There’s nothing inherently wrong with canned cranberry sauce, but I figure that if I’m going to go to all the trouble of making a sprawling turkey dinner with all the fixings, I might as well put in the effort to make a cranberry sauce worthy of the rest of the meal. Especially since homemade cranberry sauce is so quick and easy to make!
Related: 8 Instant Pot Recipes That Will Make Thanksgiving Dinner So Easy
When you’re out shopping for your Thanksgiving dinner, skip the canned stuff and pick up a bag of fresh cranberries instead. Then follow the recipe below to turn those fresh berries into a flavorful homemade cranberry sauce that will take your meal to a whole new level!
How To Make Homemade Cranberry Sauce
Ingredients:
- Fresh cranberries
- Water
- Sugar
Directions:
Pour the contents of a 12-ounce bag of fresh cranberries into a saucepan. Add 1 cup of water and 1 cup of sugar to the cranberries and stir to combine.
Turn the heat up to High to bring it to a boil, then reduce the heat until the mixture is simmering, then allow it to continue simmering for 10 minutes.
Remove the finished sauce from heat and allow it to cool before transferring it to an airtight container for storage. Store it in your fridge where it will keep for 1-2 weeks. That’s all there is to it!
BONUS: 5 Cranberry Sauce Tips And Tricks
Although the basic recipe for homemade cranberry sauce above is fantastic as written, there are plenty of ways you can jazz it up or make things easier for yourself. Here are some extra tips you might find useful!
Related: “Why Didn’t I Think Of That?” – Thanksgiving Edition
1. Add Some Citrus
Sweet and tangy citrus can bring an additional dimension to the flavor of your cranberry sauce. Try swapping half of the water for orange juice, or adding a teaspoon or so of fresh lemon or orange zest to the cranberries, water, and sugar before simmering.
2. Make It Ahead
The flavor of cranberry sauce, like many other foods, evolves over time, so making it ahead of time will make your life easier and give your sauce a better flavor. Make your cranberry sauce 2 or 3 days ahead of time, then refrigerate it in an airtight container until needed.
3. Try A Different Sweetener
Cranberry sauce is traditionally made with white sugar, but you can use a different sweetener to switch things up if you like. You could use brown sugar, honey, or even maple syrup as the sweet element in your sauce.
4. Add Some Spice
Make your cranberry sauce more flavorful by adding a couple cloves, a cinnamon stick, or a small chunk of fresh ginger to the simmering mixture of cranberries, water, and sugar. Fish them back out of the finished sauce before storing it in your fridge.
5. Give It Texture
Some cranberry sauce recipes call for chopped pecans, walnuts, or even raisins. If you like a bit of crunch or chew, stir a handful of any of these options into your finished cranberry sauce for taste and texture.
Do you serve cranberry sauce with Thanksgiving dinner?
Homemade Cranberry Sauce (Recipe)
Ingredients
- 12 ounces cranberries
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup sugar
Instructions
- Pour cranberries into saucepan.
- Add the water and sugar and stir.
- Bring to boil, then reduce heat and let the mixture simmer for 10 minutes.
- Serve warm or chilled.
I’ve always made my own cranberry sauce, but we’ve given up cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving in favor of cranberry apple salad. I was looking for a copycat recipe for Bill Knapp’s cranberry apple salad when I found this. It’s pretty close to the original.
I cook make the cranberry sauce as usual and let it chill. Then, I take 1 can of apple pie filling, and about 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts. Put the apple pie filing in a bowl and use a fork to chop the apples into small pieces. (I actually use a pastry blender for this). Next add the cranberry sauce and nuts, stir until blended and your done!!
