Last week we shared our cherry picking adventure and today we’ll show you what we did with them when we got home.

When the family get together down at the holiday house, it’s tradition for the boys the make a batch of jam with what ever locally grown fruit is in season. Today, it’s Morello Cherry Jam. Here’s how it was made…

1kg Morello cherries, stems removed but keep the pips!
1kg caster sugar
1 lemon
1 muslin cloth

The ingredients are so simple… Equal parts of fruit to sugar. It’s important to weigh the fruit once the pips are removed.

Squeeze in the juice of a lemon. I’m not sure if it’s for flavour or a chemical reaction thing, but most jam recipes call for it.

Mix! You can use a spoon, but hands are way more fun

Leave the bowl of cherry glug in the fridge over night to help break down the skins

Here’s where the pips come in. Tie them in the muslin cloth and ad them to a large cooking pot. There is natural pectin in the magical pips. This is what makes the jam set.

Cooking time will vary depending on so many factors and it’s quite hard to know just how long to cook the perfect batch of jam. Cook it too long and the jam will caramelise and become too think. Cook it not enough and the jam will be too runny, more like compote.

The boys tell me they cooked this batch, simmering on a low heat, for about an hour. You’ll begin to notice the white bubbles have dissolved and the flesh has broken down from the skin. TIP: test the consistency by spreading a teaspoon of the hot mixture on a cold plate. If it sets and looks like jam, it’s ready!

Wait for the jam to cool down and pour into sterilised air tight jars.
And hey presto.. We made jam!