RECIPE: Wild Cherry Vinegar

Tried and tested seasonal recipes from our country cookery school kitchen.  As well as hacks and get ahead tips for EVERY cook. 

Wild cherry trees can be found in parks and woodland.  If you are fortunate to have one growing in your garden, the blossom will appear in late April and early May.  The cherries ripen by late June and through to mid-July.  Once gathered and washed thoroughly, they can be used for either sweet or savoury recipes.

First, take care to remove all of the stones as these are poisonous.

This is an easy recipe to create a fruit flavoured vinegar which can be bottled and used for salad dressings, to deglaze a pan or to add to meringue mixture.

Total 45 mins

+ infusing time over three days

Method

Use the back of a tablespoon to crush the cherries in a mixing bowl.

Add the vinegar and cover.  Leave the bowl on the kitchen worktop for three days.

Stir the contents two or three times each day.

On day three, strain the fruit infused vinegar through a muslin-lined plastic sieve.  Measure the liquid.

Weigh 225 g granulated cane sugar for every 600 ml infused vinegar.

Add the sugar and the vinegar to a heavy based pan.  Place over a low heat and stir continuously until the sugar dissolves.

Increase heat and boil for 10 minutes.

Pour into sterilised jars.  Label and seal.

Cooks Tip

• Make sure that all of the stones are removed.  Ideally use a cherry stoner.  Or a sterilised hair pin can be threaded, bent side first into each cherry. Once you can feel the stone around the bend of the hair pin, pull the two ends towards you, trapping the stone as you pull. 
• This recipe can be adapted for other seasonal fruit such as raspberries and mulberries. 
• Read more preserving tips including how to sterilise jars and bottles in our jam here: