Home Canned Whole Cranberry Sauce

Canning Warning: I have extensive canning experience and can recognize canning practices that are not safe plus I do things like test for pH so I know my recipes are processed properly. One of my role as the author of this blog is to show you the safe way to can food as a way of economically filling your pantry. While I will push the limits on practices that the USDA views as quality issues aka aesthetically or texturally below standard I will not push the limits on their safety standards. Any canning recipe you get from this blog meets or exceeds the USDA recommendations. As I was surfing this morning I came across a lovely blog but as I read I was horrified! The author showed the method and the results for canning cakes in jars. Unfortunately this method came out around the time of the y2K scare prompting the USDA to issue botulism warnings for these products but the method and recipes are still out there in cyberland. The problem is the moist, anaerobic environment is ideal for Cholstridium botulinum the bacteria responsible for producing toxin that causes botulism. This toxin is odourless, tasteless and you can't see it meaning your product could be contaminated if not properly canned. Only a very little amount of the toxin ingested is enough to make you very, very sick or worse. Please do not be tempted to use the "canning cake or bread" recipes and if for some reason you receive one as a gift, please do not consume it!

Our Canadian Thanksgiving was celebrated on October 13^th this year but I look forward to the week before the American Thanksgiving for two things: turkey and cranberries. Turkeys are a horrendous price here at well over $2 per lb. Awhile back we could buy turkeys in the US for 29¢ per lb with an additional $10 purchase during the week before the American Thanksgiving. So began the turkey runs. Now we can bring back one 20 lb turkey per adult per vehicle per trip but we can make as many trips in a day as we want. I had the larger deep freezer (now replaced with a smaller one) as well as a second smaller deep freezer and the refrigerator freezer. My goal was 6 turkeys for ourselves plus what ever anyone else wanted. This year I have the smaller but large deep freezer so we only bought 2 turkeys. With turkey comes cranberries and Sam's Club had fresh cranberries $4.47 for a 3 lb bag.

Cranberries

Cranberries tend to be available around Thanksgiving and Christmas here. They usually cost about $2 per pound sometimes more. I always pick up a few bags to freeze because we like fresh cranberry sauce and they are awesome in bran muffins.

Sam's Club also had Ocean Spray® Whole Cranberry sauce on 6 cans for $5.72 or 6¢ per oz. The fresh cranberries gave me a yield of the equilivant of 8 - 250 ml (half pint) jars at a cost of 6¢ per oz. Clearly I did not save any money on canning my own. What I did save on was the lack of additional salt, preservatives and reduced sugar content. On the other hand commercially canned cranberries normally cost 9¢ per oz or more and fresh cranberries can't be found so canning is still a good solution. An added benefit is when you can your own you are recycling jars instead of adding to the recyclers or landfill and for every can you don't use it reduces the energy to make that can.

Whole Cranberry Sauce

12 c fresh cranberries
3 c organic sugar
3 c water

Wash cranberries. Put the water and sugar into a large saucepan. Stir then bring to a boil. Stir in the cranberries. Stir in ½ tsp butter to reduce foaming. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to keep at a low boil for 10 minutes. Ladle into hot, sterilized jars. Wipe rims. Adjust two piece lids. Process 10 minutes in boiling water bath (BWB) canner.