Ha ha I’m going to gross you out! Do you know how maraschino cherries are actually made? Take a light-colored sweet cherry, like the Rainier cherry, and soak them in a sulfur dioxide and calcium chloride mixture to bleach the fruit. Sulfur dioxide if inhaled or ingested will cause breathing difficulty and eventually with enough exposure, DEATH. Calcium chloride is slightly less toxic, but can cause problems if ingested in concentrated amounts. I’m more concerned about the sulfur dioxide. Once the cherry has been bleached of all it’s color, it is then left to soak in common red food dye and high-fructose corn syrup. This common red food dye along with several other artificial food colors and sodium benzoate preservative, has been associated with a significant increase in hyperactive behavior in children. Most research I tend not to believe when they say things like red wine reduces heart disease, but in this case artificial food dye and sodium benzoate preservative really does increase hyperactive behaviors in children. There’s no arguing this research finding. High-fructose corn syrup has its own processes involving toxic and deadly chemicals. At this point, maraschino cherries aren’t so much food anymore, but a chemistry project gone horribly wrong.
My solution, homemade maraschino cherries, without all the bleaching and artificial food colors. It’s amazingly simple and completely worth the effort. First, you need to find Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur. Don’t even think about using cheap cherry liqueur as a substitute. You’ll just be adding back all those chemicals you’re trying to avoid. Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur cannot be too difficult to find, since it’s available in the Utah State liquor stores. Now all you need are sweet cherries and granulated sugar. Couldn’t be easier. There are non-alcohol ways to do this as well and maybe in the future I’ll explore these options.
Tips & Tricks
Pitting cherries can be a daunting task, especially when you are staring at pounds and pounds of cherries to be pitted. There are many ways to pit a cherry:
- Cherry pitter
- Chopsticks
- Paperclip
- Paring knife or straw
However, for our 20 pounds of sweet cherries, the $25 investment was worth it for a cherry pitter. It took us less than an hour to pit cherries. For sour cherries, I believe the only reliable method is the paperclip method. I’ll let you know when we go pick sour cherries. To prevent your cherries from browning, submerge your pitted cherries in a bath of 4 cups cold water and 1/4 cup lemon juice.
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