Make your own homemade Cranberry Sauce
Weather you make whole berry or jellied cranberry sauce it’s a cinch to make
This is the kind of recipe that I love sharing! If you have never made it or known someone who does, you will find it surprising how simple, quick and easy homemade cranberry sauce is. The secret ingredient that gives cranberry sauce it’s jelly consistency is right in the cranberry. Pectin.
Pectin is a natural substance in fruit that is released when cooked with sugar and water. It is the pectin that thickens any fruit into a jelly. Not all fruits have enough pectin to gel on it’s own, but the little cranberry does.
In fact, the cranberry is an amazing little berry. It’s a very healthy food.
Cranberries are quite unique
Cranberries grow in cooler climates. They like moisture and sandy acidic soil. Pine trees like sandy acidic soil too. So where you see cranberries, you will see pine trees too.
Cranberries grow on low growing, shrub like vines that are very hearty. Once they are planted they thrive pretty much on their own. They become ripe for harvesting only once a year in the fall. The tradition of having a side dish of cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving and other late year celebrations isn’t a man made promotion. It has been passed down from days of old, long before people were shopping at a grocery store for food.
Cranberries are part of the fall harvest array of foods found in cooler climates.
The harvest
When grown as a food supply, cranberries are grown in a field called a bog. A bog differs from an average growing field for a couple of reasons. It is created to have a natural berm around it. It has an outside elevated perimeter so to speak. The field will also have an abundant natural water supply very close by. Both of these elements are necessary for the harvest.
The harvesting method is uniquely cranberry. Because cranberries are hollow inside they float! Because they float farmers found a way to make harvesting a whole lot easier. They flood the field and shake the cranberries from the vines either with a hand held rake or more often these days with a machine called an eggbeater. When bumped off the vines the cranberries float to the top.
That’s why the bog needs a berm and a nearby water source. The farmer “borrows” the water to flood the field and then returns it when they don’t need it anymore. Now that’s what I call Yankee ingenuity. 😊
Once the cranberries are floating, they are rounded up and pushed into a suction pipe which sends them to a platform that weeds through the cranberries for leaves and branches, washes them and feeds them into the truck that will transport them, usually to the processing plant.
My family’s cranberry farmer
My cousin Ronnie is a cranberry farmer. He started when he was a young whippersnapper and has been doing it ever since. In fact, his home is literally surrounded by bogs. A long driveway to his house runs through his bogs. It is absolutely spectacular. Especially at harvest time. I’ll show you some pictures to see if you agree.
Like so many family businesses, when the busy season rolls around it’s all hands on deck. On the day these pictures were taken Ronnie’s son also named Ronnie is helping him and Seth, a friend of the family is helping out too. On my last picture you will see Ronnie with his latest recruit.
Here’s Ronnie’s driveway. Beautiful any time of the year, but breathtaking during harvest time.
The “booms”(those boards you see floating in a circular pattern) help to round up the berries so they can be led into the pumping system. The berries are pumped onto a machine that will sort and wash the berries.
Here’s my cousin Ronnie holding his great grandson Thomas, his newest recruit. It’s never to early to get kids started in the family business. ☺
If you look closely you can see the berries getting sprayed clean before they are emptied into the truck.
Okay back to homemade cranberry sauce
Why bother making it?
It’s so easy to just buy a can of cranberry sauce, why would anyone bother to make homemade?
Homemade is better. It has a smooth and soft consistency even after it has gelled.
Many commercial brands are made with high fructose corn syrup instead of sugar. The corn syrup dulls the fresh taste of the berries and it causes a less appealing texture than sauce made with white sugar.
A special touch for your dinner table
Adding a dish of homemade cranberry sauce to your dinner or buffet table adds a special touch. It’s obvious that the cranberry sauce is homemade. The color is a deep crimson and the moisture in the sauce gives it a lustrous glow. It’s just beautiful.
And when you make it yourself you can add flavors to your homemade sauce that your family will love. Have you ever noticed how many other fruits are added to bottled cranberry juice at the grocery store? It’s common to see cranberry juice combined with grape, apple, raspberry and pomegranate. That’s because the sharp, tart and distinctive flavor of cranberry can “hold it’s own” with other flavors. Because of it’s tartness, the sweetness added with another fruit is a great way to offset that sharp tart flavor.
How easy? Really easy!
You only need a couple of ingredients and very little time to add this homemade touch to your meal. It’s made from cranberries, sugar and water and only takes 10 minutes to make. It’s best to make at least one day in advance, but it can be made days ahead and refrigerated.
But as good as your homemade cranberry sauce is on your own table, making a batch and bringing it along to a seasonal celebration is even better.
Homemade cranberry sauce is the perfect dish to bring along
During the holiday season many of us like to bring a dish to a get together, even if we are not asked to. It’s a nice way to say thank you and share one of your specialties with the other guests. Well if you are pondering what to bring to your next cool weather holiday celebration consider homemade cranberry sauce.
Why is homemade cranberry sauce a perfect offering to the host? So many reasons! It’s delicious and unusual. Not too many people make their own cranberry sauce. In fact, when a bowl of homemade cranberry sauce shows up on the table some people are absolutely amazed that someone took the time to make it. Even people who are not necessarily big fans of canned cranberry sauce will often try it and be pleasantly surprised to find they enjoy the real thing.
It’s pretty rewarding to hear the kudos for your homemade cranberry sauce, especially if you have added your own special touch. You can humbly share your secret ingredient with your fellow diners. But here’s something you don’t need to tell them!
There is no need for anyone to know that your investment in this yummy contribution was the cost of a bag of cranberries and a cup of sugar, or that it only took you 10 minutes to make!