We have no more cranberry hater at our house since I’ve been serving this instead of plain cranberry sauce!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Maybe I can enlighten you as to why some of us eat canned cranberries. Growing up in the rural south, everything on our Thanksgiving dinner table was grown at home: fowl, pecans picked up for pies, all the vegetables. Even mincemeat pies were made of homemade mincemeat with REAL meat in it and homegrown currants. Mama grew her own sage to season dressing — we didn’t stuff; we had dressing in a pan, rich with chicken broth and eggs. The only things on the table not homegrown were salt, black pepper and the ubiquitous canned cranberry sauce. We considered cranberry sauce in a can a delicacy — BOUGHT AT THE STORE! Imported from ‘up north’ where cranberries grew in bogs and were magically transformed into cranberry jelly before traveling south. We are eating tradition. We have, however, given up making piecrust with real lard cooked out in a washpot.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Thanks for the history lesson Nell! Very interesting stuff! Makes complete sense! :-)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Homemade “jelled” cranberry sauce is just the recipe cooked and then strained, like cranberry jello. It’s the natural fruit pectin that causes it to jell, not un-natural at all.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.So funny! We have to have both! I have that silverplated set. It was a wedding gift one month shy of 40 years ago! LOL!!!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I grew up with the canned jellied version but discovered the whole berry homemade variety when I lived in Britain. I soon discovered I preferred this variety over the canned junk! I discovered Cranberry -orange sauce recipe many years ago and it’s been a firm favourite for at least 30 years with the family.
I use:
Please log in or create a free account to comment.zest and juice of one orange
1/2 cup of water
1/2 cup of sugar
pinch of salt
1 – 12oz. bag of fresh cranberries
Combine all but the cranberries in a medium saucepan over a medium-high heat. Stir till sugar is desolved (2-3 minutes approx)
Add cranberries and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer till cranberries burst and sauce thickens slightly (about 7 minutes). You can sweeten with more sugar if you want. You can let cool to room temperature for serving or pop into 8 oz, canning jars (I get 3 jars out of this mixture). Seal and keep refridgerated. I made mine yesterday. They last for quite a while. I use little sugar because I don’t like sweet sauces with meats and poultry.
You’re using the recipe I use, only I add a can of crushed pineapples and a cinnamon stick.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I think I would like it even better with pineapple! But I fear if I messed with it one tiny bit there would be a revolt come Thanksgiving dinner! My family is very picky that way. ;-)
I love all the suggestions to use Orange Juice too! Why didn’t I think of that??
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Hi, BTW your web site is my newest and current obsession. Thank you! I do not cook my cranberry sauce. I grate the cranberries . A food processing grating blade (what I used this time) or a kitchen aide grinding attachment work well. I’ve even used our blender to pulse small batches. Once they are grated I add fresh orange zest and juice and sugar (lots). Then I add ground allspice, nutmegs, cloves, ginger and cinnamon. mix well and let it “cook” in the fridge for a day or two before a holiday. I get rave reviews from everyone who eats it or tries it for the first time. I never measure, so just wing it and adjust as you go. (That’s the fun and tasty part of cooking.) There is lots of sugar which we try not to avoid in our house, but the rest of the ingredients are so good for you, it is an indulgence we agree allow ourselves. Again, thanks for your website!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.That’s it?! Are you kidding me?!! I will forever make cranberry sauce from scratch and make all my friends jealous. Thank you!!!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.haha! That’s what I thought when I first heard how to make it Inga. :-) You are most welcome! Enjoy!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Cranberry sauce was one of the first things I learned how to make by myself. I found out last year that my dad doesn’t even like cranberry sauce, but year after year he ate it because I made it. That is the sign of a great dad and a great sauce.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Also, I will change it up by using juice instead of water. Most years it’s orange juice, but I have used pomegranate and blueberry juice.
I dislike cranberries but thought maybe it was because my mom always made me eat the stuff out of a can. One year I made a fresh cranberry sauce like this recipe– I still don’t like them but everyone else loved it. Now I am in charge of making cranberry sauce every year, even though I don’t like it. Oh well :-) !
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Just tried a new recipe this year that is extra fancy…
Please log in or create a free account to comment.already had cranberries, sugar…then mango orange juice instead of water
and crushed CASHEWS mixed in after cooking.
