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Dessert

Preserved Cranberries

A preserved cranberry preserve made by boiling cranberries with sugar and water, then straining and cooking until thick.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Preserved Cranberries

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the juice

  1. Wash the cranberries.

  2. Combine 3 quarts of cranberries with 1½ pints of water in a stewpan. Cover and boil until soft.

  3. Squeeze the juice through a jelly bag.

Make the syrup

  1. Add the sugar to a preserving kettle. Pour the cranberry juice over the sugar.

  2. Let the mixture stand until the sugar melts. Stir frequently.

  3. Place the kettle over heat and add the remaining 3 quarts of whole cranberries. Boil until the cranberries are tender, clear, and bright. Skim frequently.

  4. Transfer the warm cranberries and syrup into jars. Ensure the syrup is thick like jelly.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Cranberries
Provide the fruit, pectin-rich flesh that softens and gives the preserve its body and tart flavor.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the preserve and, at high concentration, helps preserve it and set the syrup thick.
Water
Adds moisture so the cranberries can soften fully while being cooked down.

The step that matters

Boiling the whole cranberries in the sugar syrup. Sugar concentration and boiling point together determine whether the syrup thickens to a jelly-like set. Undercooking leaves it runny and spoilage-prone, while overcooking can make it stiff and dull in color.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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