Canned Sour Cherries

part of: Sour Cherry

Canned sour cherries are a baker’s ingredient more than a snacking fruit. Their sharp, tangy flavour — quite different from the sweet cherries you’d eat fresh — is exactly what’s needed in cherry pies, clafoutis, Black Forest cake, and cherry sauce for duck or pork.

Packed in water with pits removed, they’re ready to use straight from the tin. Sour cherries have a very short fresh season and are fragile, so the canned version is often the most practical way to access them in Australia. Their bright tartness cuts through sweet and rich dishes, which is why they’ve been a staple of European-style baking for centuries.

Farmed
photograph to come — from twenty years of markets, farms and kitchens

How it's made

Sour cherries — typically Montmorency or Morello varieties — are harvested at peak ripeness, washed, and mechanically pitted. The pitted cherries are packed into cans and covered with water. The cans are sealed and heat-processed in retorts to sterilise the contents, gently cooking the cherries while preserving their tart flavour and red colour.

Nutrition (per 100g)

Energy 36kcal
Protein 0.8g
Carbs 7.8g
Fat 0.1g
Fibre 1.1g Sugar 7.6g
Mass Distribution

1 cup is about 244 g — roughly 90 kcal of this.

What it costs the planet (per kilo)

Carbon ≈0.92kg
Freshwater ≈189.65L
Land ≈1.02

≈ Estimated — worked out from a category-typical value further up its supply chain. Where this comes from →

Where it comes from

In the kitchen

Used as

tart baking cherry

Goes well with
chocolate almond sugar cream brandy
Classic dishes
  • Black Forest cake
  • Cherry pie
  • Clafoutis

Keeping one at home? Track yours in your cubud →

Where this data comes from

Nutrition data from

USDA

How it was calculated

SR Legacy

Full credits, licences, and methods: the sources page →

Where to next

✎ Spotted something wrong? Suggest a correction

Checking who you are...