Mediocre cherries - how would you cook them?

June 4, 2021 5:57 PM

I am in possession of about a pound of very mediocre but beautiful supermarket cherries. They taste vaguely sweet but don’t have much flavor. If you were me, what would you do with them?
posted by rogerroger to Food & Drink (14 answers total)

Cobbler. With toasted almonds on top, probably, for crunch, and maybe some reduced cherry juice (if I can find it) and cognac in the fruit to amp the flavor.
posted by Mizu at 6:07 PM on June 4, 2021 [8 favorites]

Pit and halve, toss with some brown sugar, add a bit of water, lemon juice, and cornstarch, bring to a boil, serve over ice cream. The lemon juice will bring out the flavor.
posted by goingonit at 6:13 PM on June 4, 2021 [5 favorites]

A clafoutis might work well, particularly because the cherry pits are left in the cherries and add additional flavor.
posted by Johnny Assay at 6:20 PM on June 4, 2021 [1 favorite]

Pit, halve, add molasses and cinnamon, then add to roast pork or braised short ribs.
posted by skye.dancer at 6:34 PM on June 4, 2021

David Lebovitz's cherries in red wine syrup. Or some basic brandied cherries.
posted by bcwinters at 6:36 PM on June 4, 2021 [3 favorites]

I just asked a question about un-sweet blueberries last week, so maybe check out the answers.
posted by BlahLaLa at 6:48 PM on June 4, 2021 [1 favorite]

chocolate cover them
posted by aniola at 7:22 PM on June 4, 2021 [2 favorites]

Make Cherry Almond Muffins (or scones), and splash the cherries with some almond extract or kirsh or amaretto if you have it! Toast the almonds too, and you’ll have lots of flavor. Also...I’d suggest to pickle some of the cherries for fun!
posted by Champagne Supernova at 7:23 PM on June 4, 2021 [3 favorites]

Pie covers a multitude of mediocre fruit. Jam, too.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:34 PM on June 4, 2021

They would call to me and I would eat them anyway, despite their lack of flavor.
posted by Rash at 7:45 PM on June 4, 2021 [6 favorites]

Pit them, Scatter them among bone in chicken breasts, add wine, and roast it all. So good.
posted by TestamentToGrace at 10:19 PM on June 4, 2021

Preserve them for cocktails. Lemon juice will both act as a preservative and intensify the flavor, and you can add almond extract to bring back a hint of the flavor the pits bring.
posted by fedward at 10:27 AM on June 5, 2021

Risalamande with warm cherry sauce. A small amount of almond essence will give the impression of a much stronger cherry flavour.
posted by some little punk in a rocket at 10:08 PM on June 6, 2021

Last summer I made this cherry mostarda to use up some okay-but-not-great cherries and the resulting condiment was ridiculously delicious.
posted by burntflowers at 9:51 AM on June 7, 2021