Best Cranberry Sauce Recipe (2024)

The BEST Cranberry Sauce Recipe is fresh, homemade, and make-ahead. With just 3 ingredients and 15 minutes of your time, you can enjoy the absolute best homemade cranberry sauce this Thanksgiving.

Make this recipe a few days before Thanksgiving to save time and have one less thing to do on the big day!

Check out mySmall Thanksgiving Dinner Menuwith Recipes and a Printable Grocery list. I show you step-by-step how to make Thanksgiving dinner.

Best Cranberry Sauce Recipe (1)

CRANBERRY SAUCE

Cranberry Sauce is one of those foods the picky kid in me would never eat, but the adult in me LOVES! It really was love at first taste, and now I put fresh cranberry sauce on just about everything.

One of my favorite Thanksgiving leftovers is a roasted turkey grilled cheese with cranberry and brie sandwich. I love it dripping with cranberry sauce! yummmm I can't wait for Thanksgiving!

If you've never made a FRESH homemade cranberry sauce recipe because you thought it would be too difficult - think again! It's super easy! All you need is fresh cranberries, orange juice, sugar, and about 15 minutes! You can even make this up to a week ahead of time and store in the fridge until Thanksgiving!

Best Cranberry Sauce Recipe (2)

HOW TO MAKE THE BEST CRANBERRY SAUCE RECIPE

  1. In a saucepan set over medium heat, dissolve 3/4 cup of sugar in 3/4 cup of orange juice and then add 12 ounces of fresh cranberries. After several minutes the cranberries will start pop, pop, popping! Cook until the sauce gets juicier and the berries burst and break down, about 10-15 minutes.
  2. Remove from heat and add a pinch of salt. Give the cranberry sauce a little taste and adjust the flavor to your liking. If the sauce is too tart, add about a tablespoon or two more sugar at a time until the sweet/tart balance is just right for you. Smoosh the cranberries if you like or leave them chunky. It's totally up to you! Cranberry Sauce is delicious warm or cold, so serve it how you like it and enjoy!

Best Cranberry Sauce Recipe (3)

HELPFUL TIPS AND FAQ'S FOR MAKING THE BEST CRANBERRY SAUCE RECIPE

HOW TO BUY & STORE FRESH CRANBERRIES

Cranberries are only harvested in the fall and usually show in grocery stores in November. Only a small percentage of cranberries harvested are sold fresh, so when I see fresh cranberries in the grocery store, I stock up. Fresh cranberries can be frozen for up to a year!

Fresh cranberries are typically sold in bags in the produce section of your grocery store. When buying fresh cranberries, I recommend giving the bag a thorough check to make sure there aren't any soft or mushy berries. Also, look to make sure liquid hasn’t collected inside the bag, as that is a sign of rotten cranberries - nobody wants that!

Store fresh cranberries in their bag in the refrigerator up to a month. Or freeze them in their bags up to a year. I always buy extra bags of fresh cranberries to store in the fridge for use throughout the year. Also, because I have this irrational fear there will be some crazy cranberry shortage and I want to be prepared just in case.


CAN FRESH CRANBERRY SAUCE BE MADE AHEAD OF TIME

YES! Cranberry sauce is one of those Thanksgiving recipes I always recommend to make ahead of time. I usually make it the day before Thanksgiving and store it in the fridge, but it can be made up to a week ahead. Store fresh cranberry sauce in an airtight container in the fridge.


WHAT TO DO WITH LEFTOVER CRANBERRY SAUCE

Leftover cranberry sauce can be used in a variety of ways. Here are some of my favorite ways to use leftover cranberry sauce:

  • Leftover Thanksgiving Casserole is a delicious recipe made from all your favorite Thanksgiving recipes and my best cranberry sauce recipe makes it taste even better!
  • Have you ever tried my Cranberry Pinwheel Cookies? If not, you're missing out! You'll want to make extra cranberry sauce just to have enough to make these cookies!
  • BBQ Cranberry Chicken is a delicious dinner recipe that's easy to make using leftover cranberry sauce.
  • Whip up some cranberry butter to spread on bagels or toast. Use it to top pancakes, waffles, or french toast for a special treat. Also makes a great sandwich spread.
  • Mix fresh cranberry sauce into yogurt and top with homemade granolafor a delicious breakfast. It makes a great addition to smoothies and oatmeal too!

