Canning Cherry Juice
Home-canned cherry juice made from whole cherries cooked and strained, with no pitting required. Can it plain or sweetened to taste for a shelf-stable drink that's ready to pour over ice or stir into sparkling water.
Servings: 4 cups, Makes 2 Pints
Equipment
- Steam Juicer optional, or use stovetop
- Canning Jars, Lids and Bands
Ingredients
For the Juice:
- 4 pounds cherries sour or sweet
- 1 cup water stovetop method only
To Taste (Optional):
- Sugar to taste
- 1 to 2 Tbsp lemon juice optional, for sweet cherries
Instructions
- Rinse the cherries. For the stovetop method, place them whole in a pot with a little water and cook over medium-high heat, stirring, until the juices burst. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer until the cherries pop and give up their juice.
- Pour the cooked cherries into a jelly bag set over a deep bowl and let the juice drip without squeezing, for the clearest juice. (Several layers of cheesecloth in a strainer work too.) Alternatively, extract the juice in a steam juicer.
- Measure the strained juice into a clean pot. Sweeten to taste if you like, and stir in a little lemon juice with sweet cherries to round out the flavor. Heat until the juice just begins to boil.
- Ladle the hot juice into prepared jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe the rims, center the lids, and apply the bands fingertip tight.
- Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes, adjusting for altitude (see notes). Turn off the heat, rest the jars 5 minutes, then cool 12 to 24 hours and check the seals.
Notes
Yield: About 4 pounds of cherries yields roughly 4 cups of juice, or about 2 pints canned. Cherry juice scales cleanly, so multiply the batch to fill a full canner load or run several batches back to back.
Cherries: Sour cherries give the most flavor and acidity, but sweet, black, and Rainier cherries all work. There's no pitting, since the cherries are cooked whole and strained. Bottled tart cherry juice can stand in for fresh; dilute any concentrate to regular strength first.
Straining: For clear juice, let the bag drip on its own without squeezing. Pressing the bag gives a higher yield but a cloudier juice. Either way the safety is the same.
Sweetening: Cherry juice cans safely with or without sugar, so sweeten to taste or leave it plain. Both sour and sweet cherries are acidic enough to can on their own. A tablespoon or two of lemon juice is optional with sweet cherries, for flavor rather than safety.
Storage: Sealed, processed jars keep on the pantry shelf for up to a year. Refrigerate after opening, and store any jar that didn't seal in the fridge to use within a few days. The juice can also be frozen instead of canned; leave 1 inch of headspace for expansion.
Altitude Adjustments: Process pints and quarts for 10 minutes below 1,000 feet. Between 1,000 and 6,000 feet, process for 15 minutes, and above 6,000 feet, process for 20 minutes.
Nutrition
Serving: 1cup | Calories: 287kcal | Carbohydrates: 73g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 0.2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.2g | Sodium: 2mg | Potassium: 1011mg | Fiber: 10g | Sugar: 58g | Vitamin A: 291IU | Vitamin C: 33mg | Calcium: 60mg | Iron: 2mg