Four New Ways to Use Cherries

July 2, 2015

Cherry ice cream, cherry pie, cherry oatmeal, cherry ice, Cherry sorbet, oh so fancy — cherry cake and cherry candy, Coffees and chutneys — jams, salads and soups, What more can be done with this favorite of fruits?

We’ve got the scoop.

SHRUB SYRUP

Trendy in London and Canada, shrub syrups, also called “drinking vinegars,” are actually a product of 17th-century England and, later, Colonial America, as a by-product of preserving fruits with vinegar in the pre-refrigerator age.

You won’t be mixing cherries with clippings from your yard, though. “Shrub” is actually a variant of an Arabic word (shar ba) which means “to drink.”

Making cherry shrub syrup is quite easy.

Vinegar is poured over the fruit and is left to infuse for several days, with crushing and straining in between. The fruit is then completely strained out and you’ve got shrub syrup.

Now, enjoy! In warm weather, it shows its best color (literally; it’s a deep, rich red) mixed with soda water and ice as a soft drink, a perfect balance of tart and sweet flavors. It can also be used as a mixer in cocktails and, drizzled over grilled peaches or ice cream, it’s a unique seasonal dessert.

ROASTED 

Combining a word most often used to describe the cooking of beef or potatoes with cherries might seem a little unusual, but roasting cherries brings a completely different flavor profile out of the fruit, and makes your house smell great, too.

The cherries are placed in a single layer on a parchment paper-covered baking sheet and coated with a mixture of olive oil and honey. For more exotic flavor, you can include fresh rosemary, ground black pepper or Demerara sugar, which adds even more caramel notes.

They’ll bake at 400 degrees for about 15-20 minutes, as the cherries soften and the juices caramelize.

Once you have a full sheet of darkened, roasted cherries, you can eat them warm with goat cheese and rustic bread, spoon them over a flan or custard dessert, or put them in the refrigerator until morning, when you can enjoy them over granola or in yogurt.

CRACK SEED

No, we haven’t gone over to the dark side.

Crack Seed is the name of a popular snack in Hawaii, specifically of fruits dehydrated and preserved in a specific way.

Before canned goods, fruits were often preserved with salt to make the fruit last longer and also to help travelers replenish their water and sodium lost when walking long distances.

The name Crack Seed comes from the fact that, when the fruits were dried, the interior pit or seed was sometimes purposefully cracked to add more flavor as it was drying. Cherries, plums, persimmons, mangoes and olives are some of the most popular crack seeds, although it’s best advised to remove the pits first.

For many Hawaiian kids, a visit to their neighborhood Crack Seed store is the equivalent of Midwesterners stopping by the local candy shop, and that’s probably where you’ll most easily find crack seed cherries. Many Hawaiian stores, such as the Crack Seed Center, will ship packets right to your door so you can try the original.

Once you decide you want to make them at home (you can easily snag a recipe online), be prepared for a complex process, with ingredients including brown sugar, Chinese five-spice powder, lemon juice and rock salt.

BEAUTY FRUIT

Fruits and vegetables have long been used in beauty products, from apricot facial scrubs to the classic cucumber slices used to de-puff tired eyes. But, who knew that cherries were a secret weapon among facialists and spa technicians?

One Hollywood recipe mixes a half-dozen pitted cherries with brown sugar, raw honey and a few teaspoons of yogurt as a facial mask to keep your skin soft, while another shows off cherries’ ability to treat uneven skin tone by adding turmeric to the mix. Cherries’ anti-inflammatory properties are also said to be helpful for such common skin conditions as acne and rosacea.

Your hair will love cherries too (although blondes should use caution, unless they want hair with a pink tint). A cup of fresh cherry juice combined with a half-dozen black tea bags and two cups of hot water will help balance pH levels in your hair, which reportedly helps hair grow stronger and shinier with less breakage.