Ruth's Sour Cherry Lemonade

RUTH REICHL's Sour Cherry Lemonade is so incredibly brilliant!

Reichl and La Briffe, her weekly newsletter, is the basic reason that made me switch to substack…

Photo Aglaia Kremezi

Here is her recipe/description which you can use as a starting point and adjust according to your taste —how sweet or lemony you like your mid-summer refreshment.

RUTH REICHL’ Sour Cherry Lemonade

Start with a quart (about 2 pounds) of sour cherries, and, without removing the pits, dump the cherries into a blender. Whiz them about until they’re all smooshed and some of the pits are coarsely chopped, then put them into a strainer or a sieve and press hard, extracting as much puree as you can.  Discard the solids.

Put the cherry puree into a pitcher and stir in the juice of four lemons, and about a cup of sugar.  (If you like things really sour, you might want less; if you’ve got a sweet tooth, you’ll want more.)

This will keep for a day or two in the refrigerator.

When you’re ready to drink the lemonade, pour into glasses and add water (or sparkling water) to taste. 

Love of Lemons

She continues to talk about her love of lemons:

Speaking of lemonade…. I am obsessed with lemons. I am never without them. (If you want to hear about my lemon obsession, you can do that here.). So of course I have serious opinions about lemonade.

Great lemonade is much more than refreshingly delicious; it is also extremely good for you. In addition to containing loads of infection-fighting vitamin C, lemon juice is an antioxidant and very effective in times of gastric distress. But please, when life gives you lemons, make better lemonade… Read MORE

I knew we were kindred spirits even before reading this post —check my Lemon is a Greek Perversion and you understand what I am talking about.

The difference between us is her ample use of butter, which is almost totally absent from my kitchen where olive oil rules. But listening to her talk about how her beloved cultured butter compliments lemon, I think I am ready to give it a try…

Her interview is here. She lists various lemon recipes, among them our traditional Avgolemono Soup and of course, starts with Dany Kay’s Lemony Pasta!