Preserving Cranberries (2024)

Fresh Cranberries

• Select berries that are brightly colored with a smooth, glossy and firm skin.
• A fresh berry will "bounce" when dropped. Small air-filled chambers inside a cranberry cause the fruit to bounce and to float.
• Discard cranberries that are shriveled, soft, wrinkled or have surface blemishes.
• Fresh cranberries are usually good stored in the refrigerator for two weeks. If kept longer, you will find a gradual deterioration of quality with more soft or bruised berries.
• Berries can be stored in the original packaging in the refrigerator crisper for up to four weeks.

Freezing Cranberries

Choose one of these methods for freezing cranberries:

• Place plastic bags of cranberries directly in the freezer for up to twelve months and use without thawing—just run cold water over them to rinse before using.
• Because some bruised and soft berries and some stems and leaves are often in the bags, you might prefer to sort and wash the berries before freezing them.
  1. Sort berries and remove stems; then wash and drain thoroughly.
  2. Blot dry with a clean towel to remove as much moisture as possible. Water remaining on the skin of the cranberry will cause the berry to blister when frozen and the berries to stick together.
  3. Pack cranberries into containers, leaving ½-inch headspace for expansion, or freeze them on a tray and then pack into containers or freezer bags as soon as berries are frozen.
  4. Frozen berries are best if used within one year.

Cooking with Cranberries

The commonly sold 12-ounce bag contains about 3 cups of cranberries. If the recipe you are using specifies the use of chopped cranberries, measure after chopping. Otherwise, measure cranberries before chopping them.

To prepare cranberries for cooking, sort the berries to remove any soft berries and stems. Rinse in cold water and drain well. It is not necessary to thaw frozen berries before use. This versatile berry is used in everything from sauce to bread to cakes.

Cranberry Sauce

Making cranberry sauce is similar to making a long-cooked jelly. A balance between sugar, acid, and pectin creates a gel. Boiling is critical to release the pectin inside the cranberry so that it can react with the sugar and create the proper gelled texture. Cranberry sauce needs to cool at room temperature; chilling it too quickly may affect the gel. If your freshly-made cooked sauce or opened canned sauce does not gel, try the following:

• Add an envelope or 1 tablespoon unflavored gelatin to the sauce for additional thickness.
• Mix the gelatin with a little sugar before stirring it into the hot sauce.
• Bring the cranberry-gelatin mixture to a hard boil, stirring frequently.
• Reduce heat to medium-high and cook an additional 5 minutes.
• Remove from heat, cool and refrigerate.
• As with making jelly, avoid doubling the recipe because it may affect the sauce's ability to gel.
• Using less sugar may produce a sauce that is not as firm. There are recipes specifically designed for use in lower-sugar sauces.
• Do not use dried cranberries to make sauce. They do not contain the pectin necessary for a gelled product.

A major cranberry company does not recommend making cranberry sauce ahead of time and freezing it because the cell walls will break down in the freezer, making the sauce watery when thawed. Other people choose to freeze the sauce and are willing to stir the product together when thawed.

Baked Products

While most recipes for baked products call for fresh cranberries, you can use frozen cranberries without thawing or dried cranberries but ¼ less. A cranberry bread recipe will also make a dozen muffins. Simply use the same oven temperature but reduce the baking time to 25 to 30 minutes. Baked products containing cranberries freeze well. Cool them completely, wrap them in plastic wrap, and over-wrap with heavy-duty foil or place in a vapor-proof freezer bag.

Canning Cranberries

Although canning cranberry sauce may not be time- or cost-effective, the flavor is superb, and the result makes a treat for a special occasion or as a gift. The National Center for Home Food Preservation has recipes for canning Jellied Cranberry Sauce or Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce.

• One quart (1⅓ bags) makes about two pints of sauce.
• Canned cranberry sauce must be processed in a boiling water bath canner or an atmospheric steam canner for storage at room temperature.

Cranberries are the base for making sweet spreads like Cranberry Conserve or Cranberry Marmalade.Spicy cranberry salsa can be used to make dips or used as a condiment with meats.

References:

National Center for Home Food Preservation. Canning Jellied Cranberry Sauce.

National Center for Home Food Preservation. Making Jams and Jellies: Cranberry Conserve.

National Center for Home Food Preservation. Making Jams and Jellies: Cranberry Marmalade.

National Center for Home Food Preservation. Preparing and Canning Salsa: Spicy Cranberry Salsa.

USDA My Plate, USDA. (n.d.) “Cranberry Nut Bread”.

Venema, Christine. (2023, May 26). “Freezing cranberries made easy”. Michigan State University Extension.