Cranberry Sauce
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Ditch the can and impress your guests with this easy homemade cranberry sauce recipe—ready to brighten your holiday table in just 15 minutes!
Let’s swap out the old-school canned cranberry sauce for something fresher and tastier, shall we? I’ll admit, the jiggly, can-shaped version has its nostalgic charm, but homemade cranberry sauce is truly in a league of its own—and so easy to make! Simply boil fresh (or frozen) cranberries with sugar, water, orange juice, and orange zest, and in just 15 minutes, you’ll have a sauce bursting with bright, sweet flavors. The best part? You can make the sauce ahead of time and relax knowing it’ll stay perfectly fresh in the fridge for up to 10 days or in the freezer for two months. Serve it up alongside your favorite Thanksgiving turkey recipe (I love a dry-brined turkey) and turkey gravy, then give your post-feast turkey sandwiches a gourmet twist by mixing the leftover sauce with mayo for an irresistibly delicious spread.
“I usually use the recipe on the Ocean Spray bag. This is so much better! I can’t wait for my family to try it! I love the taste of the orange in it.”
About Fresh Cranberries
As the leaves start to turn, fresh cranberries make their seasonal debut, available from mid-September through the end of the year. These tart little gems are harvested in a unique way—the bogs they grow in are flooded, and the cranberries float to the surface for easy collection. But cranberries aren’t just for sauces! They can brighten up desserts and baked goods, like Nantucket cranberry pie, cranberry orange bread, or apple cranberry crumble. You can even use them to make cranberry chutney. Find them fresh in the produce section during the fall, and grab a few extra bags to freeze so you can enjoy them year-round.
What You’ll Need To Make Homemade Cranberry Sauce
Step-by-Step Instructions
Begin by zesting one of the oranges. A rasp grater is the best tool but any grater with small holes will work—just be sure to leave the white pith behind as it’s quite bitter. Always zest the orange before squeezing the juice out, as it’s near impossible to do afterward.
Combine the orange juice, water and sugar in a medium pot and bring to a boil.
Add the cranberries, orange zest and salt.
Boil gently for about 10 minutes.
Most of the cranberries should burst open, creating a thick sauce. You may need to mash them a bit with a spoon. Transfer the sauce to a bowl and refrigerate until ready to serve.
How to Store Cranberry Sauce
Cranberry sauce should be cooled completely before storing. Transfer the sauce to a serving bowl and cover with plastic wrap or place it in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 10 days.
How To Freeze Cranberry Sauce
Fresh cranberry sauce freezes beautifully, so you can make it a month or two ahead of time to get a jump start on your holiday cooking. Allow the sauce to cool completely and then store in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 2 months. Let the cranberry sauce thaw in the refrigerator overnight before serving.
Video Tutorial
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Cranberry Sauce
Ditch the can and impress your guests with this easy homemade cranberry sauce recipe—ready to brighten your holiday table in just 15 minutes!
Ingredients
- ½ cup water
- ½ cup fresh orange juice, from two oranges
- ¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 (12 oz) bag fresh or frozen cranberries (do not use dried)
- Zest of one orange, about 2 teaspoons
- Pinch salt
Instructions
- In a medium sauce pan over high heat, bring the water, orange juice, and sugar to a boil. Add the cranberries, orange zest, and salt and return to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and boil gently for 10 to 12 minutes, until most of cranberries have burst open. (You may need to mash them a bit with a spoon.)
- Transfer sauce to a serving bowl. Cover and chill until ready to serve.
- Make-Ahead/Freezing Instructions: Cranberry sauce will keep for 10 days in a covered container in the refrigerator. It can also be frozen for up to two months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before using.
Nutrition Information
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- Serving size: about 1/3 cup
- Calories: 126
- Fat: 0 g
- Saturated fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 33 g
- Sugar: 28 g
- Fiber: 3 g
- Protein: 0 g
- Sodium: 43 mg
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate 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.
Gluten-Free Adaptable Note
To the best of my knowledge, all of the ingredients used in this recipe are gluten-free or widely available in gluten-free versions. There is hidden gluten in many foods; if you're following a gluten-free diet or cooking for someone with gluten allergies, always read the labels of your ingredients to verify that they are gluten-free.
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I don’t know where in the world you have been my whole cooking life, but I’m so very glad to have stumbled (upon) your site via Zite. I have cooked some pretty awful things from recipies found on many cooking blogs and sites, well known and not so well known. I started to think it was me! Ha! I swear any recipie I have cooked fom your site has been the most delish food. That my whole family loves. I think I have based my entire Thanksgiving menu on just your recipies, except for my moms pecan pie. Thank You for all your wonderful recipies and your obvious talent as a chef. I’m so excited to try as many as I can over time. Happy Thanksgiving to all.
Thanks
Thanks for the nice words Diana and Happy Thanksgiving to you!
Wonderful sauce. Very happy. I used 1/2 cup instead of 3/4 and it was totally fine. Great recipe.
I just made this during my lunch break while working from home today and it is AMAZING! yummmm! Thank you for your recipes 🙂 I can’t wait to share with my family on Thursday!
Hello Jen…listen, they don’t have cranberry in parts of Mexico where I’m going. Do you have any other suggestions?
Hi Angel, Unfortunately, I can’t think of any good substitute in this case. Sorry!
This was perfect! I so enjoyed this and it got better with a night in the fridge. Thank you for perfecting the recipe, before I made it!
Try cherries maybe?
As a single Mom I love quick and easy recipes that taste great. My kids and I usually get the cranberry relish at our local market, but seeing this recipe I wanted to try it. It was great! Both of my kids love it and have labeled it their new fav. It was easy and I liked that it was homemade. We used it in our turkery and bacon sandwiches and it really added to the flavor.
Easy and perfect! Simplicity at its best!
Very nice sauce. I love it and make it even off season:)
Hi Jen,
Can’t wait to try this for Christmas Eve dinner…along with your curried carrots, roasted Brussel sprouts, and sausage stuffing, Tried your Baby Kale salad for Thanksgiving and it was a huge hit! We normally don’t do salad with such a heavy meal but glad I did and will do it again for Christmas Eve. I’m such a fan! Thank you. Marty
Thanks, Marty! So glad you’re enjoying the recipes!
I have been making a similar recipe for years (learned from my mother to puree an entire orange in the food processor and add with cranberries). This year, I decided to give this recipe a try. Much easier and similar results. I used a few clementines instead of the orange as that is what I had on hand. Delicious and so refreshing. We will be making this all winter and as long as cranberries are available at the market.
Liesel: My Mom used to used a old fashioned hand food grinder The kind you have to screw onto a counter. Whole Oranges, Cranberries, way too much sugar and unflavored gelatin. I hated it. This recipe is the best and we use it every holiday and anytime we crave Turkey mayo and cranberry sandwiches. This year a double batch!
This was delicious! It was a big hit at Thanksgiving. Only thing I did different was that I didn’t have enough sugar that the recipe required (too much baking haha), so I ended up doing half a cup of sugar and measured out the remainder with brown sugar… surprisingly, the brown sugar ended up giving the cranberry sauce an addition level of flavor. I liked it a lot. I left out the orange zest because my orange was not organic.