You can collect cranberries or cultivate them in the garden. The harvest of the ripe fruits begins at the end of August and, depending on the region, lasts until October. The berries do not taste good raw and are therefore usually made into jam and boiled down. You can find out how to do this in this article.
How to preserve cranberries?
To cook cranberries, you need 1 kg cranberries, 250 ml water, 1 cinnamon stick and 600-750 g preserving sugar 1:2. Mix the ingredients, leave to cool overnight, heat the next day, simmer for 5 minutes and pour the jam into sterilized jars.
Users needed
- Large cooking pot or a food processor with cooking function
- Wooden cooking spoon
- Jars with twist-off lid and undamaged seal
Sterilize jars
The top priority when preserving cranberries is cleanliness. Therefore, sterilize the jars before filling them with jam. There are various ways to do this, all of which work equally well:
- Heat a saucepan with water, put the jars and lids in it and leave everything in the pot for ten minutes. Allow the container to drain briefly and close the filled cranberry jam with the still wet lid.
- Just put the glasses in the dishwasher and run them on the hottest setting using a hygienic dishwasher. To ensure that the device is guaranteed to be germ-free, we recommend a cleaning cycle before sterilization.
- Clean the jam jars with hot water and dish soap. Then dry with a fresh tea towel and place in the preheated oven at 120 degrees for 15 minutes.
Cooking cranberry jam
Ingredients
- 1 kg cranberries
- 250 ml water
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 600 – 750 g preserving sugar 1:2
Preparation
- Wash the cranberries thoroughly and sort out any fruits that are not in perfect condition.
- Mix the still wet fruits with the sugar, cinnamon stick and liquid.
- Leave it cool overnight so that the berries draw juice.
- The next day, heat in a large pot, stirring constantly, until the cranberries burst.
- Simmer for about five minutes and carefully skim off the foam.
- Take a jelly test. If the jam is too liquid, continue cooking. If it is too thick, add a little water.
- Pour the hot jam into the sterilized jars, wipe the rim clean.
- Close immediately and turn the containers upside down.
- Let cool, label, store in a cool and dark place.
If you wish, you can replace the water with 125 ml of red and port wine or 250 ml of red wine. If you want to avoid sugar, you can use birch sugar instead. Since xylitol does not preserve quite as well as preserving sugar, you should store the boiled cranberry jam in the refrigerator if possible and use it quickly.
Tip
Cranberries are traditionally served with baked Camembert and salad. The jam tastes very delicious in combination with bitter meat dishes such as game dishes or Viennese schnitzel. The bittersweet speci alty also goes perfectly with Kaiserschmarrn or potato pancakes.
