Recipe: Cherry Jelly

1 choose beautiful ripe and fleshy cherries; pit them (with a special utensil), after removing the stems. weigh them to calculate exactly the proportion of sugar needed. put the cherries and half a glass of water in a non-stick saucepan and cook until the water has evaporated

2 pass the mixture through a vegetable mill. put it back in a saucepan and add the sugar. cook for approximately 1 hour, stirring often with a wooden spoon and skimming regularly.

3 the cooking time should be sufficient for the jam to have the desired consistency. check the cooking by dropping a drop on an inclined plate. if it sets, it's done.

4 then transfer the jam into jars that have been previously boiled and dried. let the jam cool completely, then cover it with a circle of paper soaked in kirsch (not necessary because of children)

5 close the jars hermetically with a square of cellophane slightly dampened, stretch it downwards and hold it with an elastic band. Label with today's date and store away from light.
some jams have difficulty setting, particularly cherry or strawberry jams. you can add apple jelly to them so they set more easily. there is a gelling product available commercially (apple extract in general) which when added to the jam allows it to set more quickly.