How to Freeze Cherries
However trivial the recipe may sound, you should know that for the frozen sour cherries, there are small details that matter if you want to have in winter cherries as close as possible in taste, texture and color to those in the season. In our house, the jam shelf has been on the 2nd place for a long time now and the big freezer has the place of honor in the kitchen.
It's the fastest, healthiest and easiest way to preserve many fruits and vegetables with minimal semi-preparation effort beforehand. In addition, you should not use much sugar, or at all, and other preservatives. I would say that tart cherries have a special shelf dedicated to each season. They are the fruits that best retain their texture and taste. Besides sour cherries, I prefer to freeze blueberries and currants as well, they are ok after thawing. On the other hand, I don't recommend freezing in the same way the strawberries, the raspberries, the blackberries, the cherries, the apricots.
If you don't have cherries from the tree in the yard and you buy them from the market, be sure to choose slightly larger ones, not too small. The small ones are also good for sour cherry wine, but for the freezer I recommend "fuller" cherries.
So that, after removing the pits, there's more than just the skin.
Wash well a few times and let drain.
By the way, if you notice any worms, don't rush to throw them - keep in salted water for 1-2 hours and then rinse several times.
To pit the cherries, I came back to the safety pin, it's fast, simple and with maximum quality control :)
I tried with many other devices. Unfortunately, they don't work very well and you end up with pits in your cherries in winter, or it takes longer.
It's very simple - insert the smaller tip of the pin into the cherry, gently move it around and remove the pit.
I like this method because the cherries don't get crushed and don't lose their juice in the process.
Place the pitted cherries in a sieve for the juice to drain well.
Notice here how little juice has drained from my cherries - that's because I didn't crush them too hard in the pitting process.
Then place in freezer bags. I don't recommend a large amount in a bag. It's better to thaw 2 small bags rather than thawing a big one and then having to re-freeze or throw away the remaining cherries.
Seal tightly and be careful to choose thicker bags for the freezer. If you can't find, use 2 thinner bags.
And so on, as many bags as possible, for the most delicious desserts in winter.
Enjoy!
