Spiced Cherries

Cherries,	2 lbs.
Sugar,	1 lb.
Vinegar,	½ cup
Stick cinnamon,	¹/₃ ounce
Whole cloves,	¹/₃ ounce

Adelaide stemmed the cherries and washed them in the colander by dipping it up and down several times in a pan of clear cold water, after which she stoned them. Into a saucepan she measured one-half a cup of vinegar. To this she added a third of an ounce each of whole cloves and cinnamon tied up in a muslin bag. The vinegar and spices Adelaide let boil gently for fifteen minutes, then she added one pound of sugar and boiled the mixture ten minutes longer, stirring constantly with the wooden spoon and skimming well. At the end of the ten minutes Adelaide dropped in the cherries and cooked the fruit gently for one-half hour. Lifting out the cherries with a skimmer, she put them into the sterilized pint jar, added the juice to overflowing, and inserted a silver knife between the jar and the fruit to let all air bubbles rise to the top and break. Then she placed on a new rubber and sealed quickly, standing the jar upside down out of the way of any draft.

The next morning, after carefully inspecting the jar for any possible leaks, Adelaide wiped off all stickiness from the outside with a damp cloth, pasted on the label and stored the jar away in the preserve closet.