Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup Cranberries, whole rinsed
- 1½ cups Honey, raw - not pasteurized possibly a little more to cover cranberries
Instructions
- Gather your cranberries. The skins of the cranberries are quite firm so you want to break it a little bit by pricking with a knife or toothpick, slightly smashing with a potato masher or by placing the cranberries in a food processor and giving a couple of pulses. I like to give mine a few pricks with a toothpick, as I prefer mine to remain whole.
- Place cranberries in the prepared jar. Slowly pour the honey over the berries allow the honey seep through each berry. As the honey settles, add more honey to ensure the cranberries are covered.
- Once you have covered the cranberries with the honey, screw the cover on the jar tightly and flip the jar over a couple of times, this ensures all the cranberries are covered with the honey.
- Next, loosen the top and leave a room temperature out of direct sunlight. As the cranberries ferment, pressure may build in the jar so you want to allow for the cover to expand if needed.
- Allow to ferment for at least 1-2 weeks. Tighten the lid and turn the jar everyday or so to ensure the cranberries remain coated in honey. Then tighten the lid again.
- You will start to see tiny bubbles which is a good sign that fermentation happening.
- Using a clean spoon, taste test your cranberries. There should be a sweet but tart flavor at about one week. You can continue to ferment longer, but it is recommend to taste every couple of days to determine your flavor preference. The average time to ferment cranberries in honey is 1-2 weeks.
- The fermented cranberries will have delightfully sweet and tart flavors, while the honey has a beautiful red color.
- Once you have reached the flavor you want, store the fermented cranberries in the refrigerator. This will stop the fermentation process and help preserve the cranberries at the state they are at. They can be store in the refrigerator for up to 6 months.
- Enjoy!
Notes
Botulism is very rare in fermented foods, however if you are concerned then I would recommend using ph strips to test your batch. Botulism cannot occur in a ph that is less then 4.6.