Recipe for sweet pickles that taste like cherries?

13 years ago

I am trying to recreate a recipe made by an elderly neighbor who has long since passed away. She made a sweet cucumber pickle that tasted just like cherries. She did describe that when she fermented/brined the pickles in a crock, she layered leaves from a cherry tree in between the layers of cucumbers. This is NOT like when you use a few cherry leaves to keep the pickle crisp. She described using a lot of leaves. She claimed it gave the cukes a cherry taste. She would make her syrup and pack the jars with a cherry leaf or 2,dill and pickling spices (I think).

I have brined some nice small pickles for about 1 week in a crock with the brine and cherry leaves but they don't taste anything like cherries. They are nicely fermented and actually, if they were regular pickles I would say they are pretty much done and ready for putting in jars.Will they become more cherry-tasting with the sweet syrup? Should I keep them in the brine for a while? They are small (a little bigger than gherkin size).

Any recipes? Any thoughts?

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Comments (5)

digdirt2
13 years ago
I had never heard of using cherry leaves. Grape leaves? Yes, but not cherry.

But I did find this one recipe:

Cherry Dills

Here in Washington State, turn of the century there were not a lot of grape vineyards. Most of the crisp recipes call for placing a grape leaf in the jar to add crispness to the pickles. My grandmother improvised and found that the leaves from her cherry tree worked just as well, if not better. Makes a wonderful, crunchy pickle.

Select medium-sized pickling cucumbers. Put layer of dill in bottom of medium crock, then a layer of cucumbers, then a layer of cherry leaves. Keep alternating to the top of the crock. On the very top, put leaves and dill. Over all, pour brine made with 1 cup salt in 6 qts. water. Let stand for 2 weeks. After this brining period, wash pickles and dry. Cut into desired chunks. Make a syrup by mixing 4 c. vinegar, 8 c. sugar, and 1 oz. whole mixed spices, and bringing to a boil. Put cucumber chunks in jars and pour boiling syrup over and seal.

From: Katie E Green
http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~bcohen/cucumbers/recipes/pickles/dill_pickles.html

I can't say whether this would be considered a safe recipe by current standards or not. Many of these old, improvised recipes are not considered so as fermenting pickles, when done incorrectly, does have associated risks. Perhaps others can comment on that.

Dave
readinglady
13 years ago
Just as an aside, the tilde (~) indicates a personal web page on a university site. Often it's the personal page of a faculty member. So as Dave said, it may or may not be reliable, depending upon the poster's credentials. It isn't like a university Extension site.

Here's a quote from a post I provided for this question on another canning forum:

Fresh leaves of wild and/or cultivated cherries are not toxic, but they do contain a cyanide precursor and can be poisonous if the leaves are damaged. That would include wilting, scarring on downed limbs, frost damage, etc.

Livestock have been known to die from eating cherry leaves, twigs, bark. Horses are susceptible as are ruminants.

Other livestock such as pigs and sheep have died from eating cherry leaves, or parts of related fruits (leaves, pits, for example) such as peaches, apricots, etc. Even apple seeds can be harmful.

My feeling is if it can kill a horse I'm not eating it or using it in food either.

(The fruit is fine.)

So the big issue for those who do use them is that the leaves must be unscarred and undamaged, a pretty tall order when you're layering cucumbers and applying a weight.

Carol
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Linda_Lou
13 years ago
Why not buy some cherry extract and add to your pickles ?
Never heard of pickles tasting like cherries. I do agree about that many cherry leaves. I have also read about that before. We recommend grape leaves if you want to try them in a jar of pickles. I thought they made the pickles taste like I would imagine dirty socks to taste !
Oh, maybe you would like my Linda Lou's sweet pickle chunks !!
HU-935946
7 years ago
My Mother used to make a sweet gurken pickle in a crock every summer. We lived in San Jose amongst the cherry orchards. She would have us gather up a grocery bag full of leaves from our cherry tree outside the kitchen. These pickles were quite unique....she claimed the cherry leaves added to the crispness, but more importantly the colour she said was key. They where very good, have never tasted anything quite like them, the colour was much darker than a standard pickle.
Holli Bucher
3 years ago
Cherry pickles are a real thing I just watched this food network show that had them on and was extremely curious as to how they were made, please update this when you find a successful recipe please!

Recipe for sweet pickles that taste like cherries?

Comments (5)

digdirt2

readinglady

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