Pop one or two side plates in the freezer.

Wash and stone your cherries, popping the stones in a square of muslin tightly tied with string to the side of your largest pan.

Chop the cherries as finely or as coarsely as you wish. I halved half of them and quartered the rest. Chopping finer makes them cook quicker as well as resulting in a smoother textured jam.

Grate over the zest of 1-2 lemons (I used one monster one).

Cook until the cherries soften considerably, ensuring that the bag of pips stays under the cherries so the pectin can leach out. Don’t leave the pan and stir frequently – a medium heat at about 20-25 minutes saw my cherries ready.

Now, take off the heat, squeeze any mulch through the muslin into the cherries then weigh the fruit. A decent amount of their water will have evaporated so they will weigh less than when you started. Return to the pan and add 3/4 of the weight in sugar.

Squirt over your lemon juice, encouraging a little pulp to go with it and turn up the heat once more to a rolling boil.

Now what you are looking for is the product of more evaporation – you want the sugar to form a thickened syrup and the fruit to start to become one with it. This may take another 25 minutes so don’t panic but again, keep on stirring frequently so it doesn’t stick and catch.

When you think the jam is almost looking like jam (as if you heated up a jar of Bonne Maman cherry preserves mmm!) retrieve a plate from the freezer and pour a spoonful of the syrupy part onto it. Take the jam off the heat. Leave a minute to cool (it will be ferociously hot – again, caution) then push it to see if it wrinkles. Ideally the wrinkle will remain but sag a little when you remove your finger. If not, return and cook a wee while longer, returning the plate to the freezer for the time being.

When the wrinkle test has been passed, stir in the Kirsch and amaretto or almond extract making sure they are well incorporated.

When ready, ladle into sterile jars warm from the oven/dishwasher and pop the lids on. Once cold, either store in a cool dark place or in the fridge.