Freezing Cherries
Choosing, Keeping, and Freezing Cherries
Choosing cherries is not that hard, but many of us don’t really know about keeping and freezing cherries. It is actually not that hard either so long as you remember to take a few precautions to retain the full flavor of your cherries. Knowing how to do this will not only add a wonderful treat to your family’s diet, but can also save you money.
Choosing Cherries
The key to choosing cherries is appearance and hardness. The deeper the hue of a cherry, the more flavor you can expect. You should pick cherries that are luminous, and have smooth unblemished skin. If there are any bruises or breaks on the surface, you should avoid those cherries. In addition, you should also discard cherries that are overly hard or squishy and soft. Another good sign of bad cherries is dry stems.
Cool Cherries
If you have more cherries than you and your family are likely to get to in a week’s time, then slow down their aging by storing them in your refrigerator. The process here is simple. Just wash your cherries off, dry them, and place them in a plastic Ziploc bag inside of your refrigerator.
Be careful not to place your cherries near the back of the refrigerator where the cooling enters the cavity of your unit as this may lead to frosting of some cherries. For best results, you should place cherries inside of the climate controlled vegetable drawer.
Freezing Cherries
Some people find that a good way of saving money is to buy cherries in bulk and then freeze a certain amount of them so that you can have a tasty treat deep into the fall. Because cherries are so expensive relative to other fruits this may well be worth your while. This process also is simple so long as you remember to follow certain precautions.
First, you will have to pit you cherries. If you do not remove the pits, the cherries will acquire a bitter taste during the freezing process. So begin by washing your olives off in a colander. Then, you will want to start pitting your cherries. To avoid staining your clothes with cherry juice (very difficult to remove from certain materials), you should wear a protective apron. Throw the pits in the garbage can (not into the garbage disposal in the sink as they may, in mass, cause damage to or get stuck in the blades).
Put the pitted cherries on a paper towel and dry them thoroughly. This is a very important step as excess moisture may cause your cherries to become an icky, sticky mess if you don’t.
Place the cherries on a cookie sheet in a single layer and then place the cookie sheet in the freezer for an hour or so or until the cherries freeze through. Being careful not to place ice in with the frozen cherries, remove the cherries from the cookie sheet, and place them into one or more Ziploc bags.
Squeeze all the excess air out of the bag and seal. Return the bag to the freezer until you decide to use the cherries.
An alternative to this method of freezing cherries alone is to place them in a plastic back with mixture of 2/5 sugar and 3/5 water. Many cooks claim this really helps keep sweet cherries sweet. I prefer the simpler method and to take other measures to ensure they keep their flavor during cooking.
A Final Cooking Tip
After you are done freezing cherries, and you decide to thaw them out and cook with them, you may want to try this help you cherries retain their full range of flavor. Cook your cherries with almond extract. Just a little pinch of almond extra can really help your cherries get their full zest back.
Happy cherry adventures!