Two Types of Cherry Jam

[JudyJB]

I just finished the second batch of cherry jam. As you remember, I made the first batch with about 1.5 pounds of frozen sour cherries. I had a hard time getting them, but finally found them at Gorden Food Service in a three pound bag. I could not find a good recipe for sour cherry jam, so I ended up adding sugar to taste, which ended up being about 6-7 cups. I also used a box of Certo, and I ended up with 7-and-a-half 8-oz jars. The result is still a bit sour, but I really like the taste.

I had a little over a pound of sour cherries left over, and it was taking up space in my freezer, so today I bought a one pound bag of frozen and pitted sweet cherries. I ate one of the frozen sweet cherries while it was half thawed, and it had a much milder taste than the sour cherries did before they were made into jam. Frankly, it was pretty bland. I dumped both bags of cherries into a large saucepan. Since these cherries have quite a bit more sugar in them, I added only 4 cups of sugar. The resulting mixed jam tasted good, though I missed the tarter taste of the first bath of just sour cherries. I ended up with 6 8-oz jars with this batch.

My submersible hand-blender worked well to grind the cherries up after they had thawed so there are no whole cherries floating in a lot of juice. I think that makes a better jam.

I'm going to be visiting several cousins and their spouses in Florida this winter, so I will give some of these away.