Cranberry Sauce

Jeff the Chef
"Cranberry Sauce," from Make It Like a Man!

I’ve been making homemade cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving for more years than I can remember. This is the best batch I’ve ever made. The texture is perfect: flawlessly gelled with bits of whole berry. The flavor is out of this world: vibrant and interesting enough to be remarkable.

Ingredients for 1¾ cups of sauce:

1 orange
12 oz. (3 cups) fresh or frozen cranberries
3½ – 5¼ oz. (3/4 cup) sugar
1/4 tsp coarse salt
1/8 – 1/4 tsp cinnamon (optional)

How to do it:

  1. Zest the orange; set the zest aside. Juice the orange into a medium-sized pot. Add cranberries, sugar, salt, (and cinnamon) to the pot.
  2. Cook on medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves, 1-2 minutes. Raise the heat to medium high and cook, stirring occasionally, until the cranberries have are bursting and the mixture has come to a boil, about 6½-8½ minutes (timing may vary). Add zest and cook 2 minutes longer. Off heat. Depending on how you like the texture, mash some or all of the berries against the side of the pot with the back of a wooden spoon. Allow to cool.

Keep cooled sauce refrigerated. Can be served cold, or at room temperature.

"Cranberry Sauce," from Make It Like a Man!

Notes:

1¾ cups is plenty for six people if used as a condiment. However, if you’re feeding people who would eat cranberry sauce on its own with a spoon (like I would), then this recipe might yield only three servings.

If you were to peruse lots of cranberry sauce recipes, you’d find that the amount of liquid varies greatly – anywhere from two tablespoons to a cup. My feeling is that you need some at first – to keep the cranberries from scorching, maybe … or to dissolve the sugar – but then unless you want a runny sauce, you’re just going to boil it out. A lot of people use water instead of juice. Orange juice won’t give your sauce an obvious orange flavor, although with the addition of zest, a discerning palate will detect it.

Swap out the orange with a lime, and you’ll get a very alluring sauce that’s only slightly off the beaten path. You will taste the lime in the background, and it’s delicious. Because a lime produces less juice than an orange, it will take twice as long to dissolve the sugar. Once sugar has dissolved, you may need to brush down the sides of the pot with a pastry brush dipped in water, in order to coax the sugar that is stuck there down into the cranberries.

The range of sugar that I’ve called for is less than what you find in many cranberry sauce recipes. The result is plenty sweet enough. If you go with the lesser amount, the result is more tart but not bracingly so. The larger amount, I would still never guess in a million years that it has less sugar that many other recipes. It’s perfectly sweet.

Cinnamon gives the sauce a je ne sais quoi quality. Use the larger amount, and you can sense the flavor of cinnamon if you know to look for it. Use the lesser amount, and it’s more of a what’s-your-secret scenario.

Tips:

  • Reserve ½-cup of the cranberries, and stir them into the just-cooked sauce. Season with pepper. (Food Network)
  • It the cooled sauce isn’t thick enough, put it back on the stove and cook it some more. (NYT)
  • Freezes well. (Real Simple)

Other cranberry ideas:

"Cranberry Sauce," from Make It Like a Man!
Cranberry Sauce

Credit for images on this page: Make It Like a Man! Thank you, Kesor. This content was not solicited by anyone, nor was it written in exchange for anything.

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52 thoughts on “Cranberry Sauce”

  1. Lovely. I absolute adore making cranberry sauces because there are just so many different variations possible. And I can never make it the same way twice. This one is nice and simple. Love the cinnamon idea.

    Reply

    • Thanks – and I’m telling you, it’s really not edgy. It’s sweet. It’s just not candy-like.

      Reply

  6. I usually “wing it” when it come to cranberry sauce. Sometimes I get perfect results like yours and sometimes I get watery slop. This year I’ll follow these directions exactly. GREG

    Reply

    • I was worried that we might not have them here, too. As another round of lockdowns looms, I was afraid that they’d all be hoarded. Fortunately, they keep well – so I went out and bought a bag.

      Reply

    • Wow, what an interesting idea! I wonder if nuts might be good with the jalapenos?

      Reply

    • Yeah, I was going for something really straightforward. I always feel like that during Thanksgiving: torn between doing something fancy and different, and sticking with the iconic traditions.

      Reply

  18. I love the gorgeous gleaming cranberries in the first photo and the very short list of ingredients, Jeff. I must admit I have never made cranberry sauce before, as it’s not really an Australian thing – we don’t seem to be able to buy cranberries widely here either. I love the idea though and if I do find some, I know where to find a really great recipe!
    Katerina recently posted…Healthier baked carrot cake donuts [refined sugar and dairy free]

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  19. I love this nice, simple recipe that sounds so tasty! I love the orange in it, and am tempted to try the lime version. I love cranberry sauce and always make extra because it’s so good on a turkey sandwich – the cranberry sauce, with a little mayo. Mmmm. Best way for those leftovers!
    Laura recently posted…Honey Badger Pizza with Easy Homemade Crust

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  20. I’ve always made my own cranberry sauce with a recipe similar to this one. I hadn’t thought of making it this year but your photos are so beautiful and inviting, you’ve got me in the mood. I’ll try your recipe. Happy Thanksgiving.
    Judee recently posted…Announcing My New Cookbook

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