Sweet Fasting
Cherry preserve
Whole cherries in a clear syrup, served by the spoonful with a glass of water — the way a guest is welcomed.
Recipe from Туѓино Јабано
- Prep
- 40 min
- Cook
- 45 min
- Total
- 1 hr 25 min
- Fasting
- Suitable
Ingredients 5 ingredients
Method
- Wash the cherries and take out the stones carefully, with a hairpin or a stoner, so the fruit stays whole. Slatko is judged precisely on the fruit being whole.
- Layer them in a bowl with sugar between the layers and leave overnight somewhere cool. In the morning you will find a syrup that has made itself.
- Tip everything into a wide pan with the water and heat gently until the sugar has completely dissolved, without stirring with a spoon — just tilt the pan.
- Boil over a medium heat for about 30 minutes, skimming off the foam that rises. The foam carries the cloudiness with it; leave it in and the preserve will not be clear.
- Add the lemon juice and the vanilla and boil for another 10–15 minutes, until a drop of the syrup holds its shape on a cold plate.
- Take it off the heat and let it stand uncovered until cold — the fruit firms up and stops floating to the top.
- Pot it in sterilised jars. Serve by the spoonful, with a glass of cold water beside it.
If you cannot find it
Substitutions that work outside Macedonia.
- Fresh cherries
- Frozen sour cherries, thawed and drained; drop the sugar by about 100 g.
- Lemon juice
- A pinch of citric acid; it is what stops the syrup crystallising.
- Vanilla
- A few cloves or a strip of lemon peel.
