We had a tart cherry tree in our yard in PA and I made pies, tons of pies and even remember the page (page 324...Betty Crocker's Cookbook) in my cookbook. I still have the book (50 years later and it is held together with rubber bands). I started baking when I was 10 and only used fresh tart cherries, blueberries and peaches that we hand picked each year for 15 years. Yum!!!
The tart cherries are a pain in the ass. It is very time consuming and the juice runs down your arm like blood. We froze them and used them year round. I only use butter in my pie crusts and it makes the pies so tasty.
My sister and I are still pissed off over 40 years later since we spent tons of time picking and pitting the cherries (literally days) but since we knew the pies would be the result it was worth it, until the year my dad decided to usurp the cherries and make wine out of them. It was his new fad. The problem was that while we were not at home the big, plastic bag that was fermenting fell over and ALL THE CHERRY JUICE WAS GONE!!! No cherries for pies for that whole year and we were/are mad. She has looked for the similar cherries her whole life (a fanatic) but can't repeat the flavor.
So, my advice is DO NOT MAKE WINE with them.
8 inch pie
Pastry for 2 crust 8 inch pie
1 1/3 cups sugar
1/3 cup all purpose flour
4 cups fresh, pitted tart cherries
2 tablespoons butter
If you use frozen cherries decrease sugar to 1/2 cup
Heat oven to 425
Prepare pastry
Stir the sugar and cherries and pour into the crust.
Cover with the top crust, make slits, seal and flute
Bake 35 to 45 minutes until brown and juice bubbles through the slits.
Enjoy.
This is the original cookbook....
https://vintagecookbook.com/product/betty-crockers-cookbook-1969-2/
https://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/cherry-pie/f2889e73-caac-40ef-8b5e-f35f04496fc6
= new reply since forum marked as read