Classic Cranberry Sauce

Cranberry Sauce Ingredients

Our cranberry sauce with cranberries is easy as pie. Ok, truth be told, it’s way easier than making pie. See what these ingredients bring to the recipe:

Cranberries: You can find fresh cranberries in the produce section or in the freezer section of your grocery store. They are usually only available in the fall through January, at the latest. Either fresh or frozen cranberries work for this recipe—you don’t even have to thaw the frozen berries before using them.

If you love cranberry sauce throughout the year, then buy a bag or two and keep them in the freezer—they’ll keep fresh for a year. Check out our serving cranberry sauce section below, for both traditional and non-traditional ways to serve it.

Sugar: Granulated sugar is used to make our basic best cranberry sauce. It dissolves quickly in boiling water and adds sweetness to the tartness of the fresh cranberries. Over the years, we have adjusted the ratio of sugar to cranberries, as our tastes have changed. It’s gone from cloyingly sweet to a great balance of sweet-to-tart by using more cranberries and less sugar. We have found this adjusted recipe pairs even better with the rich flavors of turkey, stuffing, and gravy.

Equipment You’ll Need

Making homemade cranberry sauce is no big deal to make. Even new cooks will have successful results. Only some basic equipment is needed:

Strainer: Use a large strainer to rinse and drain the berries.

Saucepan: A 3.2-quart saucepan holds all the berries as well as the hot sugar and water mixture, without having it boil over.

Spoon: We recommend using a silicone spoon for making cranberry sauce. It stands up to high heat of the sugar mixture and doesn’t scratch the bottom of your pan. 

How to Make Cranberry Sauce

Thanksgiving cranberry sauce is a snap to make. Check out the general guidelines here and then refer to the recipe below when you’re ready to get started:

Rinse the Berries

Whether you use fresh or frozen berries, give them a quick rinse in a strainer. Remove any stems or berries that are blemished or discolored. You want all the berries to have a beautiful, bright red color.

Heat the Sugar and Water

Mix the sugar and water right in your saucepan, stirring occasionally until it boils. Then let it boil 5 minutes. This ensures that all the sugar dissolves while evaporating some of the water, so that your cranberry sauce will have the perfect thickened texture.

Boil the Cranberries

This is the fun part--Stir in the cranberries and keep cooking the mixture until they begin to pop—it doesn’t take long. They will actually make a popping sound and you’ll be able to see the oval-shaped berries have popped open.

Hot cranberry sauce will be much thinner than cooled and chilled cranberry sauce, so it can be hard to tell how thick it is going to end up. Here’s a trick we use to get the perfect thickness. You can control the sauce thickness by how many of the cranberries have popped. Pectin inside the cranberries is what is responsible for thickening the sauce. Allowing only a few berries to pop will result in a thinner sauce with a firmer berry. If you allow most of the berries to pop, your sauce will be quite thick and gelled with a soft berry. It’s completely up to you and what kind of sauce you’re looking for. To satisfy everyone, we like wait for half the berries to pop. This creates a sauce that is fairly thick with nicely softened cranberries for texture. 

Cool and Refrigerate

Cool the sauce uncovered at room temperature 30 minutes. This is important for the sauce to gel properly. At this stage, it’s still very liquidly. Now is the time to pour it into the pretty serving dish you’ll serve it in. As it spends time in the fridge, it will continue to set up. Cover and refrigerate at least one hour to thicken or up to 3 hours until chilled to serve the same day.

You can make this sauce up to a week ahead of when you plan to serve. It helps take the pressure off orchestrating the big holiday meal. It can be placed in a serving dish, covered, and left alone in the refrigerator.

Serving Cranberry Sauce

Homemade cranberry sauce elevates your holiday meal to something special, while barely lifting a finger. Serve it next to any of these traditional holiday dishes or try one of our unexpected ways from our list below:   

Traditional Holiday Dishes for Cranberries

These deliciously-rich traditional holiday favorites are perfect company for the beautiful red, sweet-and-tangy cranberry sauce.

Roast Turkey: A scrumptious main dish that tastes great with cranberry sauce. Whether it’s just roasted out of the oven or as hot or cold leftovers on a sandwich.

Stuffing: Savory, soft and moist, stuffing is a natural next to cranberry sauce. Its tender texture can absorb some of the cranberry sauce juice, so you don’t miss a single drop.

Green Bean Casserole: Plays off homemade cranberry sauce in two ways. First, their contrast in colors gives your meal a subtle festive look. Then the flavor of the rich and creamy green bean dish is a delightful contrast to the sweet-and-tangy flavor of the cranberry sauce. It’s a match made in heaven.

Mashed Potatoes: Smooth and creamy with a delicious buttery flavor, mashed potatoes paired with cranberry sauce offer a beautiful contrast in taste and color for your holiday table.

Non-Traditional Uses for Cranberries

Here are some creative uses for cranberries, beyond your holiday spread. Try any of these or let us know how you love to serve cranberry sauce, any time of the year:

French Toast: Rather than serving French toast with maple syrup, dollop spoonfuls of cranberry sauce over the slices or gently warm the sauce into a syrup first, for a festive holiday treat.

Simple Appetizer: Serve cranberry sauce over a brick of softened cream cheese, for a festive and easy appetizer with crackers or thin slices of French bread.

Turkey Sliders: Use your leftover turkey and cranberry sauce to make delicious sliders for a quick dinner. The cranberry sauce adds a layer of flavor to make the sandwiches truly special.

Blue Cheese Burgers: Serve a spoonful of your homemade cranberry sauce on top of these burgers and they will taste better than any pub burgers out there. 

Storing Options

Cranberry sauce can be served either at room temperature or cold. If it’s reheated, it will melt. Serving it at room temperature or cold offers a nice contrast in temperatures to most of the other foods you’ll find on a holiday table. See the how to make cranberry sauce section above, for how to make it in advance of when you plan to serve it.

To serve it at room temperature, simply take it out of the refrigerator about 30 minutes before it’s eaten. For cold cranberry sauce, take it out just before serving.

Storing Leftover Cranberry Sauce

Leftover cranberry sauce can be covered and refrigerated up to 2 weeks to enjoy with those irresistible holiday leftovers or to use with other foods. See the serving cranberry sauce section above, for delicious traditional and nontraditional ways to serve it.

Freezing Cranberry Sauce

Freezing cranberry sauce isn’t recommended, as it can become watery with the freeze and thaw cycles. However, you can keep bags of fresh cranberries in your freezer for up to a year, to make cranberry sauce quickly, whenever the craving strikes.