Fresh sour cherries are fleeting. Here’s how to make the most of them.

Full of flavor, fragile and fleeting, sour cherries are a treasure worth seeking out.

According to Tyler Butler, general manager and third-generation farmer at Butler’s Orchard in Maryland, “they’re underrated.” However, those in the know “are just ecstatic over sour cherries.”

Also known as tart cherries, the fruit is more acidic than the more commonly available sweet cherries. They’re also smaller in size and “they have a thinner, softer skin and the inside is much softer,” according to Anastasia Zolotarev, author of the recently published “Sour Cherries and Sunflowers” cookbook. They’re also juicier. “If you were to cook them, they’re going to produce like five times more juice than a [sweet] cherry,” Zolotarev said.

There are two major classifications of tart cherries: amarelle and morello. The most popular variety is Montmorency, which is under the amarelle umbrella and is the kind Butler grows at his farm. “It’s got a red skin with a yellow flesh,” Butler said. (Morellos have a darker skin with a red flesh and are more commonly found in Europe.)

The balance of sweet and tart can vary among varieties and even time of year, according to Zolotarev. “If it’s late summer, they are a bit sweeter,” she said. “If it’s the beginning, they’re much more tart.”

Part of the verve surrounding fresh sour cherries is their scarcity. “The problem with sour cherries is either you have a lot of cherries or you have no cherries,” Butler said. That’s because the trees need a cold winter and a frost-free spring to keep from killing the blossoms.

Here’s what you need to know about making the most of these seasonal gems.

Picking, storing and pitting

Since the fruit doesn’t ripen once picked, you want to wait until it’s at its peak. “If you wait too long, the insects will come in and the rot will come in, so you have a short window to really harvest,” Butler said. “What also makes them special is that when it happens, it happens and you’ve got to make it count.”

Zolotarev has fond memories of picking sour cherries from the trees in the backyard of her babushka’s house in Belarus. “Stepping onto the ladder and slowly picking them and then coming home and pitting them and eating some, cooking some,” she recalled. “Just that simple act is something that I’ve always loved.”

Whether you’re picking your own or buying fresh tart cherries from a farmers market, Butler suggests “looking for cherries that have stems on. That’s going to keep them a little fresher, because once you pick and just pull, you have an open wound, so now your clock is ticking.”

Once picked, they don’t keep long or ship well, which is why it’s almost impossible to find the fresh fruit in grocery stores. “If they sit overnight in a bucket or anything, they’ll start to lose their juice, so it’s good to either use them as soon as you possibly can or freeze them,” Zolotarev said. (You can also store them in the refrigerator — unwashed until you’re ready to eat them — where they can last for up to five days, according to Butler.)

Before using fresh sour cherries, as with all cherries, it’s important to pit them first lest you risk someone chipping a tooth. Compared to pitting the sweet variety, “they are easier because they’re softer, yet trickier because juice goes everywhere,” Zolotarev said. An easy way to remove the pit is to simply push it out with your finger, but you can use whatever method or tool you like best. (If you’re unable to get your hands on fresh sour cherries, you can also find them frozen, jarred, canned, dried and as juice.)

While their tartness might be pungent to some, others love eating them unadulterated. “We freeze them, and I’ve got a 5- and 8-year-old and they’re just popping them in their mouth like it’s dessert,” Butler said. More often, you’ll find them cooked, to mellow their tartness, or paired with a sweetener of some sort to balance their sour flavor.

How to cook and bake with sour cherries

You can usually find them in desserts, such as bars or crisps. In the United States, the most common use for sour cherries is baked into a pie, which allows for their singular flavor to truly shine. (They’re also referred to as pie cherries.) The dried fruit is a great option, too, when folded into cookies. Another option is to turn the fruit into preserves to spread on toast, spoon on ice cream or serve on a spoon with coffee, as they do in some Eastern European cultures.

When looking for savory inspiration, sour cherries are very popular in many Eastern European and Persian cuisines, but can be found elsewhere, too. One option is halushky, which pairs the Ukrainian dumplings with a sour cherry sauce to serve as a sweet-tart side alongside meat or other vegetable dishes. There’s also albaloo polo, a Persian rice dish with tart cherries that is usually served with some sort of meat. Both sour cherry juice and the dried fruit are used in meatballs with sour cherry sauce (Kabab Karaz), a Syrian dish.

For more inspiration, Zolotarev said the cherries go “really beautifully with poultry and earthy flavors.” She mentioned a recipe for duck stuffed with buckwheat and served with a spiced sour cherry sauce.

