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Learn all about canning cranberry sauce so that you can enjoy this delicious traditional holiday dish all year long. This tutorial on how to can cranberry sauce in a water bath canner is perfect for beginner or experienced canners.
You’ll love the ease of opening a jar of this delicious homemade canned cranberry sauce! It works great for fast holiday side dishes or any time of the year when you need a hit of this delicious homemade cranberry sauce goodness.
This recipe makes a delicious burst cranberry sauce, but you’ll also find notes for making/canning cranberry jelly in the recipe card.
For this recipe, I have adapted our orange cranberry sauce recipe to make it “cannable”, but you can also make a batch of our Instant Pot cranberry sauce and then can that.
Pro Tips/Recipe Notes
- Store home-canned cranberry sauce for 12-18 months in a cool, dark place.
- You may use water in place of the orange juice if you prefer.
- Save extra cranberries to make cranberry jalapeño dip.
Canning Cranberry Sauce
Equipment
- Ladle
- Clean towels
Ingredients
- 1 cup orange juice
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 12 oz cranberries
- 1 tbsp orange zest
Instructions
- Prepare your water bath canner by filling it with water. You just need to have enough water to cover the jars by 2 inches once the water is boiling.
- Set the canner on the stove. Turn the burner to high.
- Wash and sanitize your jars. You’ll want to keep them warm to avoid having them crack when placed in the canner. You can fill them with hot water, or place them on a tray in the oven at 170˚F.
- Wash your lids and set aside in a clean bowl.
- In a medium saucepan, combine orange juice and sugar. Bring to a boil.1 cup orange juice, 1/2 cup sugar
- Add the cranberries, and reduce the heat to medium. Allow it to cook until you start to hear the cranberries popping.12 oz cranberries
- With a spoon or potato masher, smash down the cranberries until it reaches your desired texture.
- Cook for 10 minutes, stirring often.
- Remove from heat and stir in the orange zest.1 tbsp orange zest
- Ladle the warm cranberry sauce into jars, leaving 1/2 inch of headspace. Remove any bubbles from the jar (I use a chopstick).
- Use a wet clean rag and wipe the rim of the jars to make sure it is free of any food.
- Place a clean lid on the jar. Add a ring, and tighten to fingertip tight.
- Using canning tongs, place jars in the boiling water. Put the lid on the canner, and once the water is back to a rolling boil, process for 15 minutes.
- When the 15 minutes are up, remove the canner from the heat, remove the lid of the canner and allow it to sit for 5 minutes.
- Using the canning tongs, remove the jars and place them on a thick towel in a place where they won't be disturbed for 12 hours.
- After 12 hours, check the seal on the jars by pressing down in the center of the lid. If there is any give, either refrigerate and use those jars in the next month or reprocess.
Notes
- Store in a cool dark place for 12-18 months.
- You can use water in place of orange juice.
How to Make/Can Cranberry Jelly (adapted from The National Center of Home Food Preservation):
- Combine 4 cups of cranberries and 1 cup of water. Bring to a boil until softened.
- Press cranberries through a fine-mesh strainer.
- Add 1.5 cups sugar to the strained cranberries, and cook at a low boil for 3 minutes.
- Follow canning instructions above.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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I saw that your Orange Cranberry Sauce recipe noted you can sub maple syrup for the sugar. Can I do that for this canning recipe too? Or does it have to be sugar?
Thank you for the lovely recipe!
Hi Rose, I have never canned with maple syrup and I can’t find any recipes using it on the National Center for Home Food Preservation. I don’t feel comfortable saying if it is safe to use for canning or not.
Hi, is it ok to increase the sugar content? I usually use 200gm sugar. Thank you, it will be so great to have shelf-stable cranberry sauce safely tucked away 🙂
Hi Jennifer, yes, it’s fine to increase or decrease the sugar to adjust it to your taste.
Hi, I love my recipe for cranberry sauce, it has triple sec in it, can I still can it in a water bath?
Hi Marie, sorry for the delay in responding. I had to do some research because I haven’t canned with spirits before and wanted to make sure I was getting you the correct information.
Yes, you are able to can your recipe with triple sec (yay)! The processing time remains the same.
I love your cranberry sauce recipe! I know it’s a funny time of year to be making cranberry sauce, but I use it in a crock pot recipe with beef brisket and veggies and small potatoes. Total yum! I made sure to buy a ton of fresh cranberries last fall and shoved them in my freezer so I would have a supply all year. Sometimes I can it. Sometimes I use the whole batch at once.
Every time I make it I learn something new. This time it was not to cook cranberry sauce with a white cotton jacket on! Oh well! That’s what bleach is for.
Happy 4th!
Oh no to the white shirt! Live and learn, I suppose. 🙂
Glad you liked the recipe so much. It’s one of my favorites and I love sharing it with others. You’re also reminding me that I have a brisket in the freezer.