I got a decent harvest for the first time from my two cornelian cherries last season - their 6th leaf at my place. Nobody in my family cares much for them fresh - they are even too tannic for me and my son, who appreciate goumi and autumn olive. So I froze them to build up for a batch of jam, the last refuge of berries and fruits that no on wanted to eat fresh. I made some nice jam with a mix of other things from the yard: red currants, jostaberry, strawberry, blackberry, goumi.
But when I tried to run a batch with cornelian cherries in the mix, it clogged up my Squeeze-o food mill something fierce. The pits are just too big to get out of the end of the screw and the get stalled as the spiral gets smaller toward the tapered end. Eventually I got through it but I had to take the machine apart about four times while full of hot jam to get the wedged pits out of the screw. This was annoying, messy, and wasted a bunch of product. I used about half that batch to make a cute four layer chiffon cake with whipped cream filling/frosting. Yum!
Anyone have some tips on how to process these efficiently?
Looks to me that you picked those C.mas fruits WAY too early.
In my experience…and I’ve only ever just eaten them fresh from the tree…they need to be soft and almost beginning to shrivel somewhat.
I was about to mention the same thing. They have to start to fall by itself or the lightest touch to be best. For processing they can be harvested a little early I would guess.
That cake looks really delicious! Did you grow plain species cornelian cherry or one of the selections for sweeter fruit? The selections really are sweeter. Lots of plain species where I work and they are tart. We grew Redstone once and far sweeter fruit. I now see a lot of named selections out but have not tried any besides Redstone.
I’m about to process them by cutting them down and planting some plums in their place.
I have had my 2 bushes for 10 years now. I don’t like them fresh and I have tried all means of processing them. I even picked them under riped and fermented them like olives.
These things just are not for me. Hope every else has better luck with them.
Yes, the fruit is not very tart at that stage. They easily released from the seed with boiling them a few minutes. Mine were amazingly delicious as a syrup. Not all that complex, yet still very good. After reading so many reviews, much like this one I didn’t expect much but I was very surprised how good they were. I went to a party with various syrups. Black currant, raspberry, and cornelian cherries. Added to soda or tonic with a little vodka, which was how all of us were enjoying these syrups. All agreed the cornelian cherries were the best.
Oh and any wondering my trees are species seedlings. Their main purpose is as a hedge.
Ripening times vary by a month between seedlings.
I’ve noticed they get sweeter and less astringent right before they fall off. But to me the texture is mushy by then and maybe with a whiff of fermented flavor. This year I collected fruit on maybe 3 or 4 different days. I would shake the tree and collect the drops off the ground, then go around and pull off the ones that seemed close. Maybe next year I’ll only collect ones that fall off.
These trees look nice and have pretty flowers at a very early date when the only other thing with color is crocuses. And I like the fact they make fruit, even if I’m not that crazy about it. No bugs or disease and the animals don’t seem to want to eat them, so that is pretty great. Really I’m happy to make jam with them, but I do wish they worked in my food mill. I’ll have to try something like the cone and pestle next time. Thanks for that pic @Bradybb
I grew up on cornelian cherry compote, which is extremely easy to make. Just fill up jars with fruit up to 3/4 (I like more juice so I try not to fill more than 1/2), add sugar, water, lock sterilise. If you don’t have a steamer, just use an oven.
These were very sweet, so I eyeballed the sugar at 1,5ts per jar and actually added just a little citric acid.
The compote is refreshing with a hint of adstringency and was used traditionally to lower fewers.
Next up is jam which is made using honey in Eastern Slovakia: you squash soft-ripe cornelian cherries, mix them with honey, leave to rest in a cool place and strain through a cheese cloth or a colander depending on whether you like your jam clear or buttery.
I use the same method as for regular sour cherry jam (cooking whole, passing through a colander to get rid of seeds, adding sugar). I fill it into small jars and eat like spoon-candy.
Another traditional use, mainly of the German minority in Slovakia, is drienkovica - cornelian cherry brandy.
Further into history, the Celts who stayed in my home region some 2400-2100 years ago used cornelian cherries to make wine. I believe it’s still made in Armenia.
