Homemade Cranberry Juice
Making cranberry juice at home is a very simple process. If you’ve never done any canning before, outside of the ingredients, here are a few things that you will need before getting started:
Servings: 7 quarts
Equipment
- water bath canner with canning rack
- stock pot
- canning funnel
- headspace measurement tool
- jar lifter
- ladle
- wide mouth quart jars with lids and bands
- white vinegar
Ingredients
- 2 gallons distilled or purified water
- 5 bags cranberries fresh or frozen
- 3 ½ cups sugar I use pure cane sugar
Instructions
- Sterilize seven quart jars by placing them in hot water.
- Fill the water bath canner with 1/2-2/3 full of regular water and turn on medium heat to begin warming the water.
- Fill a large stockpot with the 2 gallons of water and place on the stove to boil.
- Using the jar lifters, remove the sterilized jars and place them on a heat safe surface.
- Working quickly as the jars need to remain warm to prevent busting while canning (hot liquid goes in hot water), fill each jar with 1 1/2 – 1 3/4 cups of cranberries.
- Add 1/4 – 1/2 cup of sugar to each jar (May adjust, but it’s important to use no less than 1/4 cup as the sugar is needed for the extraction of the juice).
- Ladle boiling water over the cranberries and sugar, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.
- Using a bubble remover, remove any bubbles.
- Clean the rim of each jar with white vinegar soaked paper towel.
- Place lid and ring on each jar (finger tight).
- Using the jar lifter, place each jar into the water bath canner.
- Increase the heat and when the water in the canner comes to a boil, start a timer.
- Process quart jars for 25 minutes if under 1,000 foot elevation and 30-35 minutes if over 1,000 foot elevation.
- Using a jar lifter, remove each jar and place on a heat resistant surface. Leave jars undisturbed for sealing purposes for 24 hours. The liquid will appear clear (or brownish if using pure cane sugar) at first but will change over time as the flavor is extracted from the berries.
- Make sure after 24 hours that each jar has sealed.
- Place the jars into a cool dark place for 4-6 weeks before opening. This is necessary for the extraction of flavor from the berries. You may shake the jars daily, but it’s not necessary.
- After sitting for 4-6 weeks, open and strain the berries from the juice. **Open and strain only the jars that you will be consuming within a few days. Refrigerate after opening.**
- Strained berries may be used in other recipes such as homemade breads.
Notes
Do you want to mix things up and make other fruit juices or mixed fruit juices??? You may substitute 1/2 – 3/4 cup of cranberries with other fruits such as grapes, oranges, apples, blueberries, pomegranate, raspberries, etc. You may also substitute all cranberries for other fruits.
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