Cranberry sauce - only three ingredients

I have been on the look-out for a home made jam for some time. Something easy, that would store well for a couple of months without added pectin beyond what is already in the fruit used. Oh and not too sweet. And without refined sugar.

Then, at Thanksgiving, we were cooking up a storm and I asked B, my teen son, to make some cranberry sauce. He researched a couple of recipes and then came up with his own version. It came out so well, we ate it for several days in a row with all the left overs. It has just the right mix of sweetness and tartness that I like.

A couple of weeks later, while organic cranberries were still in season, I bought another couple of bags, stocked up on some small jars and had B cook up a double batch.

While he was cooking, I prepped all the jars and lids by first washing them, then scolding them in a huge pot of boiling water. I used tongs to get them in and out of the water, being careful not to touch the insides or around the rims afterwards. Then I let them air dry while the sauce was getting ready.

Jam jars got scolded. Bad jam jar, bad!

Cranberries rinsed.

Oranges julienned and juiced.

Orange juice, peel, honey and cranberries added to a pot over medium heat.

Pop, pop, pop ... cranberry sauce.

Recipe  (for one batch - we made two in these pictures)

1 bag of organic cranberries
Juice and julienned peel of two rinsed organic oranges
1/2 cup organic honey

Mix over low heat. After a while the cranberries will start popping and the overall consistency will turn jam-like. Once it has reached a consistency that you like, pour into jars. Fill them all the way up so no air is left inside the containers. Add lid caps using the tongs again so you don't touch the inside of them. Then screw on the rims tightly. I scolded the outside after that as well, but I am not sure you need to do that.

From what I read online cranberries have a lot of pectin in them naturally, so these should be good for many months in a pantry. I plan to keep them in my fridge because I live in Southern California, so my pantry is never really cold. Use your own discretion.

I will update here when I learn more about how long they keep.

Our yield from two batches: 4 8oz jars and 7 4oz jars.

These make great homemade gifts too! I dressed up the jars with some parchment paper, baker's twine and some printed marking tags.

To print on tags, I first printed out a piece of paper with the words on them. Then I taped little white marking tags over top of the words. I taped along the top of the tags and over the scallops. Then I ran the paper through the printer again and had a bunch of little tags ready for the jars of cranberry sauce.

About Katja Kromann

I am a Danish American decorating life in Seattle. I love all things design and I love coming up with or simply documenting the dishes we eat so that I can go here for inspiration.

I can’t think of anything more fun than coming up with a recipe or project, making it, photographing it and sharing it with you on my websites.

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