Cherries in vodka -- time for Christmas presents

This is almost the season for making cherries in alcohol. You need sour cherries (don't try ordinary cherries; they don't work properly for this) which should be in season for the next few weeks. Get them in a farmer's market (Evanston market has lots of them, as does the Green City Market, I presume). Wash the cherries. I prefer to keep the stem on (if I can get them with stems) and just cut off the knotty top of the stem. Put a layer of cherries in a large jar, sprinkle liberally with sugar, and keep alternating layers of cherries and sugar until the jar is full. Fill with vodka -- cheap vodka works best, because it is pretty tasteless. Shake and keep in a dark closet for several months. They should be done by about Christmas, but they will keep for years. The vodka and sugar solution essentially turns into a cherry flavored liqueur. In France, we eat a few of these with the liqueur as a "digestif" after a meal, accopmpanied by the liqueur (which is eminently drinkable) in a small glass. They can also be put over ice cream or sorbet. They can safely be served to children (but not legally to someone else's children!) in moderate quantities. And they make great gifts .... We can never make enough!

Sounds delicious! You just leave the pits in?

BumbleBee wrote:Sounds delicious! You just leave the pits in?

That's a good question, and I believe the answer is Yes, but either way, I would.

I've got a lot of cheap vodka about...now all I need are the cherries.

Hammond

rgl201 wrote:Put a layer of cherries in a large jar, sprinkle liberally with sugar, and keep alternating layers of cherries and sugar until the jar is full. Fill with vodka -- cheap vodka works best, because it is pretty tasteless.

Just got back from the OP Farmer's Market with two quarts of cherries. I used about 1.5 cups of sugar and about 3 cups of vodka to fill the container I had. Hope those measurements will yield the desired result.

C&R, do you "rouse" the cherries at any point between now and Xmas (i.e., do you turn the jar or otherwise agitate it)?

Yes, leave the pits in -- but do warn people to whom you serve or give the cherries. Pitted cherries woul get very mushy, I suppose.
I sometimes shake the jar from time to time if there is a residue of sugar on the bottom, to make sure it is all dissolved. But once that is the case, you can leave the cherries alone and they will be fine; you don't have to rotate the jar or do anything else to them.

C&R, I'll tell you, those cherries look great sitting there in the tall glass jar. When, technically, will they be ready to eat?

Hammond

Leave them stand for at least 3 months, though they do indeed look tempting! Even better, don't open the package until Xmas ...

Newbie question... do you sterilize using the same procedure as with canning?

Thanks

It is not a bad idea to sterilize the jars before you make the cherries, but the alcohol will take care of germs pretty effectively; unlike canned foods, these will keep for years (literally; I have eaten some cherries -- not my own -- that were several years old) without budging.

chapulin wrote:It is not a bad idea to sterilize the jars before you make the cherries, but the alcohol will take care of germs pretty effectively; unlike canned foods, these will keep for years (literally; I have eaten some cherries -- not my own -- that were several years old) without budging.

I didn't sterilize, but I did wash well, and as you say, the Vodka should take care of most microbes. I should note that the seal on the jar, though tight, is not water-tight (i.e., if I invert the jar, liquid seeps out the seal). I've never caned and "put stuff by," but I'm assuming this will not be a problem.

Hammond

A pretty good resource for homemade liqueurs and cordials:

http://www.guntheranderson.com/liqueurs.htm

Yes, there will be a problem. All the alcohol will evaporate, and you lose it's flavor and germ fighting property. Spend a couple of bucks, sometime in the next few days, and buy something in a large glass jar, eat it, and reuse the container.

By the way, as a little boy, I remember my grandfather doing this, but he used bourbon, and a three gallon crock. The lid was held in place with a large weight, and was kept in a corner of the basement. I am told that he would save the bottles, refill them with the resulting brew, and mail them to my uncle, who said that, this stuff kept him alive thru the Battle of the Bulge.

Another wonderful thing you can make with tart cherries is a Ukranian liquer called Vyshnyak(vshny meaning sour cherry in Ukie). I learned this from my wife's family. In a large jar or jars add cherries and cover with sugar. Place cheesecloth on the top of the open jar. Let sit for 3 months. Strain the mixture at that time, pressing on the cherries. What you get is a sour cherry wine. Then mix 2 parts of wine to 1 part Everclear(grain alcohol). It needs to sit at least a week for the flavors to meld. This gives you a great liquer about 70-80 proof. Not a barn burner but certainly strong enough to cure whatever ails you. Best enjoyed as shots. Nazdrovya!

