Source: 1000 Foods (pgs. 357 – 358)

            Here’s a cherry recipe I had more success with. Rodgrod med flode, which is apparently very difficult for non-Danish speakers to pronounce, is a translucent dessert made with red summer fruit. In Denmark red currants, sometimes in combination with other fruits, are the most popular, but they are a lot harder to come by in America. At one point, it was actually illegal to plant currant bushes due to concerns about them carrying white pine blister rust, which threatened the logging industry. While the bans have since been repealed, currants never became popular here and are usually only available in jam form.

            Since red currants are often supplemented by other berries or cherries, I combined four parts tart cherries with one part overripe strawberries and a bit of black currant jam. Everything is briefly simmered, strained for juice, sweetened, and thickened with cornstarch. The texture is similar to gelatin but smoother, with a garnet-like color and shine. It tasted kind of like cherry pie, but the strawberry flavor was there too. A bit of whipped cream balanced out the sweet-tart pudding and added a nice contrast in color. If I find some currants, it would be interesting to try again and compare.

            In the meantime, cherry season is over. There are several bags of pitted frozen cherries and jars of jam in the deep freeze, ready for experimentation, and the robins have finished off those left on the tree. In the process, they have distributed the cherry pits over a surprisingly wide area. If conditions are right, maybe some of those seeds will grow into new trees. Cue the music to “The Circle of Life.”