Bert2368
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I've been making this stuff for 4? years now, since my sour pie cherry trees (morellos to the British descended) got large enough to give a decent quantity of fruit.
My sister turned me onto this type of decoction- I've modified the procedure and ratios a few times over the several batches.
This year ( around mid June of 2022) 15 lb. of ripe pie cherries were obtained. Trees were a varietal called "Evans" or "Bali", they are effectively THE SAME VARIETY, for some reason they may be sold under different names? I can't tell any difference, fresh or processed.
I was too busy at that time to do more than pick the red ripe cherries, remove any stems & leaves then FREEZE this fruit. That freezing turned out to be a GOOD thing, it broke cell walls and speeded up the maturation of this product...
My sister uses the fruit fresh, which requires about 5 to 6 months aging for sugar to dissolve & juices/flavors to fully emerge. The use of frozen & then thawed cherries reduced the wait time for a similar product to about a month- But requires one to separate the juices from the fruit after thawing and carefully put a proportional amount of fruit and the juices into each jar for a uniform product.
Anyhow:
In this batch, quart canning (Mason) jars were filled about 3/4 full of my frozen, thawed & drained fruit.
1/2 cup of white sugar was added to each jar.
The drained cherry juice was carefully & equally divided among the jars.
I can achieve a HIGHER loading of fruit per jar with the frozen/thawed fruit, leaving less air space to fill up with brandy... So my last batch ended up a bit LOW in alcoholic content, to the point where a couple of jars underwent a short ferment?! Which I wished to avoid. This time, I wanted to up the alcoholic content- So I spiked the brandy.
1/2 cup of 151 proof "Everclear" (vodka) was added to each jar.
Then, jar was filled to just under rim with half way decent brandy...
Jars were closed and set in a dark place to age.
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One use for the "cherry bounce" is COLD MEDICINE.
Simmer apple juice with orange zest, cinnamon stick and allspice, add some brown sugar if you like. You can just add an orange spice herbal tea bag if you're in a hurry or cross eyed from your cold. Fill a mug 3/4 full with the hot mulled cider, add half a jigger of fresh squeezed lemon juice and a full jigger of the cherry bounce. Sip. Perhaps observe the world become a less horrid place...
----------
One can, of course, use the liquid after aging in cocktails when not requiring cold medicine.
The drained fruit may be pitted and used in baking- Fruit cakes are a good use, a flourless DARK CHOCOLATE cake with brandies cherries is to my taste as well...
The pitted & chopped up fruit goes well in home made chocolate ice cream.
I'm sure this group can find other uses-
(Yes, that's a rainbow)
My sister turned me onto this type of decoction- I've modified the procedure and ratios a few times over the several batches.
This year ( around mid June of 2022) 15 lb. of ripe pie cherries were obtained. Trees were a varietal called "Evans" or "Bali", they are effectively THE SAME VARIETY, for some reason they may be sold under different names? I can't tell any difference, fresh or processed.
I was too busy at that time to do more than pick the red ripe cherries, remove any stems & leaves then FREEZE this fruit. That freezing turned out to be a GOOD thing, it broke cell walls and speeded up the maturation of this product...
My sister uses the fruit fresh, which requires about 5 to 6 months aging for sugar to dissolve & juices/flavors to fully emerge. The use of frozen & then thawed cherries reduced the wait time for a similar product to about a month- But requires one to separate the juices from the fruit after thawing and carefully put a proportional amount of fruit and the juices into each jar for a uniform product.
Anyhow:
In this batch, quart canning (Mason) jars were filled about 3/4 full of my frozen, thawed & drained fruit.
1/2 cup of white sugar was added to each jar.
The drained cherry juice was carefully & equally divided among the jars.
I can achieve a HIGHER loading of fruit per jar with the frozen/thawed fruit, leaving less air space to fill up with brandy... So my last batch ended up a bit LOW in alcoholic content, to the point where a couple of jars underwent a short ferment?! Which I wished to avoid. This time, I wanted to up the alcoholic content- So I spiked the brandy.
1/2 cup of 151 proof "Everclear" (vodka) was added to each jar.
Then, jar was filled to just under rim with half way decent brandy...
Jars were closed and set in a dark place to age.
----------
One use for the "cherry bounce" is COLD MEDICINE.
Simmer apple juice with orange zest, cinnamon stick and allspice, add some brown sugar if you like. You can just add an orange spice herbal tea bag if you're in a hurry or cross eyed from your cold. Fill a mug 3/4 full with the hot mulled cider, add half a jigger of fresh squeezed lemon juice and a full jigger of the cherry bounce. Sip. Perhaps observe the world become a less horrid place...
----------
One can, of course, use the liquid after aging in cocktails when not requiring cold medicine.
The drained fruit may be pitted and used in baking- Fruit cakes are a good use, a flourless DARK CHOCOLATE cake with brandies cherries is to my taste as well...
The pitted & chopped up fruit goes well in home made chocolate ice cream.
I'm sure this group can find other uses-
(Yes, that's a rainbow)
. 
