Cherry Chutney

It started with a visit to our local farmer's market where I saw basket upon basket of beautiful sweet cherries. Yum! I ended up buying far more than we could eat and was looking for an interesting canning recipe to preserve the rest. While I love cherry jam, Mr. Friday doesn't. Since I got my way with the peach jam, I was inclined to be accommodating (hee hee).

I searched all over the internet for cherry chutney recipes. While no one recipe fit what I was looking for, it did give me the basic building blocks. From there, I combined and then seriously tweaked three recipes to come up with my version. Enjoy!


Sarah’s Cherry Chutney

4 cups cherries, pitted
2 cups chopped pitted dates
2 cups dried cranberries
1 cup dried apricots, diced
¼ cup dried blueberries
¾ cup cashews, chopped*
1 ½ cups raisins
2 large apples, chopped
1 ½ cups onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tsp allspice
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp nutmeg
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups cider vinegar^
4 cups water (room temperature)^

Wash jars in either the dishwasher or in hot soapy water. Put in the oven at 225F to sterilize. Place the sealing discs in a pot of very hot (not boiling) water.

Pour the vinegar in a non-reactive pan. Prepare the fruit and cashews. Combine with vinegar and mix well. Add the spices, garlic, and onions. Mix well.

Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat, stirring occasionally. Once at the boiling point, add the water and boil hard, uncovered, for 20 minutes. The chutney should be thick enough to mound on a spoon and look like thick stew.

Reduce heat to a good simmer (lots of bubbles should be seen) and add the brown sugar. Mix until it is completely dissolved. Simmer, uncovered, for 25-30 minutes. Stir occasionally.

Add the hot chutney to the hot jars, leaving ¼” headspace. Use a knife to remove any air bubbles and place a sealing disc on top. Put on the screw lid to finger tight. You don’t want it on too tight or it will affect the seal. I put the lid on finger tight, so it’s snug, then I undo it a ¼ turn.

Place the hot jars on a tea towel where they won’t be disturbed. Leave them overnight to seal. You should hear popping noises when your jars have sealed. A properly sealed jar has a lid that is concave and doesn’t move when you push it with your finger. Unsealed jars have lids that move up and down when you push them. After 24 hours, store any unsealed jars in the refrigerator.

*If you don’t want to add the cashews, increase the blueberries by ¼ cup.
^The dried fruit soaks up a lot of liquid, which is why you need 6 cups.