Canning Cherries at Home

Canning Cherries at home is a great way to preserve the harvest for use year-round. Whether you use the canned cherries for pies, cakes, muffins, coffee cakes, bars, cobblers, crisps, or even toppings for cheesecakes or ice cream, you’ll be thankful that you did the work now to reap the benefits later.

What are tart or sour cherries?

The cherries I use in this recipe are the tart or sour variety. Tart cherries are different from the sweet varieties in that they’re more sour than sweet, which makes them a great addition to desserts. The tartness prevents the cherries from becoming bland as they’re baked, and the pop of flavor is a welcome addition to balance the sweetness of desserts. Tart cherries are also the cherry of choice for pies.

If you’re lucky enough to grow tart cherries in your orchard or to pick them from your local cherry grower, I hope you use this recipe to preserve the amount you can not eat fresh.

Best Canned Cherries

You can preserve tart cherries in different ways, such as canning in water, light or heavy syrup, or sugar. The best way of canning cherries for later use in desserts is to can them in their own juice. This keeps their flavor strong, and the juice can be made into a delicious sauce.

You only need two ingredients: cherries and sugar. The sugar draws out the juice needed to can the cherries. Since the cherries are naturally tart, they don’t need extra acidity to keep them safe for canning using the water bath method.

Since canned tart cherries are mostly used in dessert recipes, the best way to preserve them is to can them in their juice. This keeps their flavor concentrated instead of being diluted with extra water. The drawn-out juices can create the most delicious sauce if needed (think cheesecake topping).

Canning tart cherries requires only two ingredients: cherries and sugar. The sugar draws out the juice used to can the cherries. Since the cherries are naturally tart, their pH is low enough not to need extra acidity to keep them safe for canning.

Do cherries need to be pitted before canning?

Cherries can be canned, pitted, or unpitted. But if you pit them now, they’ll be ready to use right out of the jar for any of your desserts. For that reason, I prefer pitting them before canning.

What

Their tart-sweet taste makes them great in coffee cakes, muffins, cherry vareniki/pierogies as topping for cheesecakes, in cakes (like this Honeycomb Cake with Dulce de Leche Buttercream or this Honeycomb Cake with Chantilly Cream, or even this Flourless Black Forest Chocolate Cake), in pies and even tarts. If you were to buy them at a store, 2-3 cups of preserved cherries will cost you about 7$ – 8$, but canning them yourself will cost you about 2$ for the same amount, so not only are you saving money, but you’re also making sure that your canned goods are artificial preservative free.

Some people are intimidated by the canning process, but it isn’t complicated, as the step-by-step photo instructions below show.

Canned Cherry Ingredients:

For every 1-quart jar:

• 4 cups Pitted Tart Cherries
• 1 cup of sugar

Equipment (affiliate links below): 

• Large enough pot to fit a couple of 1-quart jars or this Canning Pot
• 1-quart glass jars & lids  – or
• Plastic or Stainless Steel Funnel to help you fill the jars with cherries
• Jar Lifter to remove the hot jars out of the water bath
• Water Bath Canner –
• Or this complete canning kit
• Cherry Pitter or a large Safety Pin

How to can tart cherries, step-by-step:

1. Thoroughly wash the cherries by filling a large bowl with water, then add the cherries and swish them around. The dirt will settle to the bottom of the bowl. Pick the cherries out of the water to a different bowl. Then, repeat the washing and remove them to bowl.
2. Remove the pits from the cherries.
3. Pour sugar over the cherries, about 1 cup for every 4 cups of cherries. Mix the cherries and sugar to distribute the sugar evenly.
4. Cover and refrigerate for 12 to 48 hours. Stir the cherries every once in a while to help the juices release.

Prepare the jars for canning:

1. Wash the jars and lids with hot, soapy water or run them through a dishwasher cycle.
2. Set the cleaned jars and lids on a clean kitchen towel.

Fill the Jars

• Set the clean jar on a plate, and fill it with the cherries using a funnel to help prevent dripping.

Leave about 1 1/2 inches head space in each jar.

Close the jar with a lid, but do not tighten. Now put a clean kitchen towel on the bottom of a large pot (you do not need to do this if you’re using the canning pot with a rack). Put the jars inside the pot and fill the pot with enough water to come up 2/3 up to the lid. Close the pot with a lid and cook until the cherry mixture inside the jars starts to boil. It will take a while so be patient. Cook for about 5-10 minutes from the time the mixture inside the jars starts to boil. You will know that it’s boiling when you see bubbles coming from the bottom of the jar towards the top.

Just remove the jar from time to time and look for the bubbles.

Once the cherries have cooked, remove the jars to a kitchen towel lined counter, tighten then lids and let them cool completely. You will know if the lids have created a seal when the top of the lids have been sucked inside and when  you press on the top of each lid, no popping sound is heard.

At this point you’re done, but I usually unscrew the outer ring and wash the jar (with the top being completely sealed to the jar) before I store it away.

Now go ahead and share what YOU think these cherries would be good in!