Use maraschino cherries to give your holiday dishes some color.
The bright red color of maraschino cherries adds an appealing look to main dishes and drinks. Celebrations like Easter often involve ham garnished with pineapple rings and maraschino cherries to flavor the ham as it bakes. A cherry garnish in a drink can simply be a fun decoration or be part of the traditional recipe of a particular drink.
Instructions
Easter Ham
1. Unwrap the ham and position it in a baking dish. Baking a ham requires a deep-dish baking pan with a lid to keep the ham from drying out as it cooks.
2. Score the face of the ham with the tip of a sharp knife. Draw the tip of the knife across the top of the ham allowing the knife to make a cut approximately 1/4 to 3/8 inch deep. The scoring cuts will help the juice from the pineapple and cherries to soak into the ham for flavoring.
3. Place pineapple rings over the top surface of the ham and around the sides. Use toothpicks to hold them in position.
4. Use toothpicks to hold maraschino cherries in the center of each pineapple ring and at the center of the space where three pineapple rings meet. The red coloring of the cherries will bleed into the pineapple rings as the ham cooks.
5. Remove the pineapple rings and cherries from the ham before carving and serve them on the side as a garnish. Discard the toothpicks.
Drink Garnishes
6. Drop a cherry in a drink after you pour it. Many drinks traditionally mandate a cherry, such as a whiskey sour or a Manhattan. The drinker may search out the garnish as a sweet bonus in the glass.
7. Thread a pineapple wedge onto a skewer and finish with a single maraschino cherry to garnish a fruity drink like a Pina Colada or Daiquiri. The added color and sweetness of the cherry delight the drinker.
8. Make a slit in the side of a cherry. Place the cherry on the rim of the cocktail glass. This practice treats the cherry much like a wedge of lemon or lime.
Tags: pineapple rings, maraschino cherries, cherry garnish, toothpicks hold