How do I make sweet or sour cherry jam?

The tested cherry jam from the National Center for Home Food Preservation (NCHFP) is made with sour cherries: 4 cups pitted cherries, ground or finely chopped (about 3 pounds), one package of powdered pectin and 5 cups of sugar, for about 6 half-pints. Sour and sweet cherries are different fruit in the pot. Sour cherries bring tartness of their own, and NCHFP's recipe adds no lemon. Sweet cherries carry less acid, and the one published sweet cherry rule found here requires added lemon. This page gives the sour cherry jam and jelly, what the sources say about sweet cherries, and how to pit and process.

Sour and sweet cherries are not interchangeable

The table makes the practical rule clear: do not put sweet cherries into the sour cherry recipe. NCHFP's cherry jam lists sour cherries in its ingredients and adds no acid [1], so swapping in sweeter, less acidic fruit changes the very balance the recipe was tested on. NCHFP also names cherries among the fruits that "contain little pectin" [7].

NCHFP cherry jam with powdered pectin

From NCHFP, adapted from USDA's 1982 home bulletin [1].

Ingredients

• 4 cups ground or finely chopped pitted cherries (about 3 pounds, or 2 quart boxes of sour cherries)
• 1 package powdered pectin
• 5 cups sugar

Yield: about 6 half-pints.

Method

1. Sterilize canning jars and prepare two-piece canning lids according to the manufacturer's directions.
2. Sort and wash fully ripe cherries. Remove stems and pits. Grind or chop the cherries finely.
3. Measure the prepared cherries into a kettle and stir in the pectin.
4. Over high heat, stirring constantly, bring quickly to a full boil with bubbles over the whole surface.
5. Add the sugar, continue stirring, and heat again to a full bubbling boil. Boil hard for 1 minute, stirring constantly.
6. Remove from heat and skim.
7. Fill hot jam immediately into hot, sterile jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe the rims with a dampened clean paper towel and adjust two-piece metal canning lids.
8. Process in a boiling water canner (chart below).

University of Wisconsin Extension publishes two more sour cherry jams: one with liquid pectin (4 1/2 cups pitted, chopped sour cherries, 7 cups sugar and 2 pouches liquid pectin, for 8 half-pints) and a low-sugar version (5 cups prepared sour cherries, 3 cups sugar and one box of low-sugar pectin, for 5 half-pints) [8]. UW's recipes come with UW's processing chart: 5 minutes in sterilized jars up to 1,000 feet, then 1 more minute for each added 1,000 feet of elevation (UW's own examples: 6 minutes at 1,250 feet, 7 at 2,010) [8].

Pitting and chopping

The jam is measured after pitting and grinding, so pit first, then chop, then measure to 4 cups [1]. For jelly the order reverses: NCHFP's cherry jelly leaves the pits in, crushes the cherries, adds 1/2 cup water, brings them to a boil covered and simmers them 10 minutes before extracting the juice [3]. That saves you pitting entirely when you want jelly. General methods for pitting and chopping fruit are on preparing fruit for jam.

Sour cherry jelly

NCHFP's cherry jelly with powdered pectin uses 3 1/2 cups cherry juice (from about 3 pounds, or 2 quart boxes, of sour cherries and 1/2 cup water), one package of powdered pectin and 4 1/2 cups sugar, for about 6 half-pints [3]. Stem the cherries but do not pit them, crush them, add the water, cover and bring to a boil on high heat, then simmer 10 minutes and extract the juice. Stir the pectin into the measured juice, bring quickly to a full rolling boil that cannot be stirred down, add the sugar, return to a full rolling boil and boil hard 1 minute. Remove from heat, skim off foam quickly, and fill sterile jars with 1/4 inch headspace [3]. NCHFP also has a version with liquid pectin [2]. The general jelly method, including how to strain juice clear, is on how to make jelly.

What to do with sweet cherries

Here the sources are thinner, so the choices are narrower.

1. Use a recipe written for sweet cherries. Pectin makers publish recipes on their package inserts. A recipe on an insert is written for that brand's pectin and that fruit; follow it exactly and only with the pectin it names. How to judge a recipe source is on recipes you can trust.
2. Use calcium-set pectin with its lemon. Pomona's published directions for sweet cherry jam call for 3/4 teaspoon pectin, 1 teaspoon calcium water, a scant 1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar and 1 tablespoon lemon juice per cup of mashed fruit [4]. Pomona does not say on that page whether those directions were laboratory tested or give a processing time there [4]. How calcium-set pectin works is on calcium-set pectin.
3. Blend with sour cherries only inside a recipe that allows it. Mixing your own ratio of sweet to sour is an untested change. If you do it anyway, keep that jam in the refrigerator.

In every case the lemon is part of the recipe. For low-acid fruit, acid is what lets pectin gel at all; with too little, NCHFP says, the gel will never set [7].

Processing cherry jam and jelly

Cherry is a low-pectin fruit, so sterilize the jars and use the short process. NCHFP prefers sterilized jars for low-pectin fruit because the longer process for unsterilized jars can weaken the gel [7]. If you skip sterilizing, the unsterilized-jar chart, with its 10 minute base and altitude steps, is on how long to process jam.

Selling cherry jam

Cherry is a federal Group I fruit, so jam sold under the standard name needs at least 47 parts fruit to 55 parts sugar [6]. The low-sugar UW version may fall below the standard and need a different name, covered on what you can call your jam.

Where cherry jam goes from here

If you want to understand why sweet cherries need acid that sour cherries do not, the chemistry is on acid, lemon juice and the set. If you are working toward a lower-sugar cherry jam, the methods compared side by side are on low-sugar jam.

References

1. National Center for Home Food Preservation, Cherry Jam with Powdered Pectin, June 2005, adapted from USDA Home and Garden Bulletin No. 56 (1982). https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/make-jam-jelly/jams/cherry-jam-pectin/
2. National Center for Home Food Preservation, Jams & Jellies recipe index, accessed October 2026. https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/make-jam-jelly
3. National Center for Home Food Preservation, Cherry Jelly with Powdered Pectin, June 2005. https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/make-jam-jelly/jellies/cherry-jelly-powdered-pectin/
4. Pomona's Universal Pectin, Create Your Own Recipe: Developing or Converting Recipes for Cooked Jam or Jelly Using Pomona's Pectin, modified August 24, 2023. https://pomonapectin.com/?p=21164
5. National Center for Home Food Preservation, Jellied Product Ingredients, accessed October 2026. https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/make-jam-jelly/jams-jellies-general-information/jellied-product-ingredients/
6. U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, 21 CFR 150.160, Canned fruit preserves and jams (Cornell LII text, current). https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/21/150.160
7. National Center for Home Food Preservation, General Information on Canning Jams, Jellies, and Marmalades, accessed October 2026. https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/make-jam-jelly/jams-jellies-general-information/general-information-on-canning-jams-jellies-and-marmalades/
8. University of Wisconsin Extension, Ingham, Making Jams, Jellies & Fruit Preserves (B2909), undated. https://iowa.extension.wisc.edu/files/2021/08/Making-Jams-Jellies-Fruit-Preserves-B2909.pdf