DIY Maraschino Cocktail Cherries Week 2: I Brined My Cherries. Did I Screw Them Up?

I’ve decided to kick my $20 a jar Luxardo cherry habit (hey it’s still cheaper than ordering my Manhattans at a bar! Right?) by making a batch of luxurious homemade cocktail cherries. By week 2 of my project I had procured frozen sour cherries and a bottle of Maraschino liqueur. What was next?

Here’s what I did and how I think I may have already screwed it up. Want to reassure me?

I did a lot of reading before I embarked on my cherry-preserving. I paid especially close attention to these three links:

• Luxardo cherry discussion at Chowhound
• Maraschino & Cocktail Cherries at Art of Drink
• Homemade Maraschino Cherries: Recipe Roundup at BaltimoreDIY

My goal with these cherries was a crisp cherry, like Luxardo’s, and a rich, jammy taste. I was really intrigued by the idea of “curing” my cherries in a salt water bath, which was supposed to fix their color and texture and help them absorb the sugar syrup and liqueur I would be adding. Think of pickling, and how a brine fixes cucumbers’ color and keeps them crisp.

The problem is that I was starting with frozen cherries, not fresh, which meant that the cherries were way softer and more flabby to start with. Would a salt water blanch and lots of sugar plump them up?

Here’s what I did. I made a brine with 6 cups water and 3 tablespoons coarse kosher salt. I brought it to a boil and added about 1 pound of frozen sour cherries. I simmered for four minutes, then drained them and ran them under cool water.

Immediately I regretted simmering the cherries; many of them looked split and they were all wrinkled and a little sad-looking. I wondered if I should have done a cold brine instead, leaving the cherries in a salt water bath in the fridge overnight.

But I forged ahead, making a syrup of 2 cups sugar, 1 cup water, 1/2 cup cherry juice concentrate, and cinnamon, star anise, and green cardamom pods. I simmered these until the sugar dissolved, then turned off the heat and stirred in 1/2 cup maraschino liqueur. I strained out the spices, since I only wanted a subtle hint of spice. I divided the cherries between two pint jars and I poured this syrup over the cherries.

For the sake of experimentation, I put more frozen cherries in a separate pint jar and poured the remaining syrup over them.

Now the cherries are hanging out in the refrigerator, hopefully soaking up the sugary syrup and liqueur and getting transformed into delicious cocktail cherries. I am wondering, though, if they’ll ever become what I was hoping for, or whether they’ll turn out to be something different (yet still delicious). Will the brine actually help? Will they plump up in their juicy syrup?

Regardless, I won’t know for some weeks. I’ll report back next week with an early test, but these really should steep for at least 4 weeks.

Have you ever made cocktail cherries like these? What do you think of my method? Have you found a way to make a really crisp cherry in syrup?