My grandparents always told me they escaped the depression. They lived on a self-sufficient farm in South West Ohio. They grew everything and had live stock, too. None of their seven kids ever went hungry.

One aspect of this self-sufficiency was my grandfather’s love for alcoholic drinks. He made his own beer, wine and had a still out in the woods. The primary products from the still were sour mash bourbon and brandy. He hated moonshine (no character to it).

Unfortunately, the quality of these products were highly variable; some batches were good, others not so. For those batches which were not so good, he sought out processes to improve their palatability.

One of his favorite tricks was to fill a mason jar about half way with fruit and then top the whole thing off with his second rate bourbons or brandies. This was always done in mid summer when fresh fruit was in abundance.

These jars were opened during Christmas. My grandmother, being the frugal depression era lady that she was, would use the fruit left in the jars as fillings for tarts, pies and related baked goods.

When I was a child I sampled many of these. All were good!

The following is my adaption of one of the best of these recipes.

I start with seasonally available fresh tart cherries. I have also tried this with Queen Ann cherries. These are also very good, but I prefer the tart cherries.

I've also tried the dark sweet cherries, which are not so well suited to this recipe.

After the fruit is washed, stemmed and pitted, cut them in halves or quarters. Fill a 1 quart mason jar to the top with the fruit. Do not pack the fruit in, just fill it. Fill the entire jar to the brim with brandy.

Use the cheapest brandy available. Don’t insult the good stuff. A 50/50 mixture of brandy and bourbon may also be used and works well if you like the flavor of bourbon.

Close the jar tightly and let it sit in a cool dark place for at least a month. The sit time can be longer (even as long as a year). Any longer than that and the fruit in the final product has a tendency to soften. This is not really a bad thing as taste goes but may alter the presentation for a fancy dinner party. It will still provide a good fruit sauce for a dish of vanilla ice cream.

On the stove top, bring the liquid to a boil adding:

Pour into a glass 10 x 6 baking dish. Top with a cobbler topping. Many will work here - from Bisquick to oatmeal types.

The one I prefer:

Serve with a scope of ice cream or topped with whipped cream.

This basic recipe can be twisted and turned in several ways. Peaches and apricots are good. So are grapes, but they need to be seeded before putting them in the jar.

A heritage recipe.

Submitted by: David Thone