It was Heavenly!!!
Thanks Jillee–going to our son’s of dinner, I never made my own (didn’t grow up with it). The canned is one of the six items on my son’s menu (his year long menu)– but my D in-law has only ever had homemade; don’t remember seeing the canned on the table last year. I’ll have to watch to see if he eats it now.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I also hate that canned goop. I have only bought it a couple of times to please those that like/expect it. I have not tried making it myself because I have thought that I would not like it either. BUT I do like dried cranberries in salads and sweet potato casserole so I may try it this year.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I love to add te zest from one orange. I also make mine on Monday, the week of Thanksgiving, to give it a few days for the flavors to meld together. It really tastes better this way!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.TOO funny! My mom has one of those servers and I hate to admit this, but I LOVE the canned cranberry sauce!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.This fresh recipe with a kick was a hit last year. Definitely making it again this year.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Fresh Cranberry Relish
1 – 12oz. bag fresh cranberries, rinsed and drained
1 medium fresh jalapeno, seeded and chopped
juice of 1 lime and 1/2 half orange
1 – 1 1/4 cups sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
Process until cranberries are coarsely chopped.
Add :
2 chopped green onions, white only
1/2 cup chopped cilantro, leaves only
Process until desired texture.
I make a Cranberry Relish….. one bag of whole fresh cranberries, one orange (peel and all), one cup sugar (more if you think so). Run through a food processor, Viola! Cranberry Orange Relish. I make it every year and it’s the only kind I’ll eat.
Yum, now my mouth is watering!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.My favorite homemade is:
12 oz. bag of cranberries
1 cup sugar (I often use brown)
Zest of oranges needed to make 1 cup of orange juice – add juice to cranberries
1-2 cinnamon sticks
Bring all to a boil until cranberries; turn heat down to simmer until cranberries pop.
Take off heat and add 1 tsp. vanilla extract. Cool. Refrigerate. (Sauce thickens when cool.)
I was asked to bring my sauce to several family gatherings this year. Of course I said yes, because it’s so easy!!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Mmmmmm….in England we add a touch of orange juice and a splash of Port to the cooled sauce :)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Freakin’ EASY! I bought my Costco size bag yesterday!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Cant his be frozen? My daughter and I are the only ones who eat cranberries. I’d like to save the rest for Christmas.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I meant “Can this be frozen?”
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Yes! it can totally be frozen!! I do it every year :) And it thaws perfectly, comes out looking like it’s been freshly made :)
there is a recipe I have used that calls for balsamic vinegar that you coook out but the sugars stay and also calls for O.J. Maybe that will be more diabetic saavy. Look it up on Google?? My mom has my grandmas silver cranberry ladle thingy. Cute but ew.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Joy, try this recipe: I make this sugar free all the time now! Get yourself some XYLITOL, the granular kind, I get mine at the health food store in a big bag, not the little packages. Use 3/4 cup Xylitol and 3 packages Splenda and VOILA! Yummy sugar free cranberry sauce! :) I use a little less of the water, just under 1 cup instead of the full cup, seems to thicken a bit better. Good luck! :)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Add some orange juice concentrate, and a bit of rum… Yum.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Thank you SO MUCH for this! When I was a kid we ALWAYS had fresh cranberry sauce because that was the ONLY thing that my mom allowed me to do by myself. That’s right…a 10 year old kid made this for Thanksgiving…you can too! Just remember to do it early on in the day because you want it to set up nicely in the fridge. We always stored ours in a mason jar and put a little bit in a pretty bowl to serve on the table.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Good point Christine…I usually make it a day or two ahead of time for that very reason. Thanks for sharing!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I laughed out loud when I saw that you, Jillee, have the exact same cranberry sauce server as I have! We must be the same vintage…although mine is tarnished from non-use.. .I have been making homemade cranberry sauce for a long time. I add a bit of fresh orange juice & a little orange zest- there you have it! Thanks for posting!
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