In about half a week I’ll be picking a couple 5 gallon buckets of sour cherries. I made juice from these once years ago. I’m looking for a good site or someone here with instructions on making the juice and preserving it. Instructions on getting them home in good shape to the finished juice wanted. I’m thinking of putting them in a cooler that can be filled with water with citric acid to prevent oxidation. Last time the ends started to degrade in the hours it took to get them home in buckets. Processing efficiency and best ways to make the juice is where I’m hoping to improve. I need to get the stuff ready now so it’s ready to make juice in half a week.
This is what I expected. You never get anything on canning or preserving on this site.
I’ll bump this because I’m interested in anything related to sour cherries. Have to wonder where you get them this time of year, they were gone last weekend here (northern Virginia.)
I can tell you that water alone doesn’t help stop the ends from quickly turning brown, maybe the citric acid will. A little brown on the ends doesn’t affect the flavor in my experience.
What will you do with the juice?
I brought them to a boil to soften them and then used a fruit press. The acidic acid kept them from going bad. I picked a quart and dumped them in the water in a cooler with the acidic acid.
do you mean acetic acid?
Citric Acid
Ascorbic acid would be a better bet- it takes 1/3 the amount of it versus citric acid to have the same browning prevention ability. It’s not oxidation as much as it’s an enzymatic reaction in fruit that causes browning, and acid interferes with that reaction.
Citric Acid was available in my town. I usually have to drive to a larger town to get stuff I need at $25 a trip in gas.
Make sure you mix the result with lots of soda water. Yeah, pop those cherries!