RevrendAndy wrote: Place cheesecloth on the top of the open jar. Let sit for 3 months. Strain the mixture at that time, pressing on the cherries. What you get is a sour cherry wine.

See, that's comforting. If you can put cheesecloth over an open jar, then surely my not-100%-watertight seal will be just fine. Thanks, Rev.

Hammond

David Hammond wrote:

RevrendAndy wrote: Place cheesecloth on the top of the open jar. Let sit for 3 months. Strain the mixture at that time, pressing on the cherries. What you get is a sour cherry wine.

See, that's comforting. If you can put cheesecloth over an open jar, then surely my not-100%-watertight seal will be just fine. Thanks, Rev.

Not the same thing at all. He's putting cheesecloth over a crock of fermenting cherries. You have a leaky jar of alcohol mixture.

LAZ wrote:Not the same thing at all. He's putting cheesecloth over a crock of fermenting cherries. You have a leaky jar of alcohol mixture.

LAZ,

No, it's not the same thing, but it's close. I put sugar in, so the cherries are in my jar are fermenting, too. The jar leaks when only I turn it upside down. Tell me, what is the worst that can happen.

Hammond

David, probably the worst case scenario is you and all your drinking friends get botulism and die. Other than that, you're fine. I'm not sure of the chemistry in what you propose to concoct but with the vyshnyak, the fermenting cherries produce alcohol, which is preserving the mixture. The cheesecloth is used to keep out bugs and other things flying around. However, sometimes I will note some rot on the top level of cherries and sugar, in which case I just remove those cherries and add a little more sugar. Never killed anyone yet, although I've felt pretty dead the morning after a few too many shots.

As sabersix suggested, you might lose some alcohol to evaporation.

What I'd do is take some plastic wrap, put it over the top of the jar, then screw the lid down again. Or just wrap the top of the jar in plastic.

My chemistry is a little shaky here, but I think that adding the alcohol keeps the cherries from fermenting, even in the presence of the sugar, and instead acts as a preservative.

RevrendAndy wrote:David, probably the worst case scenario is you and all your drinking friends get botulism and die. Other than that, you're fine. I'm not sure of the chemistry in what you propose to concoct but with the vyshnyak, the fermenting cherries produce alcohol, which is preserving the mixture. The cheesecloth is used to keep out bugs and other things flying around. .

Rev, I'm a little unclear on the danger. The fruit and sugar ferment to alcohol, plus there's about 3 cups or more of alcohol to two quarters of cherries. IE: there's a lot of "perservative" in there.

Hammond

PS. And who said I was sharing with friends?

David, I don't really know how the alcohol changes the formula. I always start with jars fresh out of the dishwasher, and that's never been a problem. I'm not sure if the alcohol stops the fermentation. I only know the process for vyshnyak. Maybe you could consult someone who's written a book about canning or the food department from the Tribune or Sun-Times. They would have access to some expert in that field.

RevrendAndy wrote:David, probably the worst case scenario is you and all your drinking friends get botulism and die. Other than that, you're fine.

I had to clean my morning coffee off my monitor after reading this.

Now, about the alcohol preventing fermentation. With my adventures and lessons in home-brewing it's not the alcohol that prevents fermentation, rather the lack of yeast. For instance when making a home brewed beer after the intitial fermentation you basically have a flat grain flavored mixture of water and alcohol. Before bottling you add additional sugar to this mix and store the bottles for a couple of weeks to months. This secondary fermentation is where the bubbles come from.

Basically, you need yeast to create fermentation of the sugar into alcohol. I'm not positive, but I believe the distillation process removes all of the yeast. If that is true then after a number of months in the jar you should end up with a cherry flavored cordial with less overall alcohol content than the vodka you used to begin with.

Flip

Flip wrote:Basically, you need yeast to create fermentation of the sugar into alcohol. I'm not positive, but I believe the distillation process removes all of the yeast. If that is true then after a number of months in the jar you should end up with a cherry flavored cordial with less overall alcohol content than the vodka you used to begin with.

