Choosing a cherry for canned pie filling - Ask Extension
Hi,
I have made cherry pie filling using your recipe (with Clear-Jel) before and loved the results. However, I am finding it difficult this year to fi...
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Choosing a cherry for canned pie filling #413977
Asked July 13, 2017, 1:45 PM EDT
Hi,
I have made cherry pie filling using your recipe (with Clear-Jel) before and loved the results. However, I am finding it difficult this year to find the sour cherries called for. Can a sweet dark cherry be used with this recipe by just reducing the sugar, or is there something else about the sour cherry that makes it necessary for the recipe? The recipe I refer to calls for 3 1/3 C cherries to 1/4 C +1tbls Clear Jel to 1C sugar to 1tbls+1tsp lemon juice.
Linn County Oregon
Expert Response
It's still a little early for pie cherries to be ripe. They are later than sweet cherries. I see one cherry packing plant in Yamhill county has a sale on buckets of sour cherries frozen last year and says this year's crop isn't ready yet.
Sour pie cherries are much more firm than sweet cherries when cooked, so using a sweet cherry could result in a mushy texture and may be runny instead of very thick. Sour pie cherries are also much more flavorrful when cooked, than sweet cherries. You could cook up one quart and bake it inot a pie to try it before canning any. It would be safe to do, you just may not like the results.
Sour pie cherries are much more firm than sweet cherries when cooked, so using a sweet cherry could result in a mushy texture and may be runny instead of very thick. Sour pie cherries are also much more flavorrful when cooked, than sweet cherries. You could cook up one quart and bake it inot a pie to try it before canning any. It would be safe to do, you just may not like the results.
