The Christmas Present

I was the recipient of a number of wonderful christmas presents, including the digital kitchen scale I have longed for, which has the distinction of being the both the first, and the second item ever purchased from my Amazon wish list (Somehow, 2 people managed to purchase the same item, which I had thought impossible. Sorting it out involves me getting to pick out yet another goodie-I'm feeling well and truly spoiled.) There were excellent books, dvds, more nifty kitchen items, and even a cashmere sweater of lush softness. But this particular gift is just so fine.

You may, perhaps, recall my whinging about my inability to buy Maraschino Liquor anywhere in Pennsylvania. I wanted to get some badly after I read in the New York Times earlier this year about making maraschino cherries. It suddenly became immensely important to me that I have a jar of real maraschino cherries, without corn syrup, red dye, et al., made by soaking unadulterated real cherries in unadulterated maraschino liquor.

It is not that I have a manhattan, or a hot fudge sundae, or a pineapple upside down cake on a daily basis. But these things do sometimes just inexplicably grab me. I was not a happy camper when I was informed that the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board had decided that Pennsylvania residents did not need this item, so that it was not available at any liquor store in the state. I could not buy it here, even if I was willing to wait for it to be shipped in from a warehouse in another county.

As often happens in the Toast family, my one and only child had also read the article and independently decided that she needed some real maraschino cherries. (I cannot tell you the number of times I have googled something and wound up looking at her hungry tiger.) She was, however, on her way to Italy for a conference at the time, and by the time we discussed it, she was back with her bottle of the goods. When you are an employee of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, you never go to a conference anywhere more thrilling than Harrisburg. Envy was the nice word for it.

So, when I opened the long skinny present on Christmas Day, and saw that she and S. had given me this, I was pretty well over the moon. They found it visiting Providence, at a fancy Federal Hill liquor store. (They live in Ohio, where the liquor stores are also dire.) There was a definite element of selflessness involved in actually turning it over to me-I know this well. I am hugely tickled to have it, and intend to pour a portion of it over a big jar full of defrosted pitted organic frozen cherries asap.
Cocktails to follow.

HoHoHo.

Addendum: Spotted a small bag of hard South American cherries at the market, and decided it would be nice to have some stems on my maraschinos. So- I abandoned plans for the frozen cherries, washed these guys and filled two pint jars to the top. (I didn't pit them-there's that almondy flavor to be gained from the pits, a perfect excuse for laziness.) I added a wee bit of simple sugar syrup and filled to the top with my lovely christmas present. I'll give them a few weeks at the dark side of the pantry shelf, and then (after tasting) move to the fridge.

Further Addendum: (see comment in response to Matthew, below) If you search this blog for "maraschino" you will find an update. Turned out that the fresh and frozen cherries were a bust- but dried cherries worked very well indeed. I heartily recommend poring this stuff over every dried cherry you can find.

Comments

[Kimberly]

I have never been a fan of maraschino cherries, and, other than having learned to tie their stems in knots with my tongue, I have generally avoided them. That said, I'm almost certain that I've never had a real one made only with cherries and maraschino liquor. I've never even seen maraschino liquor, and, like Pennsylvania, the great state of Washington seems bent on keeping it that way. I'm intrigued. Please do write about your cherries when they are ready.

[Alisa]

I would like to hear how you like the cherries. I was also extremely excited by the NY Times article and by the delicous sounding drink I would be able to make once I had these wonderful cherries. But...I did make the cherries and they are really and truly disgusting, foul, nasty tasting, not cherry-like, no woodsy notes, horrible and hard-to-get-rid-of-by-giving-to-other-people things. Blechhh! Just thinking about them makes me shudder. For a while I thought there was something wrong with me but I recently met someone who had had the exact same experience. It happened to be New Years Eve and we were very happily putting bright red plastic(-like) sweet scrumptious store-bought marascino cherries in our whisky sours.

[lindy]

Alisa-Interesting. We'll see. My daughter made some and liked them a lot. Mine will be a bit different from hers, because I made them with fresh cherries, rather than frozen ,and included some sugar syrup.

In fact, I made them pretty much like making traditional brandied cherries, except with maraschino instead of brandy. Since I like both brandied cherries and maraschino liquor, I doubt if I'll hate them. Guess you never know, though.

Then again, I've always found something weirdly chemical about commercial maraschino cherries. I don't loathe them; I sort of like them in a strange way, but definitely, they are not "scrumptous" to me.

Anyhow, I've got to wait awhile to try mine. I'll keep you posted.

[Matt Ashare]

Actually, I share your frustration with finding Maraschino Liquor. But, Stock makes a very serviceable Maraschino that, if you bug your neighborhood liquor store - the more upscale the better - you can probably get them to order, as I did. If you're a cocktail devotee, as I am, it's an absolutely essential ingredient and I'm alarmed by how difficult it has become to find. We all need to band together and demand that it not become some exotic Italian import, but a regularly available and very useful ingredient both for cooking (oh, do I have a pork tenderloin recipe) and cocktailing. . .

[Marty]

One of the most fantastic gifts I received during Christmas was a card case and a Maraschino liquor, though we never really got the chance to make the cherries.

[Mathew]

I'm curious why you would have even considered using frozen cherries. You got high on life that you received this gift and then think about using anything less than fresh cherries. Deplorable.

[lindy]

Well, Matthew, fresh cherries in December in Pittsburgh were pretty rare. Definitely not local. Anyhow, the fresh cherries did not turn out well. Mushy, and didn't absorb the flavor. However, later, I tried using dried cherries- a mixture of tart and sweet ones. They were wonderfully good, and served the cocktail/sundae functions nicely. If you search the blog for "maraschino", you can find an update.

[david Nutt]

Not too late

The unique and perfect Christmas gift for all gourmets

www.tastingtoeternity.com

Enjoy