Flip

This is amazing. I can understand, based on what you're saying, that there may be no additional fermentation. But I'm not clear why the lack of additional fermentation and alcohol creation would lead to reduced alcohol content overall.

Hammond

Flip wrote:Now, about the alcohol preventing fermentation. With my adventures and lessons in home-brewing it's not the alcohol that prevents fermentation, rather the lack of yeast. For instance when making a home brewed beer after the intitial fermentation you basically have a flat grain flavored mixture of water and alcohol. Before bottling you add additional sugar to this mix and store the bottles for a couple of weeks to months. This secondary fermentation is where the bubbles come from. Flip

I don't think this is quite right. The cherries, assuming they're fresh (e.g. from a farmers market, as opposed to something commercal or home-canned that comes out of a jar) are likely to contain natural yeasts on their skins. (Consider the way many classical French wines are made - they don't add any yeasts, they just use the yeasts that are naturally on the grape skins. And another obvious example is Belgian Lambic beers, where they basically mash the barley malts and wheat and let it sit, letting the natural airborne yeasts do all the work. I've even made sourdough bread starter with no yeast other than what floating around in the air in my kitchen.) My guess is that the Vyshnyak that Rev spoke of worked on the basis of both airborne and cherry-skin based yeasts.

Rather, I think it is the alcohol that prevents spoilage, since alcohol levels above 14% - 18% are toxic to yeasts and other of them little critters.

David Hammond wrote:

Flip wrote:Basically, you need yeast to create fermentation of the sugar into alcohol. I'm not positive, but I believe the distillation process removes all of the yeast. If that is true then after a number of months in the jar you should end up with a cherry flavored cordial with less overall alcohol content than the vodka you used to begin with.

Flip

This is amazing. I can understand, based on what you're saying, that there may be no additional fermentation. But I'm not clear why the lack of additional fermentation and alcohol creation would lead to reduced alcohol content overall.

Hammond

The reduced alcohol content comes from an additional volume of liquid with a constant volume of alcohol. Basically it's diluted from the juices in the cherries.

Flip

Dave,
It has been many years since I made brandied fruit and don't recall the exact recipe although the next time I'm at my daughter's (she has my old recipe book) I will see if its written in there. However, I do know I made it in a gallon jar, no sterilizing before, no water bath or canning proceedures were used. I do know it was started with strawberries and sugar (can't remember the exact portion see above), but every week you would add a cup of fruit no citrus or pineapple as they would stop ferminatation and one cup of sugar. It was great over ice cream and made a great dessert for company. I also had a recipe for brandied fruit cake which was the only fruit cake I liked. Anyway, I kept this up for several years and really don't remember what I did with it. I kept it on the pantry floor the whole time. It seems if you refrigerated it it would stop the fermintation. It did become quite strong. I also remember one of my neighbors made the cherry vodka each summer for Christmas and if memory serves me it also stood on the shelf.

Botulism wouldn't be a problem if air gets into the container as botulism is an anaerobic bacteria so therefore lives without oxygen. I believe the alcohol would not cause this condition as oil does. I will check this for you if I speak to some micro people I know.
Paulette

Paulette, really nice to hear from you again, and I'm especially pleased that you don't think I will kill myself and my friends if I consume these cherries.

David

Interestingly, people are warning me against a less-than-airtight container, but as you say, botulism would only occur IN an airtight container.

David Hammond wrote:Interestingly, people are warning me against a less-than-airtight container, but as you say, botulism would only occur IN an airtight container.

Botulinum spores grow in low-acid, anerobic environments. That's not going to be the case with the cherries. Fruit is generally high-acid. But if enough alcohol evaporates, other harmful bacteria or molds could grow.

Don't worry about it making you sick. Worry about making the cherries taste bad.

LAZ wrote:But if enough alcohol evaporates, other harmful bacteria or molds could grow.

Well, I could always add more vodka. Thanks for the science, Laz.

Hammond

David Hammond wrote:Well, I could always add more vodka.

Thus diluting the flavor you're trying create through the long maceration.

But couldn't the liquid then be simmered down to re-constitute the flavor? (I know, the alcohol would evaporate along with the water, but is the objective stronger flavor or an excuse to get drunk?)