Hi! I am going to try canning cherry pie filling this summer. We go through the Wilderness brand cans so fast and it is very expensive! I have found two recipes through the University of Michigan extension site. My question is- have any of you had good luck with homemade cherry pie filling? and if you have had good luck, what recipe do you use? One recipe I have calls for tapioca and the other calls for Clearjel A (??). I would like to find a recipe closest to the consistency of Wilderness Cherry Pie filling. One more question- In your opinion what is the best thing/brand to pit cherries? I need to buy one and I'd appreciate your input. My mother's pitter skips alot of pits and that is hard on the teeth!

-- Sariah in S. Idaho (joelsariah@hotmail.com), April 18, 2002

Answers

Sariah, Why not can just can the cherries and then put together your filling fresh when you want pies. Assuming you can't find a good recipe for canned. I never use a pitter only by hand can you be guaranteed of getting all pits and then you might miss one occasionally. Linda

-- Linda (awesomegodchristianministries@yahoo.com), April 18, 2002.

sarah: I have canned apple, cherry, peach, rasberry, blueberry etc. I use a cornstarch mixture or base. I dont have the recipe written down but you take sugar cornstarch and water, vanilla or spice also if you like at this time, cook it on the stove to the proper consistency, put fruit into jars pour cornstarch mixture over fruit and process. yes the fruit is raw(uncooked) I would probably process it for 53 to 40 minutes. This is the way I have done it for years Im sure that someone has a more acurate recipe. I was told that you shouldn't use flour thickner when canning pie filling as you would need to pressure can the jars of fruit so I don't. Good luck.

-- ronda (thejohnsons@localaccess.com), April 18, 2002.

Yes, I do. I use PermaFlo or MiraClear. The Amish say that Clear Jel A is not as good as the other two. I don't know where they get their stuff from but you could send to them. It's Beachy's in Arthur, Illinois (sorry, don't know the zip). They are very nice folks and will help you - no phone -. I use a crank cherry pitter that mangles the cherries but gets the pits. Don't remember the brand but Lehman's has it. Check out their catalog on line. Print off the page and search your antique stores. I got my crank pitter for (are ya ready?) a pittance... NOT the plunger type if you do lots of cherries. Oh, and cornstarch works fine but tends to break down when canning... Happy Hunting!!

-- Gailann Schrader (gtschrader@aol.com), April 19, 2002.

Regarding pitting the cherries, I asked that question on here last year, and someone said to use a curved end of a hairpin or bobby pin - it worked FINE. Labor intensive, but I just propped a book up on the table, and read while doing it. The (free) cherries I had were too small, and just slid on through the crank-by-hand cherry pitter.

-- Bonnie (51940@aeroinc.net), April 19, 2002.