If you’ve never made homemade cranberry sauce because you thought it was too complicated, I’m going to show you just how easy it is to make. This simple cranberry sauce recipe is perfect! All you do is add fresh cranberries, orange juice, and sugar (both brown and white) to a pan and cook the berries until the break down into a beautiful vibrant red cranberry sauce.
Served alongside roasted turkey an gravy, cranberry sauce is a favorite Thanksgiving recipe that is so easy to prepare and happens to be amazing! Only 15 minutes to cook, I love this sauce because it is not overly sweet and the combination of cranberry and orange give it a subtle citrus, sweet tang that makes a regular turkey dinner go from ordinary to extraordinary.
The vibrant deep red color and texture of the cranberry sauce is in stark contrast to the Ocean Spray canned cranberry sauce so many of us remember in its jellied molded form. One cannot even put them in the same category on many levels of comparison. From color, taste, texture, and overall pleasantness, homemade cranberry sauce wins by a landslide.
Trust me after you try this sauce, you will never buy canned cranberry sauce again. Be prepared when friends and family “Ooooh and Awwww” over the mere fact you made fresh cranberry sauce from scratch. They will call you “Martha” and hate you for it. But that’s okay.. your secret is safe with me.
I won’t tell how you didn’t spend hours over a hot stove making this. In all honesty, if the world only knew how easy this was cranberry sauce was to make, no one would ever buy canned again! Do yourself a favor and leave that good-for-nothing sauce in the can on the grocery store shelf and for this Thanksgiving make your homemade cranberry sauce.
For those of you wondering if you can make this in advance – YES!!! Up to two weeks sealed in a container and stored in the refrigerator!
Frequently Asked Questions
What is cranberry sauce?
Cranberry sauce is a popular condiment made with fresh cranberries, sugar, and water. It is most commonly served alongside turkey on Thanksgiving at room temperature but can also be served slightly warmed up.
Because cranberries are naturally low in sugar and tart in flavor, most cranberry sauce recipes include sugar to make the sauce both sweet and tart.
How long will the cranberry sauce keep?
Cranberry sauce will last two weeks in the refrigerator or up to two years if properly preserved and canned.
What can I do with leftover cranberry sauce?
Spread a thin layer of cream cheese on sandwich bread followed by a layer of cranberry sauce when making turkey sandwiches like this Turkey Cranberry Sandwich recipe. The combination of cream cheese and cranberry sauce makes regular turkey sandwiches taste dull in comparison.
Mix in a tablespoon or two into plain Greek yogurt along with granola, like my favorite Perfect Granola recipe, for a nice breakfast parfait.
Add a spoonful to your favorite co*cktail using vodka.
Add a dollop of sauce to cottage cheese or oatmeal for breakfast or a snack.
Replace cranberry sauce for any recipe calling for jam.
Cranberry sauce over oven baked brie makes a great appetizer when served alongside crackers for your holiday gathering.
Top off your favorite cheesecake recipe (like my Black Tie Cheesecake recipe) with cranberry sauce instead of the more common varieties of blueberry, cherry, raspberry, or strawberries. The sweet and tart flavor of the cranberry sauce compliments the richness of the cheesecake for a winning combination.
Make your own homemade cranberry sauce this year for Thanksgiving using fresh cranberries.This easy recipe is so simple yet yields amazing
Ingredients
12 oz bag fresh cranberries
¾ cup orange juice
⅔ cup brown sugar
⅓ cup white sugar
Optional: 2 oz gold rum
Instructions
Add the cranberries, juice, sugars, and optional rum to a sauce pan.
Cook the sauce on medium-high for 15 minutes or until most of the liquid has reduced – stirring occasionally. You’ll hear the cranberries bursting open – don’t worry, that’s what you want them to do.
Remove from the heat and serve. Cranberry sauce can be made days ahead and brought to room temperature or slightly heated before serving.
