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I tried making a cherry sauce for meatballs with dried morello cherries, but the final sauce had a weird taste despite the dried cherries being nice and tarty, but the water/sugar mixture from the cherries after rehydrating it wasn't as tasty. I added a stick of cinnamon to the boiling mixture and boiled the cherries in them. How much flavor do the dried cherries add to the syrup? The packaging says its 100% organic Morello cherries so I don't think its been treated with anything. Any suggestions?

user29568
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    I am missing a bit of context here. If you give the recipe and the sauce's intention (is it meant o be poured over a cake? Or to marinade meat in it? Or something else?) it is more likely that you will get good answers. Possibly also the answer that your chosen type of sauce is not doable with dried cherries - but that remains to be seen. – rumtscho Apr 06 '20 at 20:31
  • @rumtscho marinade meat – user29568 Apr 06 '20 at 21:55
  • @rumtscho I altered the question so that it might be more helpful for others, any thoughts? – user29568 Apr 07 '20 at 12:22
  • I now find your question more confusing. Have you made this sauce before with dehydrated cherries and it has performed better? Have you held the cherries close to something else strong-smelling and now notice the same strong smell in the sauce? If not, why do you think that it has adsorbed surrounding flavours? Did you just take a recipe which is intended for fresh cherries and use dehydrated? There are even more open questions here, and without clarity, I have difficulty imagining how one could guess the answer. – rumtscho Apr 07 '20 at 13:06
  • @rumtscho I am trying to replicate cherry kebab that I had at a restaurant. Recipes for that use fresh cherries and I only have access to dried ones that are sour. As I have never tasted fresh morello cherries from Uzbekistan I can't determine what accounts for the varied taste. The alteration is meant to help situations in which dried fruit are stored with other spices in the room as is often in spice shops, and how to remove that smell. I can't ascertain if that is the case however. Does that make more sense? – user29568 Apr 07 '20 at 13:16

2 Answers2

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We can't speak to you perception of any off flavors, but the best way to re-hydrate (and perhaps is obvious) is to soak in water or liquid.

moscafj
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  • Is there any difference in result between soaking and boiling it in water for a cherry sauce? – user29568 Apr 07 '20 at 08:51
  • Using warm or boiling water to soak usually speeds the process. Actually boiling them, will, of course, further cook them. – moscafj Apr 07 '20 at 10:43
  • I cooked them again with powdered spices instead of the a cinnamon stick they came out pretty well, I guess it is just the weird taste of these morello cherries, they don't taste like the cherries I had in Lebanon, which are probably from Aleppo. I guess it is just the variety of the cherry that accounts for the different taste. – user29568 Apr 07 '20 at 11:18
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I believe the most likely cause for the weird taste is the variety of cherries that is being used; in this case it is sourced from Uzbekistan, of the Morello variety. Cherries from Aleepo or Lebanon will have different flavors, depending on the orchard as well. Also, dried fruit has a tendency to absorb surrounding smells over time, so the way it is stored might impact the flavor of the cherries once they are re-hydrated. A different brand of cherries will probably have a different flavor.

user29568
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  • If this were the case, wouldn't the cherries themselves also taste wrong? – Sneftel Apr 07 '20 at 11:45
  • Wrong depends on the flavor you expect from the cherries, so it is a relative term. I think this just shows that if ingredients are sourced differently the final result will most likely taste different, I think that is why restaurants struggle to maintain quality when the ingredients are no longer available, substitution often impacts flavor significantly. – user29568 Apr 07 '20 at 11:52
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    @Sneftel forgot to tag you – user29568 Apr 07 '20 at 12:11