I've got a surplus of Bing cherries at the moment, since they're in season and therefore on sale everywhere.  I have a handful of made-from-scratch cherry pie filling, but most call for tart cherries (and a relatively large amount of sugar, 1/2 to 1 cup, about twice what I put in a typical blueberry filling). How much should I reduce the sugar to allow for using a sweeter variety of cherries? 
5 gram per gallon (0.0125 percent) Xanthan gum inhibits separation in my pepper sauce. You see that as an ingredient in lots of hot sauces. It's a bit of a pain to mix in thoroughly, but there are plenty of other emulsifiers available. Last couple years it seems there might be a bit of consumer backlash growing against some of them, so choose carefully. You wouldn't want the next "gluten" in your product. 