Maraschino cherries?

[Seven]

In a conversation today at work someone mentioned Maraschino cherries were “invented” at Oregon State University. This brought up the question, “huh? Really?”

So I hit google and found several different stories on the matter. One saying yes, invented at OSU. Another saying nope, they came from Croatia.

So does anyone know the deal on Maraschino cherries? Does Maraschino refer to the process of making the sweet cherry or is it the type of cherry itself?

[Nametag]

@Seven

In a conversation today at work someone mentioned Maraschino cherries were “invented” at Oregon State University. This brought up the question, “huh? Really?”

So I hit google and found several different stories on the matter. One saying yes, invented at OSU. Another saying nope, they came from Croatia.

So does anyone know the deal on Maraschino cherries? Does Maraschino refer to the process of making the sweet cherry or is it the type of cherry itself?

Maraschino is the cherryliqueur that was originally used to soak the cherries. I suspect that OSU came up with the modern American process for bleaching, sugaring, and dyeing the cherries that are sold as “Maraschino.”

[Hunter_Hawk]

I’ve done a couple of searches over the years but haven’t been able to find a definitive answer.

Maraschino is a sweet, slightly bitter liqueur made from marasca cherries, which is a type of European cherry (so that would be your Croatian link). I would assume that the original maraschino cherries were just cherries soaked in maraschino–I’ve done this myself, and they come out quite good. Note that older recipes for Manhattans call for small amounts of maraschino liqueur; if you use the liquid that the cherries have been soaking in, it’s particularly good.

The things we know as maraschino cherries are a different beast–they’re essentially cherry pickles. The cherries are “bleached” to remove their color and flavor, and then have artificial flavor and color added back in (note that the “maraschino” flavor is more like almonds, and is significantly different from real maraschino).

So I wouldn’t be at all surprised if OSU had a significant contribution to the modern process of making the fake maraschino cherries, but I highly doubt that OSU invented the concept.

[Fear_Itself]

OSU claims the modern maraschino cherry was developed there:

In 1919, a horticultural products processing program, the first of its kind in the United States, was begun at Oregon Agricultural College by Ernest H. Wiegand. The modern maraschino cherry was developed by this program in the 1920s.

http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/archives/archive/pho/p142des.html

Gray & Company, the worlds largest producer of maraschino cherries, also attributes the modern maraschino cherry to OSU:

In the 1920’s Ernest H. Wiegand, a horticultural professor at Oregon State University, developed a preserving method for cherries that utilized brine instead of alcohol. The modern maraschino was born, and to this day students at Oregon State University can take a course devoted to the technological and scientific aspects of maraschino cherry production!

http://www.cherryman.com/fruit/consumer-history.html