Sure, you can go all meta with some dried cranberries or sliced fresh raw cranberries, but I also like to think about complementary flavors — dried cherries, dried mulberries, golden raisins, chopped apricots. All work great with cranberry sauce.
"Instead, start by stirring in one tablespoon maple syrup and one teaspoon of a sweet drink like apple juice, orange juice, or fruity white or red wine. Add more to taste. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt (in small amounts, it intensifies sweetness)."
Their sharp tang counteracts bitter flavors without having to add extra sugar. While citrus is a natural pairing for cranberry sauce, bright, savory vinegars like sherry vinegar, balsamic vinegar, and apple cider vinegar play well with the bitter-tart berries.
The major variation you're likely to come across is "whole berry" versus "jellied." The only difference between them is that the jellied sauce is cooked until the berries have completely broken down. They both slide out of the can as a wobbly red cylinder.
I sweetened my juice with honey which adds a sweet floral touch to the beverage. I also use a couple of freshly squeezed oranges which gives the juice a nice hint of citrus flavor. I'm sure apple juice or apple cider would work well too.
Try reducing the sauce down even further so more of the liquid cooks off and the mixture thickens. If that doesn't work, add a thickener like gelatin, pectin or a cornstarch slurry (cornstarch whisked into juice or water). Let the sauce cool before refrigerating to completely set.
But why? Ocean Spray says this is to get the cranberry sauce out in one intact piece. “The rounded part of the can that looks like the bottom has an air bubble in it,” Ocean Spray's representative explains. The bubble is there so you can “break the seal the sauce makes with the can.”
Though they won't tolerate runny sauce, so it's time to fix that. The simplest reason that your cranberry sauce is too runny is that it has too much liquid in it. Usually, this is just water, but some people use orange juice or other flavored fluids. No matter what you're using, the answer is to cook it longer.
Cranberry sauce is best served at room temperature or slightly chilled. (You've got enough things on the menu to warm up! Don't make the list longer!) I tend to make cranberry sauce a few days before Thanksgiving and then set it on the table about an hour or two before we plan to eat.
How Do You Neutralize Sour Taste in Food? If a dish is too sour, add a little bit of sugar! Sweetness balances out sour flavors, so if something makes your mouth pucker, a dash of sugar may help soften the blow of the sour food.
What to do if the cranberry sauce is too thin or loose. If you inadvertently added too much water, simply bring the cranberry sauce back to the stove top and bring it to a low boil, cooking it down just a bit to help thicken it up.
Many sources recommend adding a pinch of baking soda to a sauce that's overly tart, which raises the pH and makes it less acidic. We've always preferred adding a bit of sugar. It can't neutralize acidity in the same way that baking soda can, but sugar does change our perception of other tastes.
Best Jellied Cranberry Sauce: Ocean Spray Jellied Cranberry Sauce. The Ocean Spray brand is pretty much synonymous with all things cranberry, so it's not really a surprise that they have their cranberry sauce dialed in.
But that's not the case for prepared cranberry sauces, where prices are up. Lochner pointed out that processors set those prices, not growers, and that there are higher input costs unrelated to berries — like “processing the fruit and getting it to market.”
Sugar helps the thickening process, and while it's nice to try to keep your cranberry sauce from being too sugary sweet, you will need at least some sugar to make it work well (about 1/2 cup sugar per 12-ounce bag of cranberries).
You open the can, slide the contents onto a plate, and either slice it into neat rounds, or break it into chunks to serve it. I have known people to eat it with a spoon straught out of the jar. Some people arrange round slices of cranberry sauce on lettuce leaves and top them with mandarin oranges from a can.
Cranberries are also rich in vitamin C and fiber, as well as the metabolism-boosting mineral manganese. And yes, you reap all these benefits whether the cranberry sauce on your holiday table is homemade or canned, jellied or whole-berry.
Is cranberry sauce supposed to be hot or cold? Either! Some prefer to have it served fresh and warm, straight out of the pot, while others need it completely cooled down to enjoy the flavours. Personally, we prefer cooled sauce.
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