Canning Cranberry Juice - A New Experiment

The other week we tried a recipe I had seen on Instagram. The post touted an easy way to can cranberry juice. There were several reasons I wanted to try this recipe. First, our family enjoys the taste of cranberry juice. Second, I was excited to try a recipe that had no high-fructose corn syrup - we used natural cane sugar to sweeten our juice. Third, I like to keep cranberry juice on hand for those rare times when someone in the household feels the beginning symptoms of a UTI. 

The recipe was easy. You can find the instagram post here, and you can read how we did it below:

I sterilized my jars and heated the canner while I rinsed the cranberries. I had purchased two 12 oz. bags of cranberries for this experiment. This gave us a total of six cups of cranberries. Following the directions on the Instagram page, I put 1 1/2 cups of cranberries in each jar, added 1/3 cup of organic cane sugar, and filled the jar with hot (boiling) water. I then capped off each jar and put it in the canner. I processed them for 30 minutes (the Instagram post called for less time, but after looking up a couple more recipes for this method on the web, I decided to err on the side of caution and go with the longest processing time I found, which I then adjusted for altitude). 

When they came out of the canner, the deep cranberry color had just begun to settle down the jar. There was a layer of red sitting atop a layer of golden yellow from the cane sugar. 

Because I was working late the next day, I left them to sit for 48 hours before removing the rings and wiping down the jars. I slowly turned them upside down to better mix the cranberry juice and sugar water. The sugar will help to extract the flavor from the cranberries, so I wanted to be sure the liquid was evenly mixed. The cranberries looked nice and plump at this point. 

 

We will wait at least three weeks before opening a jar to try. I want to be sure as much of the flavor is extracted as possible before consuming the juice. They should be ready just in time for a Christmas treat. 

When we are ready to use the juice, I plan to strain off the cranberries and crush them a bit to get all the juice out. I am so excited to see if this is a good option for homemade cranberry juice!


Have you been wanting to can but aren't sure where to start? I recommend the Ball Blue Book or the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. Both of these give you instructions for safe canning, freezing, dehydrating and more. Even with all my years of canning experience, I still reference this guide frequently throughout the year.

Update May, 2024:

We tried the cranberry juice and loved it! We drank it by itself and tried it in mixed drinks. Both were fabulous. It doesn't have the strong cranberry flavor of commercial juice. Rather, it has a lovely, light cranberry flavor that isn't overpowering. This recipe gets a big thumbs up!

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