How to Make Sour Cherry Jam in Canada (Bernardin Method)

Sour cherry jam is one of the easier-to-make preserves and one of the most distinctive in flavour. Niagara’s sour cherry crop happens for about 2 weeks in early-to-mid July; a single weekend of work captures that window for the entire year.

This guide covers the Bernardin water-bath method using Montmorency or similar sour cherries. Sweet cherries can be substituted with adjustments noted below.

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Pick your cherries

Sour cherries (preferred)

• Montmorency — the Canadian commercial standard. Bright red, very tart, the cherry-jam classic.
• Morello — darker red than Montmorency, more European-style, slightly less tart.
• North Star — hardy zone 3-4; common in Prairie and Manitoba backyards.
• Evans cherry — Edmonton-developed variety; hardy zone 2-3; uniquely Canadian.

Sweet cherries (workable with adjustments)

• Bing — dark red, sweet, classic eating cherry. Makes mild jam.
• Rainier — yellow-pink. Pretty but very mild jam.
• Stella — sweet, common Canadian backyard variety.

For sweet cherry jam: increase lemon juice to 4 tbsp per batch and add 1 box of commercial pectin — the lemon juice for acid, the pectin for set (growing cherries in Canada).

Frozen cherries

Frozen pitted Montmorency cherries (often labelled “tart cherries”) work identically to fresh — buy in bulk, use year-round. Many Canadian grocers carry them in the frozen aisle.

You need about 1.5 kg of cherries (about 5 cups pitted) for a 6-jar batch.

What you need

For 6 × 250 mL jars:

• 1.5 kg fresh sour cherries OR 5 cups frozen pitted tart cherries
• 5 cups granulated sugar, or the amount your pectin box’s recipe specifies
• 2 tbsp bottled lemon juice
• ¼ tsp pure almond extract (optional but classic — added off heat)
• Certo liquid pectin or Bernardin Original powdered pectin, the amount your box’s recipe specifies
• Optional: ½ tsp butter to reduce foam
• Bernardin 250 mL regular-mouth jars, fresh SNAP lids, bands
• Cherry pitter — handheld ($10-15) or mechanical multi-pitter ($20-30)
• Standard canning kit — jar lifter, headspace tool, funnel, water-bath canner, ladle, large heavy pot (which canner to buy)
• Apron — cherry juice stains
• Frozen plates for cold-plate test

Method (with commercial pectin)

Corrected 17 September 2026: this page’s main method used to be a no-pectin one with its own quantities — 1.5 kg of cherries, 4 cups of sugar, a 15–30 minute rest and a 20–25 minute boil — yielding 5–6 × 250 mL jars. No source we hold publishes a no-added-pectin sour cherry jam: the Complete Book’s traditional long-cook section covers apricot, berries, elderberry, strawberry, Damson plum and grape, and cherry is not among them. Those figures are removed, and we cannot give a tested processing time for a recipe nobody tested. The commercial-pectin method below is unchanged and is now the method this page gives. Two variations have also been removed — a kirsch version and a port version — each of which gave a spirit quantity of ours and a refrigerated keeping window attributed to nobody. No spirit quantity is offered in their place.

Step 1: Pit cherries

1. Wash cherries in cool water; remove stems.
2. Pit using cherry pitter over a large bowl (catches juice). Don’t try to pit in your nice clean kitchen without an apron — cherry juice splashes.
3. Measure pitted cherries — should be about 5 cups (1.5 kg fresh yields slightly less because of pits).
4. Some pulp/juice loss is normal — discard pits.
5. Save 6-8 cherry pits (optional) — cracked pits release amaretto-like flavour; this is the traditional way to get the cherry-almond pairing. Tie cracked pits in cheesecloth; add to cook; remove before jarring.

Step 2: Combine

1. Place pitted cherries in a heavy pot. Roughly crush half the cherries with a potato masher; leave half whole.
2. Stir in the 2 tbsp bottled lemon juice, the optional butter and the optional cherry-pit cheesecloth bundle.
3. For powdered Bernardin Original, stir the pectin into the cherries now, before any sugar. For Certo liquid pectin, stir in the 5 cups of sugar now instead and hold the pectin back.

Step 3: Cook

1. Bring to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly.
2. Add the ingredient you held back — all 5 cups of sugar for the powdered route, or the Certo your box’s recipe specifies for the liquid route.
3. Return to a full rolling boil and boil hard exactly 1 minute.
4. Remove from heat.
5. Remove cherry-pit cheesecloth bundle if used.
6. Stir in ¼ tsp almond extract (if using) — off heat to preserve the flavour.
7. Skim foam.

Read your own pectin box for the quantities and the order. Liquid and powdered pectin go in at different points and are not interchangeable.

Step 4: Jar and process

1. Have your water-bath canner simmering.
2. Have hot jars ready, fresh SNAP lids on the counter.
3. Ladle hot jam into hot jars. Leave 0.5 cm (¼ inch) headspace.
4. Run the headspace tool down each jar.
5. Wipe rims, apply lids fingertip-tight.
6. Process 10 minutes at altitudes up to 305 m (verify with Bernardin edition).
7. Adjust for altitude per our altitude article.
8. Cool 24 hours undisturbed. Check seals.

