Cranberry Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Soften the berries
Rinse the cranberries and place them in a large pot.
Sprinkle baking soda over the cranberries and cover with cold water.
Cook until the berries begin to pop, then drain the water.
Cover the cranberries with hot water and cook until soft.
Make the jelly
Press the mixture through a sieve.
For each pint of cranberry juice, add 1 cup of sugar.
Cook until the mixture jellies, which takes just a few moments.
Mold
Pour the jelly into a wet mold.
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 tart flavour and the natural pectin that lets the juice set into jelly.
- Baking soda
- Raises the pH of the cooking water, helping the berry skins soften.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the juice set into a firm jelly.
The step that matters
Cook until the mixture jellies. Sugar and pectin set only within a narrow window of cooking. The jelly takes just a few moments, so overcooking can make it stiff, grainy or sticky, while undercooking leaves it runny.
“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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