maraschino cherries

Last year, I made maraschino cherries. I made a few half pints with a couple of different kinds of cherries, gave some away and as of today, I've got four cherries left.

I grew up as a child eating the bright red commercial maraschino cherries. These are not those cherries. These are so much better. Less sweet, certainly, but these taste like booze and cherries.

I use the N.Y. Times recipe.

The first cherries at the farmers market this year were small, pink and only somewhat sweet.

Last year I made them from sour cherries, which went over well with some of my friends who are far more into cocktails than I. I also made them with bing cherries, which I preferred. We'll see how these turn out.

I pitted them with my cherry pitter. It's pretty much a single use tool, but it saves so much time when you're working with cherries.

Then, I put my cherries in a pint jar and brought a little over a cup of Luxardo Maraschino to a boil on the stovetop. I topped the cherries with the hot booze, popped a lid on it, (took a couple of photos), and put the jar in the fridge to macerate. They'll be ready for cocktails in about a week.

Yum!