Sweet Fermented Cranberry Sauce

What could be a better addition to a rich and heavy holiday meal than fermented cranberry sauce?  The fresh flavour and probiotic goodness helps with digestion and is delicious with turkey or cheese.

This is a sweet ferment, that uses raw honey for the culture. If you are unable to find raw honey, then use kombucha or water kefir to ferment the cranberries following the directions in the notes below the recipe.

If sweet is not your cup of tea, then check out my recipe for a savoury rosemary and balsamic cranberry relish that is a salt-based, lactic ferment.

Fermented Cranberry Sauce

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Fermented cranberry sauce has a bright, fresh flavour that helps with digestion. It is perfect as part of a heavy holiday meal. This honey sweetened cranberry sauce is delicious turkey or brie.

• Author: Emillie
• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Total Time: 10 minutes
• Yield: 2 cups 1x
• Category: Condiment
• Method: Fermented
• Cuisine: Holiday

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 12 oz cranberries (3 cups)
• 1 orange
• 1/2 cup to 1 cup of raw honey (see notes for alternatives)

Instructions

1. Zest and juice the orange.
2. Wash the cranberries, and remove any that have started to wrinkle.
3. Place cranberries, orange juice and orange zest in a blender.
4. Pulse until the cranberries are crushed. It can be thin and smooth or chunky like a relish.
5. Stir in the raw honey.
6. Pour into a glass jar for fermenting. Fermenting cranberries will bubble and build up carbonation, so either use a non-airtight lid or a fido jar (affiliate link.)
7. Ferment in a cool, dark location. It should start to bubble and froth after 24 hours. If you want to ferment it for longer than 24 hours, then give it a shake once a day to mix the floating cranberry pulp into the ferment. It will become slightly alcoholic as it ferments, so don’t leave it for more than a week.
8. Store in the refrigerator and use within 1 month. See notes below for ideas on how to thicken your sauce if you want a jelled consistency.

Notes

• If you are unable to use raw honey, then replace the honey with white sugar and add 1/4 cup of brewed kombucha or water kefir to culture the ferment.
• If you want your cranberry sauce to be thicker, then add 2 tbsp of ground chia seeds after fermenting.
• For a jelled sauce that is thick enough to put into a jelly mold, use pectin or gelatin as directed on package, however, heating the sauce will kill the probiotic benefits of fermentation.

Keywords: Thanksgiving, Christmas, turkey, brie, gluten free, probiotic, traditional, easy, 3 ingredients or less, no-cook