Canning Cherries Question

[KatWrangler]

If we can get a good price on cherries, we are going to can them. Question...to make a cherry pie, does that take a quart of cherries? I think that would be right.

[CherryBomb]

Sounds right to me, though I've only ever jammed my cherries so I'm not positive.

[KatWrangler]

From what I read it takes about 2 1/2 pounds a quart. Seems like alot.

[cristeen]

Are you halving them or leaving them whole? That makes a big difference in how many fit in a quart. But typically, a quart plus a pint makes a nice pie. A quart on it's own makes a bit of a flat pie IME.

[elanorh]

Are you just canning them, or making a pie filling? I use Clear Jel-A for pie fillings, and a quart of that pie filling (made with Clear Jel-A) is usually just about perfect for my pie pans.

If you're just canning them, you'll need more than a quart of them for a pie, I suspect.

The Clear Jel-A recipes are available via the USDA canning recipes. http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/can_02/canpie.html

[velochic]

That may be 2.5 lbs. with pits. I don't make a lot of pies, so I'm not sure if a quart is enough. It might also have something to do with how packed the jars are. I would prepare the filling, make a pie out of one quart to see if it's enough, then determine if you need to can pints as well. It may be that 1 quart and 1 pint is the right amount.

As a pp mentioned, you need to use Clear-Jel if you're canning the pie filling, but Therm-flo is the same thing and can be found very cheaply in Amish groceries.

Happy canning!