remainder between a pie and several small jars of jam. All saved, and summer in a jar for next winter.
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