So I had enough Rainier cherries to make canned Maraschino cherries. I was looking up how to can sweet cherries in one of my favorite books, The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery and found this recipe too
Per google , Rainiers are a good substitute for Royal Anns. I made notes about how to make limewater which I also figured out with the help of google. I ran out of red food coloring so I used some purple and pink too. These will be colorful cherries. The syrup tastes good so hopefully the cherries will too.
PS I still LOVE this book. I found my first one in a Berkeley bookstore in the 1990s. The one I use now is an updated version with improved canning techniques. I bought a collection of the original mimeographs that she used later to write the book. I should look through these to find the origins of this recipe. I love how she saved old homesteading techniques before they were lost. Sadly she has died but her good work lives on.
Very cool. I didn’t realize you could “maraschino”-ize cherries at home!
I did not either until I saw the recipe. I remember being driven by the Oregon plant that made the majority of the maraschino cherries for the US and being told they bleach the cherries there. I am glad I did not have to bleach them.
That was very interesting! I may have to try making some myself.
We can no longer use commercial maraschino cherries, because of the corn syrup, since First #1 Daughter can no longer tolerate corn syrup. I have a really neat (very sweet) recipe for a cookie that I used to make at Christmas time, which calls for the cherries, plus marshmallows, so we haven’t had them for quite a while.
You should try it then! I will post once I try a cherry, but the syrup is good so I assume the cherry taste the same.