Cherry (Sour) recipes

The French classic baked custard dessert that traditionally uses sour cherries (traditionally left whole with pits). This version pits them for easier eating but preserves the authentic batter — a loose, custardy mixture somewhere between a pancake and a flan that puffs up golden and spectacular in the oven.

Pan-seared duck breast with a sour cherry sauce is a classic combination for good reason — the rich, fatty duck and the bracingly tart cherries cut each other perfectly. This restaurant-quality dish comes together in under 35 minutes and makes an extraordinary dinner party main course.

A tart, complex sour cherry shrub — a preserve that doubles as a mixer. Equal parts cherries, sugar, and vinegar are fermented together for two days into a concentrated, jewel-red syrup with a magical sharp-sweet flavor. Add to sparkling water for a sophisticated non-alcoholic drink, or use as a cocktail mixer.

The definitive sour cherry pie — deeply ruby-red filling with a perfectly balanced sweet-tart punch that makes sweet cherry pies taste like a lesser thing. Double-crusted with a lattice top that lets the bubbling, jewel-bright filling show through. This is what cherry pie is supposed to taste like.