I have several cherry trees on the land here. A couple of sweet cherries, and several ginjas (sour cherries mostly used for making a well-known alcoholic drink of the same name).
For the first couple of years I would harvest the cherries and turn them into jelly, or simply bottle them in syrup but then they would sit around in my store room for years not getting used. I don't eat a lot of jam and I have an aversion to bottled cherries left-over from my childhood (along with rice pudding, bread and butter pudding, and semolina pudding among other things). Surely there must be a better way to preserve a glut of cherries so that I can actually appreciate them?
Then, in 2024, I found a recipe for cherry ketchup and I've never looked back. This condiment can replace the normal shop-bought tomato ketchup in everything from burgers to chips and, as far as I'm concerned, it tastes much, much better.
Ingredients
3.5kgs cherries, pitted
1.5 cups vinegar (apple cider or red wine)
3 cups sugar
A large piece of freshly grated ginger
3 tsp salt
1 tsp ground chilli pepper
1.5 tsp granulated garlic
1 tsp ground cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1 lemon, zested
Method:
Put the pitted cherries in a saucepan and add the vinegar and sugar. Bring to the boil then simmer for about an hour. Be careful as this boils over really easily!
Puree this mixture and add the rest of the ingredients. Bring to the boil, stirring often as it thickens (it pays to boil off most of the excess moisture before pureeing!). When it has reached a nice thick consistency, work it through a sieve with a spoon or run it through a moulin to remove any lumps and bits of ginger etc.
Ladle it into hot, sterile jars. Put clean, sterile lids on and leave to cool down and seal. This will keep for at least a year in a cool, dry place away from sunlight.
Once opened , refrigerate and eat within a few weeks.