Storage

• Cool, dark, dry place at room temperature
• Best quality 12 months — Bernardin’s guidance is to use home-canned food within one year. That is a quality window, not an expiry: the jar is as safe as the process made it. Colour, flavour and texture fade.
• After opening: refrigerate, use within one week (HealthLink BC)
• Inspect before opening — vibrant red colour fades slightly over years; cosmetic

Corrected 31 Aug 2026: this page previously gave an after-opening window of 3-4 weeks. HealthLink BC File #22 publishes one week for any opened home-canned container — “Once the container has been opened, refrigerate leftovers, and use within one week.” Our longer figure was never attributed to anyone. The shelf life of the sealed jar is unchanged.

Variations

Sour cherry-almond jam (canonical)

The recipe above with the optional almond extract. The classic cherry-amaretto pairing.

Sour cherry-vanilla jam

Add ½ split vanilla bean to the cook. Remove pod before jarring. Skip the almond extract.

Sour cherry-rhubarb jam

3 cups sour cherries + 2 cups chopped rhubarb. Rhubarb adds extra acidity; the result is even brighter and more complex.

Sour cherry preserves (chunky)

Don’t crush cherries before cooking. Result is whole cherries suspended in jam-set syrup. Beautiful but takes longer to set firmly because there’s less crushed surface for pectin extraction.

Sweet cherry jam

Use sweet cherries; increase lemon juice to 4 tbsp; add 1 box pectin. Milder, sweeter, less photogenic but still good.

Cherry sauce (looser preserve)

Reduce sugar to 3 cups; cook for less time (10-15 minutes); don’t aim for full jam-set. Result is a saucy preserve perfect for ice cream, cheesecake, pancakes.

How to use sour cherry jam

• On toast or scones — daily breakfast
• PB&J variant — peanut butter and cherry jam
• Filling for thumbprint cookies, linzer cookies, jam tarts
• Cheesecake topping — drizzle over slices
• On vanilla ice cream
• As a glaze for duck, pork, or chicken — brush in the last 15 minutes
• Stirred into yogurt or oatmeal
• In a Black Forest cake
• Cheese plate — sharp cheddar, brie, aged gouda, blue cheese
• Cocktail mixer — stir 1 tbsp into a Manhattan or whisky sour
• In a Bakewell tart — almond-cherry traditional British pastry
• As a crepe filling with whipped cream

Common problems

• Jam didn’t set. Sweet cherries (low pectin) or under-cooked. See why didn’t my jam set for salvage paths. Add commercial pectin and reboil.
• Jam set too firmly. Over-cooked. Warm with 1 tsp water to loosen.
• Foam stayed in. Skim better; use ½ tsp butter trick.
• Cherries floated to top. Crush more cherries during prep; or stir between jars while filling.
• Tastes bland. Skipped lemon juice. Add 1 tbsp per cup and reboil.
• Bitter almond flavour. Too much almond extract OR too many cracked pits. Use ¼ tsp extract max, 6-8 pits max.
• Colour faded. Light exposure in storage. Store dark.
• Jar didn’t seal. The 24-hour rule.

Yield expectations

• 1.5 kg sour cherries → 6-7 × 250 mL jars
• A typical Canadian household makes 6-18 × 250 mL jars per season

Why home-made sour cherry jam is worth it

• Distinctive flavour — sour cherries have a complex tartness that mass-market jam doesn’t capture
• Niagara heritage — Ontario sour cherry is genuinely regional
• Almond pairing — the cherry-almond combination is the basis of European cherry liqueurs and desserts
• Reliable set — sour cherries are forgiving in jam-making
• Excellent gift — distinctive flavour, beautiful colour
• Frozen cherries work year-round — make jam in February

Bonus: pit the cherries while watching TV

If you have a kilogram of cherries to pit and no patience, set up in front of the TV with a bowl, a cherry pitter, and a glass of wine. A 1 kg batch takes 20-30 minutes — about a single TV episode.

Lower-sugar and sugar-free options

Sour cherries are tart enough that many Canadian canners prefer them with less sugar — the fruit carries the flavour on its own. For a canned reduced- or no-sugar batch, reach for Bernardin No-Sugar-Needed Pectin and follow its tested recipe; in a water-bath jam the sugar is about set and texture, while the cherries’ own acidity and the processing do the preserving. Follow the box quantities — they’re specific to that pectin and change between editions. The no-cook alternative is a freezer jam: see the sugar-free section of our freezer-jam guide. A softer set and a shorter open-jar life are the trade-offs for less sugar.

Next steps

• How to make strawberry jam in Canada — gateway recipe
• How to make raspberry jam in Canada — June-July companion
• How to make Saskatoon berry jam in Canada — Prairie heritage cousin
• How to make blueberry jam in Canada — companion summer berry
• How to freeze berries in Canada — store cherries for off-season jam
• Why didn’t my jam set — troubleshooting
• Canning altitude adjustments — required reading
• Water-bath canning pillar — broader method