Canned Cherries
| Cherries, | 1 quart |
| Sugar |
Mother liked to have her cherries cut in halves and the stones taken out, though she told Adelaide many people preferred them canned whole. Adelaide followed mother's way, so the large ripe cherries she placed in the colander, and washed thoroughly by dipping it up and down several times in a pan of clear cold water.
Next she removed the stems, and cut the cherries in halves with a silver knife, taking out the stones. Then she weighed the fruit. If they were tart, she used one-half their weight of sugar, but if they were of the sweet variety, she needed only one-third of their weight of sugar.
The cherries and sugar Adelaide put in the saucepan together and stood at the back of the range to heat gradually. As the sugar began to melt and the juice to run, she removed the saucepan forward and stirred the fruit gently with the wooden spoon. Adelaide was careful not to break the halves, and boiled the cherries slowly twenty minutes.
She filled the sterilized pint jar to overflowing, inserted the silver knife to bring the air bubbles to the top, placed the new rubber on smoothly, sealed quickly and stood the jar upside down out of the way of any draft.
In the morning she wiped off all stickiness with a damp cloth, inspected the jar carefully to see that it did not leak, pasted on the label and stored the jar away in the preserve closet.