If there is anything on your Thanksgiving checklist that isn't worth stressing over, cranberry sauce should be it.
We know that lots of people don't make their own cranberry sauce, and maybe you prefer the nostalgia of can-berry! Even some of us who work night and day for weeks to make a scratch Thanksgiving dinner are still wiggling that jellied stuff out of a can on Thursday afternoon to appease the die-hard loyalists.
We really like a homemade cranberry sauce, though, and if you've never tried to make one yourself, it might just be worth giving it a try this year. You don't even need a recipe!
There are two important things to know about cranberries: 1. They are tart. 2. They are natural thickeners, because they contain lots of pectin, a starch used to thicken jams and jellies.
Pectin needs to be paired with acid and sugar in order to thicken properly, which is great, because cranberries are acidic, and since they are so tart, we naturally want to add sugar to our sauce to help balance those flavors.
This means that at its very most basic, cranberry sauce is a mixture of cranberries and sugar, cooked until the cranberries are soft and the mixture is thickened. Now you know how to make cranberry sauce!
Of course, you don't have to make a basic cranberry sauce, so let's explore this a little further.
- Start with a medium saucepan. Add fresh or frozen cranberries and sugar. You can use granulated sugar, brown sugar, or even honey. Sweeten the sauce to your preference, but as guidance, for a 1 lb of cranberries, start with about 3/4 cup of sugar. You can always add more later. At this point, you can even add other fruits, if you want to make a hybrid sauce, like chopped apples or orange segments.
- Place the pot over medium heat. To help break down the cranberries, you'll want to add a few splashes of liquid. This can be water, but for added flavor, you might like apple cider, orange juice, pear nectar, port wine, bourbon, or any combination of these.
- Add any other flavorings now, so they have time to infuse with the berries as they cook. Popular additions include grated fresh ginger, orange peel, cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, or fresh herbs, like rosemary. You can pick larger ingredients out later, but you can also wrap these ingredients in a cheesecloth sachet before adding to the pot.
- Now is the easy part! Cook your cranberry sauce until it's thickened and all of the berries have burst. The sauce will thicken more as it cools. If it seems dry, add a touch more liquid as you go.
- Taste the sauce and adjust the seasoning. You'll want to add a pinch of salt and maybe more sugar, if it's still too tart for your taste.
- Do you like your sauce chunky, or would you prefer smooth? You can purée your sauce, and even strain it if you would like, but if you like the texture of the burst berries, it's ready to go!
- Now you can add garnishes, like chopped walnuts or candied orange peel.
- Cool your cranberry sauce before storing in the refrigerator or freezer. The sauce will keep well in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks, but it can also be frozen and defrosted for Thanksgiving.
If you don't love the texture of fresh cranberry sauce, you might like this Cranberry Applesauce. It has the tartness of cranberry sauce, but the texture of a classic applesauce.