CookEat Recipe
Marena with Whole Sour Cherries
Wrinkled sour cherries in a rich cinnamon-scented syrup, served with clear marena.
Method
Steps
Step 1
Gather the ingredients: About 900 g sound sour cherries, enough to obtain 500 g clear juice; 667 g caster sugar; 4.2 g food-grade citric acid; 1 small cinnamon-stick piece, about 2 cm; 300 g additional sound sour cherries, kept whole with stones intact; 400 g additional caster sugar; 1 additional small cinnamon-stick piece, about 2 cm.
Step 2
Wash and stem sound sour cherries, remove the stones without crushing them, and discard the stones. Crush the fruit in a stainless-steel saucepan, bring to a boil and simmer for 5–10 minutes until soft. Strain through a clean jelly bag, then filter again through a fresh closely woven food-safe cloth. Weigh exactly 500 g clear juice; process a little more fruit if needed. Keep the straining period brief and refrigerate at 4°C or colder if the juice must wait.
Step 3
Put the 500 g clear cherry juice in a saucepan with the cinnamon. When hot, stir in the sugar and citric acid until dissolved. Bring to a boil and boil for 4–5 minutes, stirring to prevent sticking; do not reduce for longer. Remove the cinnamon and skim any foam.
Step 4
Wash and stem the additional 300 g whole cherries. Leave their stones intact; do not crack them or extract kernels. Put the cherries and the second cinnamon piece in a saucepan over gentle heat. Stir carefully until they release juice, then gradually add the 400 g sugar. Cook gently, moving the pan and folding the cherries with a broad spoon without crushing them, until the sugar dissolves and the cherries are wrinkled and dark red-brown. Allow about 20–35 minutes; use the appearance of the cooked fruit as the endpoint and stop before scorching.
Step 5
Remove the cinnamon. Measure 300 ml of the prepared clear marena syrup and mix gently with the whole cherries and their cooking syrup. Reserve the remaining clear marena separately; do not discard the whole-fruit cooking syrup. The 12 small servings refer to this whole-cherry mixture; the surplus clear syrup is additional and follows the same storage limit.
Step 6
Divide into clean shallow heat-safe containers. Refrigerate promptly at 4°C or colder, loosely covered until cold; close the containers once chilled. Use within 3 days of cooking or freeze portions promptly. This is not a pantry preserve.
Step 7
Serve small portions with a spoon. Tell diners that the cherries contain stones. For a drink, dilute some of the syrup with cold drinking water.
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