Morello cherries are a sour, very dark red cherries native to Europe and southwest Asia. They were cultivated by the Greeks as early as 300 BC and were popular with the Romans who introduced them into Britain before the first century AD. Popular in the time of Henry VIII, they were introduced to America by the Massachusetts colonists and are still prized today. My paternal grandmother, Helen S. Wright, includes two recipes for Morello wine in her book, Old Time Recipes for Homemade Wines.
Here is the recipe entitled “Morello Wine” in the words of my grandmother:
Take the juice of Morello or tame cherries, and to each quart of the juice, put three quarts of water, and four pounds of coarse brown sugar. Let them ferment, and skim until clear. Then draw off, avoiding the sediment at the bottom. Bung up or bottle, which is best for all wines, letting the bottles lie always on the side, either for wines or beer.
Here is Grandmother’s recipe entitled “To Make Morello Cherry Wine”
Let your cherries be very ripe, pick off the stalks, and bruise your fruit without breaking the stones. Put them in an open vessel together; let them stand twenty-four hours, then press them, and to every gallon put two pounds of fine sugar; then put it up in your cask, and when it has done working, stop it close. Let it stand three or four months and bottle it; it will be fit to drink in two months.
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