Cherry Tart Recipe & How To Select The Best Fresh Cherries

July 22, 2014 at 8:23 am · Filed under Fruits, Nuts & Seeds, Tip Of The Day

Cherry season is fleeting—just a couple of weeks in some locations. It is also frustrating because we’re not having a good cherry season this year. Every cherry we’ve sampled has been bland. They look good but don’t deliver on the palate.

The term “cherry-pick” is a hint. The expression comes from harvesting the fruit: The pickers are instructed to carefully select the ripe fruit only. Unlike other tree fruits, cherries don’t ripen or improve in flavor after they’re picked.

Are we getting unripe fruit? Have growing conditions been substandard? Is the fruit mishandled after it’s harvested? We want answers (but more importantly, we want good cherries).

Picked too soon, cherries are pale and tasteless; too ripe, they’re soft and watery. According to Produce Pete, the best time to pick seems to be when the birds start eating them (birds have an instinct for ripe cherries).

Weather challenges are a fact of life: Produce is at the mercy of the growing season. Fruit needs sufficient heat to develop full flavor and can be harmed by excessive rain during crucial weeks when water penetrates the skin and dilute the flavor.

Bad storage can easily diminish flavor and texture. Fruit doesn’t respond well to changing temperatures. From a warm grove to a hot or cold transport or storage room and back again, varying temperatures can wreak havoc. If you’re in a key cherry-growing state (California, Idaho, Michigan, Oregon, Washington State), you’ve got a better chance to get the best fruit.

> July 11th is National Rainer Cherry Day.

> July 16th is National Cherry Day.

> Check out all the cherry holidays and more cherry recipes.

TRY IT BEFORE YOU BUY IT

You can’t bite into a peach to see if it’s sweet enough before you buy it, but you can score a cherry. It’s the only way to make sure you’ll be happy with them.

If the flavor doesn’t deliver, it’s not worth the calories if you’re looking to snack on raw fruit. Find another variety. Keep tasting cherries as you come across them, and hope for a successful score.

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[1] Fresh Bing cherries are one of the happy signs of summer (photo © Foods From Spain).

Bowl Of Queen Anne Cherries
[2] Queen Anne cherries have red and yellow skin (photo © Neha Deshmukh | Wesual | Unsplash).

This is not to say that you can’t use less flavorful cherries to make delicious cherry pies, tarts, jams, sauces, or ice creams. In recipes, added sugar compensates for what’s missing in the fruit.

Bowl of Montmorency Cherries
[3] Bright red Montmorency cherries are tart cherries that are used for pies and jams (photo © Mandira Banik | Unsplash).

REAL CHERRY PICKING: WHAT TO LOOK FOR

While these tips don’t ensure that the fruit will be sweet, they’re a good start:

Firmness. The most common varieties (Bing, Rainier, Queen Anne) should be firm. However, some heirloom varieties (Black Tartarian is an example) are naturally softer. Be sure to taste them: Some heirloom cherries have the best flavor.

Plumpness. Good cherries will be plump and dark for their variety and have fresh, green stems, indicating that they were recently harvested. Cherries without stems won’t keep as well as fruits with intact stems.

Size. Look for fruits that are large for their variety and avoid smaller fruits with a higher proportion of pit and skin to flesh.

What To Avoid. Shriveled skin, dried stems, and dull patina indicate cherries that are over the hill. Leaking flesh and brown discoloration are signs of decay.

If the cherries aren’t sweet enough in their natural state, perhaps a homemade cherry tart will put you in the summer grove?

The most demanding part of the recipe is pitting the cherries. You don’t need a cherry pitter.

Pit cherries with a paper clip.

Pit cherries with a pastry tip.

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