How Do Maraschino Cherries Work?

as cherries on trees in the US. Sweet varieties like the Royal Anne or Queen Anne from the Pacific Northwest are used, but originally the cherries of choice or sour Morasca cherries, a type that grows in coastal Croatia. In the early to mid eighteen hundreds, Morasca cherry farmers looking to preserve their harvest developed a method that involved first brining the cherries in salty seawater, then rinsing all the

brine away and jarring them in cherry liqueur. The liqueur was made from whole Morasca cherries, pits, stems, and all, which gave it nutty, bitter flavors in addition to the bright fruit. The Italian name for this liqueur was marishino so cherries preserved this way came to be called Maraschino cherries. These cherries were very popular in cocktails and on desserts and salads, but they were also an expensive luxury, so

companies started to make knockoffs using dyes and sugar. Food scientists worked on different ways to preserve cherries more cheaply, and on ways to preserve the firm texture of a fresh cherry. A one's jarred with alcohol or lots of sugar tend to go soft and sort of wrinkly. When prohibition hit the United States in the early nineteen hundreds and Maraschino liqueur was banned, a scientist out of Oregon State University debuted a new process that keeps cherries almost

crisp in the jar with a few tweaks. It's the process still used today. Of first, the harvested fruits are soaked in two brine solutions instead of the traditional seawater. The first brine is made with a mix of sodium metabisulfite, citric acid, and calcium chloride, and then the second with sodium chlorite and acidic acid. The cherries are soaked for four to six weeks. This effectively erases their original flavor in color. The cherries are then pitted and all of

the brine is washed out. Don't worry, none of it remains in the final product, though it's still nasty stuff, and disposing of it is apparently a huge environmental and economic problem in the industry. At any rate, this process leaves you with snowy white, flavorless, sugarless cherries, so you've got a blank canvas. And next, the cherries are soaked in a solution made up of sugar, syrup, food coloring,

and almond extract for another month or so. Cherries and almonds are pretty closely related and both contain a flavor compound called benzaldehyde. Almonds just contain more of it, which is by almond extract is used as cherry flavoring. Finally, the transformed cherries are bottled along with the syrup. The jars are sealed and pasteurized. This process allows the jars to be shelf stable for years, though they should be refrigerated after they're opened. The result is a bright, semi

translucent cherry with a sweet lollipop flavor. They're usually red, but can be made in other colors and other flavors too. If you're curious about the original style of Marischino cherry. You can still find similar products on the market today. The Luxardo brand has been in the business of preserving cherries since nineteen oh five. The World War Two destroyed

their original distillery and took the lives of several family members. However, one Giorgio Luxardo escaped to northern Italy with a recipe and a Morascus sapling, and after World War Two he was able to restart the business. Today, they use a syrup of sweetened cherry juice to preserve their product instead of liqueur. You can even make your own by preserving

sour cherries and Marischino lakor or cherry syrup. The result is a cherry that's dark red in color, a little softer or even gummy leg in texture, and sweet tart in flavor. Today's episode is based on the article you Don't Want to Know How Marischino Cherries are made on HowStuffWorks dot com, written by Leo Hoyt. The Brainstuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with HowStuffWorks dot Com and

is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts my heart Radio visit the iHeartRadio app Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.