Here for a short time in July and early August, these sour cherries from upstate New York are the more grown-up cousin to the typical sweet bing variety.
If you sweat the Tartine Book No. 3, like we do, then you know you want to riff on this riff of Hungarian sour cherry soup, like these gods of fermenting, sprouting and making your own everything do. If you like to quietly scarf pints of Cherry Garcia ice cream, alone in your kitchen at night, check out this recipe for sour cherry ice cream. While you’re at it, chuck some pistachios in there, get a bag of Tcho Pro 68% dark chocolate, make the bittersweet chocolate sauce, and turn it into profiteroles a la Jerry. And get the bar manager to hook up a batch of their own luxardo cherries that you pinch at will for the pastry station: check out this NYT article on spiking & preserving your own fruit here. Pastry chefs might also want to check out this insanely gorgeous cheesecake. Both the pastry chef & the resident mustachioed barkeep might be interested in making a Persian-inspired sour cherry syrup, which could be enhanced, in both color and flavor, by including some Tahitian vanilla bean and dried hibiscus in the steep. Gardmo could knock out a big batch pickled sour cherries, courtesy of David Lebovitz, to add to the charcuterie board. Or drop on top: pork chop, crispy duck, venison saddle.
And lest we forget: sour cherry kuchen from Lottie + Doof, as inspired by the cover photo. Not featured but thought about: sour cherry black forest bundt cake, gateau basque, chocolate cherry bread, and a brioche doughnut filled with home made sour cherry jam.