Old Fashioned Cranberry Jello Salad is a vintage side dish or dessert that’ll be a show-stopping addition to your menu. The memories will come flooding back when this hits the table!
“Spectacular take on jello!” -Seth
This can’t be a vintage recipe blog with a Jello Salad, right? I happen to really love this Old Fashioned Cranberry Jello Salad, which is packed with cranberries, pineapple, apples, and oranges.
The recipe comes from a 1980s church cookbook, though I suspect the recipe has been around for much longer. Serious Eats has a really interesting article on the history of gelatin salads, if you’re curious!
Gelatin salads run the gamut between savory and sweet, and this particular recipe is definitely sweet. I think it makes a great holiday side dish, either for Thanksgiving or Christmas. It could also be served for dessert, of course. Here are a few other classic gelatin salads that I love:
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Tips for making cranberry salad with jello
1. Don’t have a gelatin mold? No problem! I used an inexpensive bundt pan
for this recipe. If you’d like a true gelatin mold, they are still available! Tupperware makes them, or use a vintage mold if you have it.
2. Grease the serving platter before inverting the salad. This will allow you to easily move the salad if it lands off-center. Then, just wipe away any leftover oil from the edges.
3. If the salad won’t unmold, place the pan into a few inches of warm water for 20–30 seconds. I found that an angel food cake pan filled with warm water was the perfect size for holding my bundt pan. You can also just use a sink of warm water. Don’t let it sit any longer than 30 seconds before trying again. Any longer and the salad can potentially melt and lose its shape.
4. You can also try to loosen the edges of the salad with a dull knife in order to remove it easily from the pan.
5. Save a few fresh cranberries and an orange peel to garnish the platter.
Ingredients
- Fresh cranberries are the star of this salad. You’ll need one 16-ounce bag.
- We’ll use both the zest and the segments of an orange. The zest adds such great flavor that complements the cranberries well.
- The original recipe calls for two cups of granulated sugar, which is what I used. You can successfully cut the sugar by half, if you’d like.
- They don’t make cranberry jello, so strawberry jello is the perfect substitute. You could also use cherry or raspberry jello.
How to Make Cranberry Jello Salad
- Drain the pineapple in a fine mesh strainer, and press until all the liquid comes out.
- Zest the orange and chop the orange into segments. Place the orange segments, chopped apple, and fresh cranberries in the bowl of a food processor.
- Pulse the mixture until it reaches the consistency of large flake coconut. Some chunks are ok! You just want it to be chopped well. Stir in the orange zest.
- Whisk the sugar and gelatin into 2 cups of boiling water until dissolved. Add 1 cup of cold water and stir to combine.
- Combine the chopped fruit and the jello mixture. Pour into a greased bundt pan or gelatin mold. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 8 hours to set up.
- Invert the salad onto a serving platter and wait for the PLOP! If it doesn’t unmold within a minute or two, place the pan in a few inches of warm water for 20–30 seconds, then try again. Garnish with fresh cranberries and orange peel, and serve!
Garnishing the salad
You can use a channel knife
to create orange peel swirls. To do so, use the large hole of the channel knife and work your way around the orange, then twirl the strips around your finger to create the swirl.
Buy an extra bag of cranberries, and use some as garnish. You can use the rest of them in cranberry relish with oranges and apples!
Frequently Asked Questions
Do NOT freeze jello to speed along the cooling process. Freezing will compromise the texture of the dish and it will be ruined.
You can add ½ cup finely chopped nuts (such as walnuts or pecans) to this recipe. Add it along with the fruit.
You can successfully reduce the sugar by half (use 1 cup) for this recipe.
More holiday side dishes
For Thanksgiving, I’m all about the classics: Sweet Potato Casserole, Easy Green Bean Casserole, and Creamed Corn Casserole. Plus Pistachio Salad for another sweet, nostalgic treat!
For Christmas, Mashed Potato Casserole and these festive Italian Green Beans (red and green!) are always on the menu at our house.
📖 Recipe
Old Fashioned Cranberry Jello Salad
Equipment
- Bundt pan or gelatin mold
Ingredients
- 1 lb fresh cranberries
- 1 medium apple, roughly chopped
- 1 navel orange
- 1 (20 oz) can crushed pineapple
- 2 (3 oz) packages strawberry jello
- 2 cups granulated sugar
Instructions
- Lightly spray a bundt cake pan or gelatin mold with cooking spray. Use a paper towel to wipe away any oil that pools in the dish—you want only a fine misting of oil throughout the pan.
- Place the crushed pineapple in a fine mesh strainer, and strain VERY well. Use a spatula to press ALL of the liquid out of the pineapple. This is an important step to ensure that the jello sets up in the refrigerator.
- Zest the orange and set the zest aside. Peel the orange and roughly chop it. Place the orange in the bowl of a food processor with the apple and fresh cranberries. Pulse until the mixture is the consistency of shredded coconut. Place the mixture in a large bowl.
- Bring 2 cups of water to a boil. Whisk in both packages of strawberry jello and the sugar. Add one cup of very cold water and whisk to combine.
- Pour the gelatin mixture over the fruit in the large bowl. Stir to combine. Stir in the reserved orange zest.
- Transfer the mixture to the greased bundt pan or gelatin mold. Cover the pan loosely with plastic wrap or foil, and place in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours, or up to 48 hours. The gelatin will wiggle slightly when it's ready, but it should not seem wet or soupy.
- When you're ready to serve the salad, lightly grease a cake platter or serving dish with cooking spray. This will allow you to move the salad on the plate if necessary.
- Place the serving dish on top of the bundt pan/mold, and carefully flip the pan/mold so it's upside down. If the salad doesn't come out of the pan/mold right away, give it a few minutes. You will hear a "plop"!
- If the salad still hasn't come out, turn the pan/mold back over, and place it in a few inches of warm water for 15–20 seconds. Then try to invert it again. Continue this process until the salad comes out of the mold.
- Garnish with fresh cranberries and orange peel, and serve.
Spectacular take on jello! I used leftover cranberry relish and added the smushed pineaple. I had cherry and raspberry jello so I used that and made a double batch in a large Bundt pan. Worked great. One note: i did not add the two cups of additional sugar. It was verging on too sweet without it. Took it to a small party and had nothing to bring home…….so I made another batch.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for sharing how you made it.
My mom made a cranberry salad very like this but she used raspberry Jello and added some chopped walnuts.
I love hearing about food memories, Herbert! Thanks for sharing. Walnuts + raspberry Jell-O sound really good.