Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
LATIN NAME
Sweet cherries: Prunus avium.
Acidic cherries: Prunus cerasus
SEASONALITY
July–September
MORE RECIPES
Grilled cheese salad with bullace compote; Strawberries with lavender and honey; Roasted plum fumble
SOURCING
kentorchards.org.uk; Englishcherry.co.uk; rentacherrytree.co.uk
It’s hard to think of a finer fruity package than the cherry – every headily scented, shiny bauble dangling irresistibly on its little stalk, waiting to explode into juice at a bite. The colours are glorious – from creamy white to midnight black through sunset yellow, lipstick scarlet and deep purple – and the flavour can be quite exceptional. The best cherries are tart-sweet with that unique, aromatic, almost almondy, griotte note.
The classic recipes are always a joy: the comforting, juice-stained lusciousness of a clafoutis; the fragrant, golden-crusted pleasure of a downhome cherry pie; a lightly set cherry jam. But cherries boast such a range of fruity flavour that they constantly invite invention.
A raw and naked cherry, for instance – ideally a tart variety – dipped first into clear honey, and then into grated dark chocolate, explodes in the mouth with some intense, surprisingly winey flavours. And cherries make unexpectedly good companions to sheep’s and goat’s cheese too.
I love cherries warmed in butter with sugar and spices until the juices run, then spooned on to brioche or rice pudding. And I enjoy popping out the stones and dropping the bleeding fruit straight into breakfast yoghurt, to be topped with a lavish trickle of honey. I like dried cherries too – especially the organic, sugar-free variety that bring scintillating, tangy-sharp flavour to granola and flapjacks as well as to savoury salads and slaws.
Cherries are versatile in a savoury context: try them raw in chilli-spiked salsas, or cooked and served up as a sauce for game, pork, duck or even oily fish like mackerel.
There are essentially two types of cherry: the sweet and the sour. The latter are too tart to eat raw and unsweetened but they are brilliant for cooking. The ‘Morello’ is the most common sour variety. However, it is very hard to buy fresh Morello cherries (and I would pass swiftly over the tinned or jarred option). You’ll need to seek out specialist producers or grow your own. Morello trees have the advantages of doing well on a north-facing wall and of being marginally less appealing than sweet varieties to voracious avian cherry connoisseurs. You may occasionally find them frozen in farm shops, frozen food stores and a few supermarkets. If you do, pounce – they should be very serviceable.
As long as they have plenty of flavour, sweet cherries work in recipes designed for sour fruit – just use less sugar and perhaps add more acidity with a squeeze of lemon. The exception to this is preserving, where the character of a sour cherry makes all the difference. A loosely set Morello jam is one of my all-time favourite toast-toppers.
To make the simplest of cherry pickles, pack 300g whole sour cherries into a sterilised jar. Heat 200ml water, 300ml cider vinegar and 250g sugar with a few bay leaves, peppercorns, juniper berries and cloves to a simmer, let simmer for 10 minutes, then pour over the fruit and seal. After a month, you’ll have a delicious sweet-sour accompaniment to cheese, smoked mackerel or roast duck.
Cherry kernels lend a subtle almond flavour to any dish they’re cooked in and, since stoning is a long-winded job (even with a decent cherry-stoner), I often leave the stones in. Do warn your guests, though.
The British cherry revival
We have a venerable tradition of growing cherries in this country. However, it has been hard to maintain a consistent commercial crop due to our unpredictable weather and the fact that traditional orchards feature very tall trees which are labour-intensive to pick and hard to protect from birds. Even newer varieties, grown on smaller rootstock, introduced at the end of the last century, couldn’t provide enough cherries to meet demand. Consequently, our shop shelves have long been dominated by imports.
This is changing, with British cherries making a significant dent in the foreign competition during recent summers. That’s not, sadly, because there’s been a great revival of our majestic old cherry orchards. A few traditional orchards are still thriving and more are being rehabilitated, but most of the British cherries on sale now are from modern orchards planted with specially bred, heavy-cropping, large and very juicy cherry varieties. Grown on very small trees, they are much easier to manage: the trees are protected in the run-up to harvest by polytunnels, with netting at the ends to keep the birds out.
The planting of these modern orchards goes on apace, and I have mixed feelings about it. Those juicy new varieties are not necessarily the most delicious. And ranks of dwarf trees will never match the charm of an ancient orchard. But, of course, traditional orchards can’t hope to meet the national demand for this lovely fruit. Buying from a local or at least an English producer is a pragmatic way forward. One of the great advantages of a home-grown fruit is that it can be left to mature fully on the tree before being whisked to the shops in a matter of hours.
Cherry-growing is largely a southern affair, and the very best fresh English cherries are grown in traditional Kent orchards. However, there are some very northerly cherry farms, including some on the east coast of Scotland. Survey your local farmers’ markets and shops between late June and early August, and enquire at pick-your-own farms.
When you buy cherries, look for tight-skinned, glossy fruit with perky stems. They keep better with the stalks on, so leave them in place and don’t wash the fruit until you’re ready to eat them.
CHERRY, THYME AND MARZIPAN MUFFINS
These muffins are crammed with melting nuggets of marzipan and chunks of fresh cherry, beautifully enhanced with a whisper of thyme. Outside the cherry season, you can make them with 200g dried cherries (and they’re also very good with chopped dates). Makes 12
450–500g fresh cherries
250g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
A good pinch of salt
100g marzipan, diced
120g caster sugar
120g unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
2 medium eggs, lightly beaten
100ml buttermilk
1 tsp chopped thyme leaves
Preheat the oven to 190°C/Fan 170°C/Gas 5. Line a 12-hole muffin tray with paper muffin cases (about 5cm across the base and 4cm deep). Stone the cherries, using a cherry-stoner and cut into quarters; you need 250g stoned weight.
Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt together into a bowl. Add the marzipan cubes and toss them in the flour. Stir in the sugar.
In a separate bowl, beat together the melted butter, eggs, buttermilk and thyme until evenly combined. Gently fold into the flour mixture until evenly combined, then fold in the cherries; don’t over-mix.
Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases and bake for 18–20 minutes or until pale golden brown and a cocktail stick inserted into the middle of a muffin comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Best eaten within 24 hours.