Earlier in the week I bought a bag of red cherries. I thought I was super-mom for doing so because my kids have been asking for them constantly. For some reason when I purchased them I thought I was buying Bing Cherries. So when it came to snack time my daughters were upset at how sour they were. Oops! It would have been a shame to toss them out, so instead I made cherry jam. After looking on the internet for a recipe, I decided to make an adapted version of David Lebovitz “No-Recipe Cherry Jam“. The recipe is quite simple and I love how it turned out. The best part is how easy it was and that no pectin was required. This recipe is a keeper! Enjoy!
Easy Cherry Jam Recipe
Adapted from David Lebovitz “No-Recipe Cherry Jam“
Ingredients:
Cherries (the more tart the better), stems and pits removed, and chopped
Sugar
Lemon rind/juice
rum (optional)
Directions:
In a medium size pan, add chopped cherries, lemon rind, lemon juice, and rum cooking on medium-high heat for 5 minutes. Add approximately an equal amount of sugar (as to cherries) and reduce heat to medium. Stir everything until sugar has dissolved.
Cook for an additional 15 minutes stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and enjoy!
G’day, i’ve just checked out your recipe. where’re the quantities? or is’t your secret recipe? not really impressed with you guys.
never mind. such is life. one can’t win’m all.
so anyone try with this with bing? how does it do with the sweeeter typr?
Bright red cherries are tart cherries that are wonderful for pies and jams — its not unripe — just a different kind of cherries.
You never buy cherries that are bright red they are not ripe we grow them and they should be nearly black in colour really enoying when growers hit the earkt market with unripe fruit puts people of
I have just made your Cherry Jam and it’s now cooling of in the jars. A fantastic and easy receipe and really tasty.
I have 3 cherry trees although they are not sour cherries I hope this works for them too as your jam looks really good
I will try that recipe tomorrow. Anyone ever try microwave jam or microwave cherry crisp? Amazingly good.
Equal amount of sugar as to cherries meaning 1 cup cherries, 1cup sugar? I’ve never made jam before but I have a huge tree full of cherries and don’t want to see them go to waste. Thanks for sharing this recipe. I can’t wait to try it.
Bookmarking now cheers, a good fast read.
Amazing, never made jam before, but this was so easy, smelled amazing and I have no doubt that it will disappear very quickly! Thank you!
Argghh! I should have followed your recipe. I used it, but at the end, the jam didn’t seem think enough so I continued to cook and gel-test it as I have other jams. Once it cooled, I had a gob o’ Gummy Goo (all I needed was a bear-shaped mold). *sigh* I’ll never mistrust you again.
I’m pretty new to BlogEngine and noticed that a number of your other readers have different avatars. Any idea as to how I can change mine? Is it possible to put a custom one?
Hi Sharla,
What you want to do is make a Global Avatar. Here’s the link. http://en.gravatar.com/
Looks great! I think I might employ this recipe in a cake I’m making soon. Dark Chocolate and sour cherrys!
Sarah, this recipe would be fine to pour into jars and process in a hot water bath (a rolling boil for ten minutes) for a shelf stable jam. Just make sure not to reduce the amount of sugar, it plays a large role in preventing spoilage and keeping your jam good to eat.
So, to preserve it, can I put it in sterile jars and do the water bath thing? That would work, right?
Beautiful photos. I wonder how this would be with Rainier cherries?
Cherry jam is my favorite – thanks for a delicious and easy recipe!
Your jam looks beautiful! I have some cherries in my refrigerator that need to be used… I think I will give this a try – even if it’s just a small batch!
The jam looks really tasty. My great grandmother used to make jam out of everything imaginable and cherry was my favorite that she made. I really wish some would magically appear in my kitchen for tomorrow mornings toast:)
What a vivid, visual post – I like your style Alice. First time here! First photo alone seemed like a ruby gem in the light…
I’ve been wanting to try and make my own jam for a long while. This is pretty easy indeed.
Nice work! I made this several times last season using the sour cherries from a tree in our yard. I added rhubarb, strawberries, raspberries – not all at the same time but throughout the different batches. I love that it doesn’t use pectin and the results are always delicious!!
I love it…& am gonna make it soon. Just done making a Peach-Rosemary jam & we have plenty of cherries in the market now, mostly sour! This is just YUM Alice!
A happy mistake…and perhaps one you’ll repeat. I don’t recall seeing cherry jam before and this looks delicious. P.S. Beautiful pics.