Cranberry Sauce - a preserving question

[Elle's Garden]

Hello All,

I hope you all had a great Christmas, having browsed through recent posts to catch up it looks like you did, with the exception of the cooker incident!

My question is about the likely storage time of cranberry sauce. I made Nigella's cranberry sauce and her make ahead tip indicates that you can keep it covered in the fridge for up to a week. I hope the preserving magicians amongst you can explain why it can't be kept longer, like a regular jelly, or perhaps confirm that you can, given that it contains sugar and alcohol?

The recipie I used is as follows: 300 gms fresh cranberries
200 gms caster sugar
45 ml cherry brandy
75 ml water.

Hopefully now my bathroom renovations are completed and Christmas preparations are now done I can get back to keeping up with happenings here .

Wishing you all a Happy New Year !

[John]

Hello Elle
My guess is that she has put a week for keeping the sauce because it doesn't have enough sugar in it to keep like a jam. Jams are 50% sugar and boiled hard to reach 105°. This sauce has just been cooked for about 10 min to breakdown the fruit. Also the alcohol in the cherry brandy which would help in keeping is probably boiled off during cooking - its just there to give colour.

We really like Delia's recipe. The berries are cooked in a saucepan with fresh orange juice and the zest, sugar, a few cloves and a cinnamon stick. Port is added when cool. Again though keeping time is limited like in Nigella's recipe.

Despite what all these sorts of recipes for sauces or jams say, I always cook the fruit separately to start with, adding a little water if necessary. When the fruit has softened and just come to the boil, I add the sugar and so on. Cooking fresh fruit directly with sugar can toughen the fruit's skin.

New Year wishes
John

[Elle's Garden]

Hi John,

Thank you for your informative reply John, that makes sense to me

I think I like Delia's recipie too, but my husband has a bit of a problem with cinnamon hence Nigella's choice.

That is a great tip about the berries, I shall make use of that come preserving time in the summer.