Homemade
Jellied Cranberry Sauce

Homemade Jellied Cranberry Sauce is an old fashioned recipe made from scratch and set in a mold.

Includes instructions on how to easily remove the seeds. 

Jellied Cranberry Sauce Recipe

• 1 (12 oz.) package of whole cranberries
  
  
• 1 1/4 cup sugar
  
  
• 1 cup cold water
  
  
  

How To Remove Cranberry Seeds

Rinse cranberries in water to clean.

Pick out the berries that seem to be deteriorating (are soft and mushy) and discard.

Cut the remaining cranberries in half, crosswise, exposing their seeds and drop them in a bowl of cool water.

When all have been added to the bowl, stir them gently with a slotted spoon.

The cranberries will float to the top of the bowl of water and the seeds will sink to the bottom.

Dip out the berries with the slotted spoon and place them in your first bowl.

Discard this water and clean the bowl of any remaining seed.

You should have had up to a tablespoonful of tiny seeds to discarded.

Check you berries and if their seems to be clinging seeds, since them again.

This time use the measured cup of water above.

Instead of throwing this water out, strain it in cheese cloth over a bowl or use a fine mesh, metal strainer.

Save the water.

You may have to do this rinse a couple of times if you want to rid your Jellied Cranberry Sauce of all those pesky seeds.

NOTE: This may seem like a tedious step to eliminate all the seeds, but it will and you're not tossing out cranberry juices (including their nutrients) with your rinse water.

Place the cup of water, sugar and cranberries in a medium size saucepan.

Place on medium high heat. Heat and stir until sugar is melted.

Cover pan with a lid and bring to a full boil.

Boil 5 minutes, remove cover and stir berries. 

Boil 10 minutes without stirring.

Then stir and continue boiling until test shows sauce has almost reached a gelling point.

TO TEST: Dip metal spoon into syrup and let it drip off back into the pot.

If it is starting to gel it will be thickened and forming a soft sheet or coating on the spoon.

When it reaches this point, start testing with ice water.

Have a small glass container in the freezer with ice cold water.

Drop a few drops of syrup into the ice water and place back in freezer for a couple of minutes.

Remove bowl of water and check for thickness of the syrup.

If it is starting to gel it will start holding together rather than running.

It will seem like it is trying to form a soft ball, the way real jelly does.


When this occurs your sauce is ready to be taken off the heat.

Mold Your Cranberry Sauce

Let your cooked sauce cool slightly.

Meanwhile, prepare your mold.

I like to use a heatproof glass container.

Brush a light coat of cooking oil on bottom and sides of mold.

Pour the warm sauce through a metal strainer, mashing the pulp through with a heavy spoon


I use a wooden spoon.

This removes the cranberry peelings to render your sauce clear.

Sometimes a few pieces of peel may slip through the strainer.

Pour your barely warm sauce into the mold and let it set for at least 24 hours, at room temperature.

Refrigerate until ready to remove the sauce from the mold.

Remove Jellied Cranberry
Sauce From Mold

Place a strainer in a saucepan.

Pour in enough water to come up on the sides of your mold to the level of the sauce in mold.

Heat water to almost boiling.

Gently lower mold of sauce into hot water for about 1 minute.

Take it out of the water to test it.

Shake the mold from side to side and end to end to loosen the sauce.

If it is still clinging, place back in water for another minute and check again.

Continue to do this until the sauce moves freely on the bottom, otherwise it will not hold it's shape when you take it out of the mold.

To remove it from the mold place your serving plate over the top of the mold and quickly invert the plate and mold.

If you have loosened the sauce properly, it will slide right out.

Slice and serve this full-flavored, homemade Jellied Cranberry Sauce immediately. 

Store in the refrigerator.

Makes 8 servings.

History Of Cranberry Sauce

Wild cranberries was one of the native foods American settlers found when they first came to America.

The settlers first called them small red apples.

The first Recipe Cook Book published in America was written by Amelia Simmons in 1796 and contained a recipe for cranberry sauce.

The book contained only 47 pages. 

Related Pages

Cranberry Jello Salad Recipe

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