Name: Sour Cherry Butter
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 3 h
Total time: 3 h 30 min
Yield: 8
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 12 Cups Pitted Sour Cherries, pureed; 3/4 Cup Cherry or Apple Juice; 1 Cup Honey

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Sour cherry butter is a thick and delicious preserve that is super easy to make, too!

These sour cherry preserves contain only 3 ingredients and do the bulk of their cooking in the slow cooker, leaving you free to do anything else you’d rather be doing.

An open jar of sour cherry butter with a spoon sitting on top of it, surrounded by fresh cherries, a honey dipper, and black cloth with cherries decorating it with text overlay stating: how to can sour cherry butter.

Pitted Cherries

This recipe needs quite a bit of stemmed and pitted sour cherries. The stemming needs to be done by hand. The pitting can be done much faster and easier with a pitter. I use this one and have for over 10 years now. I use it for both sweet and sour cherries every single canning season.

Once the cherries are pitted, simply puree until smooth in a blender or food processor.

Save the juice from the collection bowl of the pitter if you can. This is added to the butter as it cooks down.

Honey

The recipe calls for 1 cup of honey to 12 cups of pitted cherries. Feel free to add more or less to taste.

Substitute maple syrup to keep it vegan, if desired.

The Juice

Use the juice reserved from pittin the cherries for a lovely tart and sweet flavor. Make the final butter slightly sweeter by substituting apple juice instead.

An open jar of sour cherry butter as seen from above with a spoon sitting on top of it, surrounded by fresh cherries in a bowl, a honey dipper, and black cloth with cherries decorating it.

Cooked Until Thick

Fruit butters are always cooked until thick. Ideally they should mound up on the spoon when they’re done.

There are several ways to achieve this:

Cook on the stove, stirring almost constantly to avoid scorching. This is faster but the stirring is a hassle in my opinion.

Bake slowly in the oven, stirring occasionally to avoid scorching. A fine method but requires the oven to be on for a while on likely hot days.

Simmer in a slow cooker on high, leaving the lid off for steam to escape. Stir occasionally and let cook until thick. This takes several hours but is mostly hands off and doesn’t heat up the kitchen.

Choose whatever method you prefer. All that really matters is that the sour cherry butter gets thick.

Can or Freeze

Half pint jars should be canned in a water bath canner for 15 minutes, adjusting for elevation. This makes it a super quick can for an easy project.

Alternatively, the butter can be frozen. Fill jars leaving 1-2 inches of headspace. Then place the lids and freeze.

I prefer to can it and not use the freezer space. Plus canning makes it easy for gift giving.

Whether you can or freeze the sour cherry butter, use it up within 1 year for best flavor.

How to Serve

Use like you would any jam or fruit butter. Spread on toast, slather inside a peanut butter sandwich. Pour over ice cream or cake. Use it instead of syrup on pancakes and waffles.

Looking for Other Cherry Preservation Recipes?

Jars of brandied cherry berry preserves on a table with fresh berries and cherries. — Brandied Cherry Berry Preserves

A spoon heaped with cherry raspberry jam sitting on a wooden board. — Cherry Raspberry Jam

Yield: 8 Half Pints