This Classic Cranberry Sauce Recipes Is Everyone's Go-To (2024)

FAQs

How do most people eat cranberry sauce? ›

54 percent of Americans serve their sauce sliced along the ridges.

Cranberry sauce can be used with a variety of meats, including turkey, pork, chicken, and ham. Cranberry sauce is often eaten in conjunction with turkey for Christmas in the United Kingdom and Canada or Thanksgiving in the United States and Canada, and it is only rarely eaten or served in other contexts there.

Spirits are a wonderful addition to cranberry sauce, but remember that a little goes a long way. Go with spirits and fortified wines used to make other sauces, and start with port, sherry, madeira, marsala, sweet vermouth, or even bourbon. Add it to your sauce a teaspoon at a time until you get the flavor you want.

Cranberry sauce can be served either as a gooey liquid or as a solid jelly. The jellied version is solid enough to retain the shape of the container in which it's placed whereas the sauce version is much more fluid. The difference between the fluid sauce and the jelly versions comes down to pectin.

Health Benefits

Cranberries are also rich in vitamin C and fiber, as well as the metabolism-boosting mineral manganese. And yes, you reap all these benefits whether the cranberry sauce on your holiday table is homemade or canned, jellied or whole-berry.

The traditional way of serving jellied cranberry sauce is sliced into rounds. With the column set on its side, slice into ¼-inch thick rounds and then arrange the slices on a serving platter. Serve the slices plain, garnished as desired, or read on for easy upgrades.

Cranberry sauce is best served at room temperature or slightly chilled. (You've got enough things on the menu to warm up! Don't make the list longer!) I tend to make cranberry sauce a few days before Thanksgiving and then set it on the table about an hour or two before we plan to eat.

It's perfectly fine to serve up cranberry sauce — whole berry or jelled — straight out of the can. But in my experience, heating the canned sauce up takes its flavor to the next level. Plus, it becomes a little more aesthetically pleasing.

What's the best jelly or sauce to serve with roast meat? Most people have heard of serving Cranberry Sauce with turkey, but there are many other options for delicious accompaniments to serve with your Sunday roast or Christmas dinner – and with the leftovers too.

If you don't have maple syrup (pancake syrup WILL NOT do, y'all), try honey or a more neutral sweetener like agave syrup, brown rice syrup, or even simple syrup. All of these syrupy ingredients are a perfect quick fix for bitter cranberry sauce.

How do you cut the tartness out of cranberry sauce? ›

Sugar – you NEED sugar in this recipe to cut through the tartness of the cranberries. I use cane sugar here, but you can use any sugar of choice, from granulated, to coconut sugar, to maple syrup.

Similar to a low-sugar jam or preserves, cranberry sauce is intensely flavored and delicious with meats, especially pork or pot roast. It also fares well with cheese, in desserts, and in quick breads.

Nutritional Facts Face-Off

The homemade cranberry sauce has nearly half the calories, carbohydrates, and sugars compared to the store brand. It also has more fiber as well as potassium! Thankfully, buying cranberry sauce at the store is not the only option.

Costs are up

That includes cranberry sauce, whose price is up about 18% compared to last year because cranberry crops are smaller this year, sparking a supply squeeze.

The major variation you're likely to come across is "whole berry" versus "jellied." The only difference between them is that the jellied sauce is cooked until the berries have completely broken down. They both slide out of the can as a wobbly red cylinder.

One of the simplest and most traditional ways to enjoy jellied cranberry sauce is straight from the can. Simply open the can, slice the sauce into rounds, and serve it on a plate. This classic presentation adds a pop of color to your holiday table and allows the sweet-tart flavor of the cranberries to shine.

Should cranberry sauce be served warm or cold? You could, of course, serve it straight out of the pot, but I think it's best after it's chilled in the fridge. Chilling it helps it firm up some more in the fridge, plus, serving it this way means you can make it days ahead of a holiday.

Although 63 percent of all respondents said that they liked cranberry sauce, affinity for the food differed significantly by age. Cranberry sauce was not disliked by a majority of any demographic group but Millennials came the closest—45 percent said that they could not stand the condiment.