Cranberry Sauce | Jelled
Cranberry Sauce (Jellied) is a low-sweetener cooked sauce made with Pomona’s Universal Pectin. Pomona’s Pectin contains no sugar or preservatives and jells reliably with low amounts of any sweetener.
Notes
Storage Options: If you don’t want to process the cranberry sauce in a boiling water bath, you can put it in the refrigerator once it is cooled and it will keep for 3 weeks. You can also freeze the sauce instead of canning it. For freezing, fill jars to ½” of top. Defrost in refrigerator before eating.
Servings 3 cups
Ingredients
- Cranberry Pulp Ingredients:
- 12 ounce package of cranberries
- 1½ cups of water
- Jelly Ingredients:
- 2 cups pulpy cranberry juice
- 1 teaspoon calcium water see step #1
- zest + juice from 1 orange optional
- ½ cup honey or 1 cup sugar
- 1½ teaspoons Pomona’s Pectin
- ½ cup sugar
Instructions
- Before You Begin, prepare calcium water.To do this, combine ½ teaspoon calcium powder (in the small packet in your box of Pomona’s pectin) with ½ cup water in a small, clear jar with a lid. Shake well. Extra calcium water should be stored in the refrigerator for future use.
- Prepare boiling water canner. Heat jars in simmering water until ready for use. Wash lids and bands and set aside.
- Bring package of cranberries and water to a boil then simmer, covered on low until the cranberries burst and soften. Put mixture through a Foley Mill or strainer to remove skins.
- Measure and place pulpy cranberry juice into sauce pan.
- Add calcium water and orange juice + zest (if using) and mix well.
- Measure room temperature honey into a bowl. Thoroughly mix pectin powder into honey. Set aside.
- Bring fruit mixture to a full boil. Add pectin-honey mixture, stirring vigorously for 1 to 2 minutes to dissolve the pectin.
- After the pectin is dissolved, add the ½ cup sugar and stir well while the sauce comes back up to a boil. Once the sauce returns to a full boil, remove it from the heat.
- Remove hot jars from canner and fill jars with (marmalade/jam/jelly), leaving ¼ inch of headspace. Remove trapped air bubbles, wipe rims and put on lids and screw bands, tightening bands only to “fingertip tight” (until resistance is met, and then just the tiniest bit more).
- Place jars in the hot water, on the rack inside the canner. (Make sure jars are upright, not touching each other or the sides of the canner, and are covered with at least 1-2 inches of water). Place the lid on the canner, bring the canner to a rolling boil, and boil for 10 minutes. (Add 1 minute additional processing time for every 1000 feet above sea level.)
- Turn off heat and allow canner and jars to sit for 5 minutes. Then, remove jars from canner. Allow jars to cool undisturbed for 12-24 hours. Then, confirm that jars have sealed, then store properly. Eat within 1 year. Lasts 3 weeks once opened.
The I am confused about the sugar and honey amount. I would like to make this with allulose and would like to know what the total amount I would need if I used no honey.
You can definitely try this with allulose. If it measures like sugar, then you can use 1 cup. If it’s sweeter than sugar, like honey is, then you’d want to use less. 1/2 cup honey is close to the sweetness level of 1 cup of sugar, that is why the amounts in the ingredient list differs.
Would this recipe work with xylitol? I’m wondering if the sugar is needed for acidity rather than just sweetness and if so how much lemon juice or other acid would it need
Can I replace the water with orange juice? Would this change the amount of sugar necessary?
We have never tried this, but you’re welcome to experiment with it using unsweetened juice.
Can I make this recipe with lingonberries (wild cranberries), which are plentiful where I live and I love them way more than the huge cranberries sold in the supermarket
Yes you can!
My hubby likes the harder gelled sauce that comes out of the can looking like… well, the can! LOL So I want one I can process and then remove from the can and slice.. Tried without pectin and couldn’t get it to the right gelling point apparently. Suggestions for pectin?
Hello Carrie,
You will likely need to increase the pectin in this recipe to 3 teaspoons, in order to get the much firmer gel.
Thank you for the response. I made a triple batch & appropriately tripled all the ingredients. It was better than my last attempt but still not quite “gelled” enough. I use cane juice crystals and almost thought it was too sweet, though my family thought the flavor was OK. I canned 2 of the jars; the 3rd one wasn’t quite full enough so we ate that after it cooled. It’s possible the 2 jars I canned are a bit more gelled.We will soon find out! I could actually slice this one but the slices started to lose their shape after a bit. I’ll keep trying!
Is the pectin necessary for preserving this recipe for canning? My recipe for sauce is almost identical to this and jells reliably without the pectin (although I haven’t dared can it to be shelf stable- I just keep it in the fridge and make small batches).
The pectin does not add a preserving quality to the sauce, though we have not tested a batch’s consitency without the addition of the pectin.
How would adopt this recipe for whole berry cranberry sauce?
You could simply cook the cranberries until soft and slightly bursting, then proceed with the recipe, omitting the Foley mill. You will also reduce the pectin by 1/2 teaspoon.
Do I have to use the full Amount of sugar or can I use less? If so how little of sugar can I use.
You can use less! We would suggest no less than 1/4 cup of sugar for this one.
Are sweeteners necessary for canning safety in this recipe? I like my cranberry sauce very tart and am wondering whether it would be safe to reduce the sugar.
Hello Jessie,
It is safe, but we do not recommend it.
*We don’t recommend making jam or jelly with absolutely no sweetener. The final product is likely to be tart and bland. Sweetener, even in a small amount, brings out the flavor of the fruit.
If you want to try it, however, this is what you do: For 4 cups of mashed fruit or juice, use either ½ cup water or unsweetened fruit juice (if you’re using 2 or 3 teaspoons of pectin) or ¾ cup water or unsweetened fruit juice (if you’re using 4 teaspoons of pectin).
Make liquid pectin by measuring the correct amount of water or juice into a small sauce pan and bringing it to a boil. Put boiling liquid in cup for immersion blender, or in food processor, or in blender. Add pectin. It is very important to vent the lid (if there is one) to let steam out. Don’t use an enclosed blender that can’t be vented. Blend for 10 seconds, then stop and scrape down the sides so all pectin clumps are in or on the liquid. Blend for a full minute until all powder is totally dissolved.
Add the liquid pectin to the boiling fruit or juice mixture, which should already contain the calcium water and lemon juice (or lime juice or vinegar) if called for in the recipe. Stir while mixture returns to a full boil. If you taste your jam before jarring and it isn’t sweet enough, you can add however much sweetener you want at this point. Stir well and return mixture to a boil, remove from heat, jar and process according to the recipe sheet that comes with Pomona’s Pectin.
These instructions are also on the recipe sheet that comes with your box of Pomona’s Pectin
Can I use all honey for this recipe instead of 1/2 cup sugar?
You sure can! It would be 3/4 cup honey, total.
Hi- Is it necessary to run it through a food mill to remove the skins?
No, that would not be necessary for this recipe. Happy jamming!
How do you make the pulpy cranberry juice?
Hello Shirley,
That would be in step 3 😊
“Bring package of cranberries and water to a boil then simmer, covered on low until the cranberries burst and soften. Put mixture through a Foley Mill or strainer to remove skins.”
Could I make this recipe with allulose instead of sugar and honey?
You sure can!
This recipe contains honey, can i swap it for another 1/2 cup of sugar instead?
You sure can, it would only be an additional 1/4 cup of sugar though.