If your goal is to cook with cherries, sour cherries are your best friend. This is owing to their juicy, lightly acidic flavor, which is suitable for a variety of cuisines. They’re also full of taste and have firm meat that won’t turn mushy during cooking. Different food items like delicious pies, dessert sauces, desserts like cobblers and clafoutis (French), as well as preserves, and jams can benefit from sour cherries.
Due to their diminutive size and acidic flavor, sour cherries (Prunus cerasus) are also known as dwarf cherry or tart cherries. These cherries, on the other hand, have an acidic flavor that makes them ideal for cooking.
There are two sorts of sour cherries: amarelle and morello. Amarelle cherries have yellow meat and clear juice, i.e., two distinctive characteristics. Morello cherries, on the other hand, have red flesh and crimson juice.
Fresh sour cherries, of which there are over 300 types, are available from mid-June to mid-August.
On a side note, there’s also such a thing as cherry coffee?
Sour Cherry Varieties
Consider the following sour cherry varieties:
Early Richmond Cherries
One of the most popular sour cherries is the Early Richmond Cherry Tree. The acidic and tangy fruit, with its bright red berries and thin shell, is ideal for the iconic, all-American cherry pie. These tasty sour cherries will make your summer sweeter. With a brilliant flavor and luscious flesh, the Early Richmond Cherry has a spunky personality. The fruit is perfectly piquant when eaten fresh, but it cooks up into delightful sweetness in preserves, is a great addition to cocktails, and adorns the dessert table in pies, cobblers, and other yummy summer baked goodies. In addition, sour cherries have a surprising number of health benefits and are high in vitamins and nutrients. The Richmond Cherry is picked in the early summer months, often as early as June in some locations.
Morello cherry
The Morello cherry, sometimes known as the English Morello, is a dark-red sour cherry with rich crimson to practically black skin. Morello cherries are also known as Northern Kriek or Shadowmorello cherries. It might be difficult to distinguish sour Morello cherry from their sweeter counterparts visually. However, the bitterness of this sour cherry will almost certainly make your face pucker. Morello cherries, like all cherries, become sweeter as they ripen. However, because of its sourness, fresh Morello cherry can normally only be eaten once they have fully ripened. Tart cherries, such as Morellos, can be put to several good uses, like preparing cherry juice, cherry pies, and some other baked goods. Adding a few sour cherries to a fruit salad with other sweet fruits can give it a unique tanginess.
Montmorency Cherry
The Montmorency cherry is the most widely grown sour cherry varietal. This little fruit is a sort of tart cherry from the Amarelle variety and has a particularly tart flavor. The majority of Montmorency cherry trees bear a large number of vivid red tart cherries. Some cultivars of this cherry contain reddish-purple fruit that is slightly deeper in color. These cherries are the most common form of sour cherry, and they are frequently the major ingredient in pies. Montmorency cherries are also commonly used in the preparation of preserves and jams.
You can also buy dried cherries and tart cherry juice because of the various health benefits of sour cherries like Montmorency. Studies have indicated that this type of sour cherry has potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant capabilities. Melatonin and anthocyanins are two chemicals found in sour cherries.
Meteor Cherry
Meteor is an amarelle type cherry with a big, pale red skin and yellow flesh that is somewhat acidic. This is a late harvest. Because it makes the most beautiful pies, the Meteor Sour Cherry may double as a cherry pie tree, and bakers all over the world adore using Meteor Sour cherries to add a burst of flavor to their baked products.
North Star Cherry
North Star has a vivid red to the mahogany exterior and tart-juicy red meat, akin to Montmorency. Cherry of the Morello variety. This is a late harvest.
Understanding different types and kinds of sour cherries gives you more cooking and flavor options.
More: Types of Sweet Cherries | Best cherries for wine | Cherries for black forest cake | Do cherries and strawberries go together? | Do cherries and blueberries go together?