The fruit is just as versatile in drink form. Of course, you can simply buy the bottled juice from the grocery store. Another option is to make a kompot, as it’s referred to in Eastern Europe, in which you briefly simmer the fruit, lightly sweeten it, and then strain it into jars to store in the fridge. Or try visinata, a traditional Romanian liqueur made by combing the fruit with sugar and alcohol and letting it macerate for anywhere from several weeks to a few months.

With sour cherries, you can let your creativity run wild. But Zolotarev offered one piece of advice: “They are definitely really tart, so just adjust the sugar to your liking.”

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Sour Cherry Lattice Pie

2 pie crusts, for a 9-inch pie pan (homemade or store bought)

¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons (175 grams) granulated sugar

2½ tablespoons cornstarch

Pinch fine sea or table salt

1½ pounds (680 grams) fresh sour cherries, pitted, juices reserved (scant 4 cups)

¼ teaspoon pure almond extract

All-purpose flour, for dusting the work surface, if needed

Fit one of the pie crusts in a 9-inch pie dish. Refrigerate according to your crust’s instructions.

About 20 minutes before you are ready to bake, position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 425°F.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, cornstarch and salt until combined. Add the cherries and their accumulated juices, and the almond extract, and stir to combine. Let the mixture sit at room temperature for at least 10 minutes and up to 3 hours.

About 10 minutes before assembling the pie, remove the second disk of pie crust dough from the refrigerator to allow it to soften and become more pliable.

Remove the pie plate with the unbaked bottom crust from the refrigerator. Spoon the cherries and their juices into the bottom pie crust.

Place the second dough between two sheets of parchment paper, and roll out the dough to an oval about 10½-by-8 inches wide and about 1/16-inch thick. Rotate your parchment-encased dough periodically to ensure an even thickness. Work quickly, so the dough remains smooth and cool. (It's best to use parchment paper, but if you do not have any, lightly flour the work surface before rolling out the dough.)

Using a ruler and a fluted pastry wheel or a sharp paring knife, cut the dough oval into 10 strips. Arrange five strips evenly over the cherry filling. Gently fold back every other strip just past the center point of the pie and then place a strip on top that runs perpendicular. Reposition the strips so that they lie flat on top of the perpendicular strip. Working in the same direction, gently fold back the strips that were not folded back the first time. Lay a second perpendicular strip on top and unfurl the folded-back strips. Repeat with a third perpendicular strip, folding back the strips that were folded back the first time.

Apply the remaining 2 strips to the other side of the pie, starting toward the center and working toward the edge. Remember to alternate strips that are folded back so that the strips form a woven pattern.

Using sharp kitchen scissors, trim the strips to a ½-inch overhang, if necessary. Use water to moisten the edge of the bottom crust where it contacts each strip, then tuck the overhang under the bottom crust edge, pressing down to seal it.

Crimp the edges in a decorative fashion.

Use a pie crust protector or create a protective shield for the edge of the pie crust (to prevent overbrowning) by lightly crimping a ring of aluminum foil over it. Place the pie on the floor of the oven for 20 minutes, then transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Adjust an oven rack so it is on the lowest level in the oven, place the baking sheet with pie on that rack and bake for 40 to 50 minutes, or until the juices bubble through the lattice and the center is slightly puffed. If the lattice becomes too dark in the last 15 minutes of baking, cover it loosely with a piece of aluminum foil with a vent hole in the center.

Transfer to a wire rack and let cool for at least 3 hours before cutting.

Makes 6 servings (one 9-inch pie).

Substitutions: If using Bing cherries, which are much sweeter, reduce the sugar to about ⅔ cup (133 grams) and cook the filling on the stove top over medium to medium-low heat until thickened, 8 to 10 minutes, before filling the bottom pie crust. Chopped rhubarb makes a nice, slightly tart addition, as well.

Storage: Leftover pie can be lightly covered and refrigerated for up to 5 days.

Nutrition per serving (1 slice), based on 6 and using Flaky Cream Cheese Pie Crust | Calories: 630; Total Fat: 30 g; Saturated Fat: 18 g; Cholesterol: 83 mg; Sodium: 235 mg; Carbohydrates: 85 g; Dietary Fiber: 3 g; Sugar: 39 g; Protein: 7 g

— From “The Pie and Pastry Bible” (Scribner, 1998), with adaptations by its author, Rose Levy Beranbaum.