This is a refrigerator jam and not intended to be sealed and stored in the pantry. All you need is a very clean jar. Once the jam is cooked to consistency, pour into jar, let cool and refrigerate. This jam keeps for several months in the refrigerator.
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Wash and rinse a clean pint jar (do not dry). Add about an inch of water to the jar and place in microwave for 1.5 minutes. Using jar grips, pour out the hot water and place jar on a clean towel until ready to pour.
Add the sugar and lemon to the cherries and heat over medium heat. Stir until the sugar has melted.
When the jam is ready, remove from the heat and pour into the jar. Put the lid on it, let cool, and refrigerate. This jam keeps in the refrigerator until you finish it off, which won't take long.
Type of cherries – Sweet cherries yield a very sweet jam that makes one mean peanut butter and jam sandwich! Sour cherries or wild cherries (which are rather tart), yield a delicious sweet and tart jam. Great in toast and bagels. Therefore, it really doesn’t matter the type of cherries you use. Just use your favorite cherries and enjoy!
Amount of cherries – It’s hard to estimate non-pitted weight vs. pitted weight because cherry sizes and cherry pit sizes differ. Therefore, regardless of how much pitted cherries you ended up with, just be sure that the ratio of fruit to sugar is 2:1 (by weight). Also, 16 to 20 ounces of pitted cherries gets you closer to a full pint of jam.
Lemon Juice/Zest – Cherries are a relatively low pectin fruit; therefore, lemon zest is recommended to give the jam a little pectin boost. (The zest has more pectin than the juice.) The lemon flavor is subtle and does tone down the sweetness a bit.
Using an immersion blender– If you like a chunky cherry jam or if your cherries are small (like wild cherries), then omit the blender all together.
Time & Temperature – Since this is a low pectin jam, time and temperature are important to help the jam set. Cooking it at a full boil cooks off a lot of the liquid in a short amount of time and raises the temperature quicker. Just be sure to stir constantly. I have found from making many, many single jars of jam, that this process usually takes between 15 to 20 minutes for most fruits, but can take longer. Using temperature is actually more consistent than using time.
Temperature - Using a candy thermometer yields pretty consistent results and is a good tool for quick jam recipes. The standard maximum cooking temperature for jams is a temperature of 220° F (104° C) at sea level; however, as you go up in elevation, this temperature decreases. The rule of thumb is to subtract 1ºF for every 500 ft. increase in elevation. Since I live right at a mile high (5280 ft), 210ºF is a the temperature I use for cherry jam.
If you let the temperature get too high or allow too much liquid to evaporate, you get a “stiff” or “stringy” jam that is hard to spread. If this ever happens, don’t throw the jam out. Add it a quick bread or knead it into a yeast bread.
Full, rolling boil – You want a full, rolling boil that is well under control with a gentle stir. If you feel like you’re whipping egg whites to keep it under control, then the heat is way too high. Be sure to stir constantly once the jam comes to a rolling boil. Infrequent stirring can cause the jam to burn and create a messy stovetop due to splattering or even a boil over.
Recipe author: MJ of MJ's Kitchen