These two dishes have you covered
Have you read our post about Ann’s grandmother’s family favorite dessert PINEAPPLE CREAM? That is a quick pineapple dessert that takes only minutes to make.
Grammie Katie was known for her pineapple cream and she was asked to make it for all family gatherings. The first time I made the dessert I couldn’t help but think that this was the easiest pot luck dish I had ever come across. But not really. Cranberry sauce is just as easy.
A tip to remember
So if you frequently bring a homemade item to a social gathering here is a tip from me to you that may make your life much easier. If it’s summer and someone asks you to bring a dish, bring PINEAPPLE CREAM. If it is the holiday season, tell your host you will bring homemade cranberry sauce. Both these dishes are absolutely delicious and a real crowd pleaser. You only need 3 or 4 inexpensive ingredients and less than 15 minutes to prepare either of these recipes before you put it in the refrigerator to set overnight. No more trying to find the time to make some elaborate pot luck dish.
YOU’RE WELCOME😊.
Here’s what YOU WILL NEED:
| A 12 ounce bag of fresh cranberries |
| 1 cup water |
| 1 cup sugar |
About the ingredients
Fresh or frozen cranberries
Fresh cranberries in season are commonly found packed in 12 ounce bags. That’s what we are using for this recipe.
Sugar and water
We are using equal parts of sugar and water. In this case we are using one cup of each. We are going to dissolve the sugar into the water in a saucepan on the stove top.
Equal parts of sugar and water cooked together is called a simple syrup. Simple syrup has all kinds of uses. A lot of beverages, both non-alcoholic and alcoholic are sweetened with simple syrup. Dessert recipes sometime call for using simple syrup too.
Simple syrup is such a common term that some recipes may not explain what simple syrup is. So now you know. You turn equal parts of water and white sugar into a syrup by heating them together on the stove.
That’s it for the basic ingredients in homemade cranberry sauce
Tips for additional flavors
Instead of water, use a 100% fruit juice. Orange juice and orange zest is commonly used. Apple juice, raspberry juice, pomegranate juice, cherry juice, grape juice are all worth trying if you like the flavor of them. When a juice is added to the sugar instead of water the sauce gets a little sweeter. Pleasantly sweeter in my opinion.
And here is another flavor twist for you. It may be contrary to your intuition, but just a bit of a nice aged vinegar, especially aged balsamic vinegars really bring a richness to your cranberry sauce. It intensifies the sweetness.
This is WHAT TO DO:
I love standing at the stove watching cranberries morph into sauce. The color really pops and it becomes a sauce so so quickly it amazes me no matter how many times I make it. I am going to show you lots of pictures so you can see what I mean.
Step 1: Add 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water to a medium sized saucepan on medium high heat.
Step 2: Bring the sugar and water to a boil. Equal parts of sugar and water boiled down to a syrup is called a simple syrup.
Ready for berries!
Add the cranberries to the boiling syrup.
Bring the cranberries to a boil. In no time they are going to start popping open. Some will even spit at you as they pop so don’t watch the pot too closely. 🤗 Stir constantly.
Let them continue at a full boil for a minute or so while you continue to stir. The juice of the berries that have popped open will turn the syrup pink.
Then turn the heat down so the berries are simmering.
A NOTE about temperature. Sugar burns hot. In order to calm the boil to a simmer you may need to turn the stove down to low or medium low. Once the boil has calmed down a bit you may need to turn the heat up a little to keep the berries simmering. You need to keep the sauce bubbling. And you need to continue to stir.
It’s happening! The sauce is getting thicker. Can you see in the middle and around some of the berries there is a dark purple sauce making bigger, heavier bubbles? We are almost there.
When the sauce is thick enough to coat the spoon without dripping off, your cranberry sauce is done. The sauce will continue to thicken as it cools. It is best if left at least overnight in the refrigerator.
You can make it several days ahead if stored in the refrigerator.
Your whole berry cranberry sauce is done
Want it jellied?
There’s just one more step to making jellied homemade cranberry sauce. Get the skins out by straining the sauce.
I am using a manual kitchen tool to remove the skins. It is called a food mill. It was my mother’s. On my own I probably would not buy one. I wouldn’t use it enough. The alternative to a food mill is to just push the the whole berry sauce through an everyday strainer. The back of a spoon, especially a wooden spoon is a good way to push the pulp out of the skins and through the holes of the strainer.
Weather you use a food mill or strainer, a thick coating of pulp will collect on the bottom. Use a spatula to scrape it off.
This is a food mill. The handle turns the paddle at the bottom. The paddle pushes the pulp from the cranberry and out the little holes in the bottom leaving the skins. The mill has “feet” that hook over a bowl or a saucepan to keep it stable while you are turning the handle.
I have poured the warm cranberry sauce into the mill.
As the handle is turned the metal paddle is squeezing the pulp of the cranberries out of their skins and pushing the pulp through the holes in the bottom into the bowl.
Moving the paddle back and forth I am getting every bit of cranberry pulp that I can through the holes on the bottom leaving only the skins in the mill.
Scrape all the pulp that has been pushed though the sieve off the bottom and into the bowl.
Smooth jellied homemade cranberry sauce without skins.
Put your cranberry sauce in the refrigerator to thicken
Serve
Homemade Cranberry Sauce
Ingredients
- 12 ounces cranberries fresh
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup water
Instructions
- Bring the water and sugar to a boil in a saucepan.
- Add the cranberries and bring the water and sugar back to a boil. Let it boil for about 1 minute then turn the heat down till your berries are simmering. Stir continuously.
- Continue to stir as you simmer the berries for about 10 minutes. The sauce is done when the sauce has become thick enough to heavily coat a spoon without dripping. The sauce will continue to thicken as it cools.
- Refrigerate overnight, or at least several hours before serving.