The Spittin' Sisters Share Martha Washington's Pitted Cherry Preserves

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By Spittin in Michigan (aka our dear Lisa Catherine Brown)

Again Spittin’ Sisters are on a serendipitous wave length. While PA Sister Anne was seeking Sweet Freedom Bakery, MI Sister Lisa was searching Founding Father recipes and hit the jackpot! Here is one I love for the sheer spittin’ audacity due our founding fathers.

George Washington may or may not have chopped down the cherry tree, but he was a spittin’ cherries for certain! This recipe for preserves is intended to cook and eat fresh out of the jar - a scoop to add to yogurt, ice cream or over angel food or cheesecake. Perfect to take on a picnic with crackers too, as we are headed to Ottawa State Park to greet Mitt Romney’s “Throw the Middle Class Under the Bus Tour”. Have dog crate, will travel! Use your imagination!

I have followed The Shiska in the Kitchen blog for over a year now and I can assure you she knows her way around a kitchen. Here she interprets Martha Washington’s original recipe with her modern touches using a cherry pitting tool!

She also gives a good history lesson, so please read on: http://theshiksa.com/2011/07/01/martha-washingtons-preserved-cherries/

Martha’s Original Recipe:
TO PRESERUE CHERIES

Take 2 pound of faire cherries & clip of the stalks in ye midst. then wash them clean, but bruise them not. then take 2 pound of double refined sugar, & set it over ye fire with a quart of faire water in ye broadest preserving pan or silver basen as you can get. Let it seeth till it be some what thick, yn put in yr cherries, & let them boyle. keepe allwayes scumming & turning them gently with a silver spoon till they be enough. when they are cold, you may glass them up & keep them all the year.

The Shiska’s Version:

INGREDIENTS

2 lbs. ripe fresh cherries
2 lbs. (about 4 cups) granulated sugar
1 quart (4 cups) water

YOU WILL ALSO NEED
Quart jar, cherry pitting tool

Prep Time: 20 MinutesCook Time: 40 MinutesTotal Time: 1 Hour

Wash and dry your cherries, then pit them using a pitting tool. Discard pits and stems.

Click on the link above for final step-by-step directions and enjoy yourself in the kitchen!

http://theshiksa.com/2011/07/01/martha-washingtons-preserved-cherries/

Anne asked me to remind everyone that Martha Washington absolutely was a Smart Sensuality woman. Read her brief Getting Down With Martha Washington: The First Mama Was A Hottie in Sensual Rebel.