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Best Cranberry Sauce Recipe

Side dish

American

Yield: 6

Author: Life Tastes Good

Best Cranberry Sauce Recipe (4)

The BEST Cranberry Sauce Recipe is fresh, homemade, and make-ahead. With just 3 ingredients and 10 minutes of your time, you can enjoy the absolute best homemade cranberry sauce this Thanksgiving.

prep time: 5 Mcook time: 10 Mtotal time: 15 M

ingredients:

  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 3/4 cup orange juice
  • 12 ounces of fresh cranberries
  • salt to taste

instructions:

How to cook Best Cranberry Sauce Recipe

  1. In a saucepan over medium heat, dissolve 3/4 cup sugar in 3/4 cup orange juice. Add 12 ounces cranberries and heat for about 10-15 minutes until the berries burst and break down. Add a pinch of salt and adjust flavors to your liking.
  2. Allow to cool
  3. Garnish with orange zest if you like

NOTES:

Article last updated on 10/23/2019
When buying fresh cranberries, I recommend giving the bag a thorough check to make sure there aren't any soft or mushy berries. Also, look to make sure liquid hasn’t collected inside the bag, as that is a sign of rotten cranberries
Store fresh cranberry sauce in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week

Products I Use (Paid Links):

Calories
136.78

Fat (grams)
0.14

Sat. Fat (grams)
0.01

Carbs (grams)
35.01

Fiber (grams)
2.10

Net carbs
32.90

Sugar (grams)
29.97

Protein (grams)
0.48

Sodium (milligrams)
98.59

Cholesterol (grams)
0.00

Nutrition label disclaimer: Nutrient values are estimates only. Variations may occur due to product availability and food preparation. To obtain the most accurate representation of the nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator. You are solely responsible for ensuring that any nutritional information provided is accurate, complete, and useful.

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Best Cranberry Sauce Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What takes the bitterness out of cranberry sauce? ›

If your cranberry sauce comes out tasting too bitter, don't reach for the sugar. Granulated sugar might make the situation worse, especially if you don't have time to reheat the sauce so the sugar can dissolve properly. Instead, reach for another sweetener: maple syrup.

How to improve cranberry sauce? ›

Adding a teaspoon or two of fresh lemon or orange zest, a tablespoon of chopped candied peel, or even a splash of juice to your canned sauce will brighten flavors and bring in some homemade flavor.

What thickens cranberry sauce? ›

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.

Why do you open cranberry sauce upside down? ›

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.”

Why do my cranberries taste bitter? ›

Cranberries are generally considered safe whether they are cooked or raw. However, because of their notoriously bitter, sharp taste, most people prefer not to eat them raw or unsweetened. This bitterness is due to the high tannin content of cranberries.

Why is my homemade cranberry sauce runny? ›

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.

What makes cranberry juice taste better? ›

If you'd prefer, you could use simple syrup, coconut sugar, cane sugar, sugar-free sweetener, maple syrup, or raw honey. You could also omit the added sugar and make an unsweetened cranberry juice if you'd prefer. Fresh Citrus: oranges and lemons add sweet and acid to balance the cranberries tartness.

Is canned cranberry sauce better than homemade? ›

While there are some editors who prefer homemade cranberry sauce, the canned variety also has quite a following. "There's something so beautifully perfect about the texture of canned cranberry sauce, and none of those homemade mess will ever compete," says Senior Digital Food Editor Kimberly Holland.

What if I add too much water to cranberry sauce? ›

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.

What are the two types of cranberry sauce? ›

Cranberry sauce can be served either as a gooey liquid or as a solid jelly. The jellied version is solid enough to retain the shape of the container in which it's placed whereas the sauce version is much more fluid. The difference between the fluid sauce and the jelly versions comes down to pectin.

Should cranberry sauce be served warm or cold? ›

Typically served chilled, our recipe can be made up to 3 days ahead.

What cancels out tartness? ›

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.

How do you fix too sweet cranberry sauce? ›

Cranberry sauce is supposed to be a balance of sweet and tart. The sauce acts as a cleansing port in a tumultuous storm of fat and salt, but the effect is lost if the sauce is too sweet. Luckily, there is a very easy way to fix an over-sugared homemade sauce: You just need a little citric acid.

Why is my cranberry sauce seedy? ›

Why is my cranberry sauce so seedy? Cranberries do have seeds inside them. Sometimes, when using frozen cranberries, if it does not cook long enough, the seeds may not break down. This can cause the sauce to taste seedy.

How do you sweeten bitter cranberry juice? ›

Add agave nectar to the cranberry citrus mixture to your taste. I started with 1/2 cup and ended up with 1 cup of nectar to the 9 cups of juice. You could also use 1/2 cup of white sugar or 1/2 cup of honey for this. Just taste test as you go to achieve your desired sweetness.

What can I do with bitter cranberries? ›

That said, the best way to tackle fruits that are way too tart is to balance their sourness with sweetness. In addition to softening their abrasiveness, tossing any unbearably bitter berries with sugar can also heighten nuanced flavors.

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