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Tired of the neon red maraschino cherries at the grocery store--they don't do Willet 5 yo rye manhattans any justice. Curious if anyone has a good homemade maraschino cherry recipe. I've seen several variations on the net but wanted to see if anyone on the forum makes their own.
No I don't have a recipe .. but .. I did have cause to look up maraschino cherries on google and see what kind of awful stuff they're packed with. If you could come up with a substitute .. patent it.
I confess I am too lazy to make my own and usually defer to the Luxardo cherries. A local bottle shop/restaurant also does their own brandied cherries which are nice. Don't know if they are available outside Atlanta though.Quote:
Originally Posted by HighHorse
Relative to recipe #2 in the previous post:
A) If you use it, make sure you don't miss the almond extract, which has somehow shifted to a justified left position in the article, instead of falling directly under the list of other ingredients for the syrup (the last of which is red food coloring).
Also, the recipe calls for 4.5 POUNDS of sugar into 3 cups of water (plus the 2 oz of additional liquid from the food coloring and the almond extract). That is a lot of sugar. I'm not certain that it will actually go into solution at that ratio, even with the boiling of the water to allow supersaturation.
I haven't made simple syrup in a long time, but the normal ratio for a quick (non-cooked) simple syrup is 1 cup sugar, 1 cup water. For a richer (cooked) syrup, 2 cups sugar to 1 cup water is used. So 4.5 pounds to 3 cups of water is a huge amount.
Does seem like a lot. 4.5 pounds is 10 cups! Maybe it should be 4.5 cups of sugar?
You don't need nearly that much sugar. I make bourbon cocktail cherries at home.
You need:
1 lb Cherries (pitted)
Juice from 1/2 lemon
one or two sticks cinnamon
clove (optional)
a couple of dashes of homade vanilla extract (I soak a split vanilla bean in 100 mL of GTS for 3 months to make vanilla extract)
1 to 1 1/2 cup sugar
2 cups good bourbon (something wheated works well here, like Maker's, or OWA, or ORVW. Or some blend. Your pick).
Combine your bourbon and sugar on the stove. add the cinnamon, lemon juice, vanilla and clove (if you're using clove). Mix over med heat/bringto a VERY brief boil until your sugar dissolves (add more bourbon if necessary).
Add the cherries and cook for a minute or two.
Let it cool, pour it into mason jars, and seal by placing the jars into boiling water.
Age in a cool dark place or the fridge. Delicious.
I have tried the first recipe where you just throw cherries into a jar with Maraschino Liqueur, and would recommend passing on that one. I have found that Tillen Farms Bada Bing cherries are a great substitute for the neon cherries. I hope to give the Luxardo brand a try eventually.
Erich, you got me blanching the cherries from my experimental attempts a couple of years ago. Definitely improved the texture of the cherries
Follow Erich's lead. He's done this a few times
I'd strongly recommend the fridge, just because I'm super concerned about food poisoning (even with the presence of lots of alcohol). The cherries seem to have a solid shelf-life of a year to a year and a half. Don't think they ever become dangerous after that, but the texture/taste quality starts to go downhill.