How To Make Homemade Cranberry Sauce

Nov 3, 2014 by foodyschmoody

Scrap the canned stuff this Thanksgiving and learn How To Make Homemade Cranberry Sauce. It only takes a few minutes and your guests will be so impressed with you.

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Did you guys have a great Halloween? The kids had a blast trick or treating, but Josh (5 1/2) started lagging towards the end. We thought his bag was just too heavy but when we got home and the first thing he did was curl up on the couch and not beg for candy, we knew something as up. He had a fever. Saturday he still had a fever and Sunday, well, he got the added bonus of a stomach bug and also his guinea pig passed away. So, all in all, not super great but at least we got in trick or treating. Anyway, Halloween is over so I can officially start planning for my absolute favorite day of the year, Thanksgiving!

I LOVE Thanksgiving. It’s not about gifts, or dressing up. I make it all about the food. I have been hosting ever since I got married. We don’t have a huge group, usually about 10 adults and a handful of kids and then about 5-10 more for dessert. I am getting excited just thinking about it.

Growing up, I never ate the cranberry sauce. It was always the stuff from a can. It wiggled. It giggled. It looked like a big congealed blob of yuck.

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Once I started hosting, I decided I needed to learn how to make homemade cranberry sauce. Everywhere I looked, I saw it was basically water, sugar and cranberries. Easy enough, so I started making it and tweaking it a bit differently each time but I still couldn’t bring myself to eat it. Everyone else seemed to like it. They were gobbling it up (gobble, get it, gobble gobble – Thanksgiving!). I think I had still been turned off from the canned stuff. Finally, this past year, I went ahead and tried my homemade cranberry sauce and I have to say, it was AWESOME. It’s tart and sweet, without being too sweet. I’ve been missing out for so long and I’m kind of bummed about that.

So here’s the deal, all you need for my homemade cranberry sauce is a few things: white sugar, brown sugar, cranberries, cinnamon and orange juice and water. I also throw in some orange zest, because, well, I love using zest. It’s not necessary, but certainly suggested. If you don’t have a zester, grab yourself one, they’re pretty cheap. The one I have been using for over 10 years is this one by OXO but for just a few dollars more you can get a microplane style, which is what I want eventually when I lose the one I have.













A lot of recipes call for boiling your liquid first and then adding your cranberries. I don’t bother, I throw everything in the pan and let it boil for about 10-15 minutes, stirring every now and then, and then let it sit to cool. That sounds easy enough, right? You can make this the day before and keep it in the fridge overnight. One less thing to do on Thanksgiving morning.

You do want to make sure all the cranberries pop open. I start my pan over high heat and once it comes to a boil, I knock it down to medium so it’s still boiling but not scorching. That’s it. Now you know How To Make Homemade Cranberry Sauce.









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How To Make Homemade Cranberry Sauce Print Ingredients 12 oz fresh cranberries

½ C orange juice

½ C water

½ C sugar, granulated

½ C brown sugar

½ tsp cinnamon

1 T orange zest (optional but recommended) Instructions Place all ingredients in a saucepan over high heat. Bring to a boil. Allow to boil at high for 1 minute, turn heat down to medium and continue to boil, stirring frequently, for 10 minutes. Allow to cool. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve. 3.4.3177

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