Homemade Jellied Cranberry Sauce

Learn the technique behind making a homemade jellied cranberry sauce that will taste better than the store-bought stuff. Get our easy recipe for the holiday season.

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Countless homes across the nation are planning to open up a can of wiggly red sauce and throw it on a place with pride.

Canned cranberry sauce is the norm in most homes where a turkey is served.

But why work so hard on making all the homemade side dishes and pies and at the end just open up a can. To me Thanksgiving is about putting the love into the food and sharing that love with those that you love.

I want to be putting my best foot forward when it comes to all the food at the meal.

Even if you are a person who heavily relies on premade, convenience meals, Thanksgiving should be a time that you get your hands dirty in the kitchen.

Making your own cranberry sauce is really easy, it's not too time consuming and even the most novice cook can make it.

Jump to:

• 🍽️ Why You'll Want to Make This Recipe
• 🚸 Why It's Easy
• 💰 Is It Cheaper?
• 🛒 Ingredients
• 🗜️ Equipment
• 📋 Instructions
• 🔴 Molding the Cranberry Sauce
• 🥚 Make Cranberry Curd
• Homemade Jellied Cranberry Sauce

🚸 Why It's Easy

This is the first part of the Thanksgiving meal I would have my kids make as they learn to cook.

What makes it easy is that cranberries contain so much pectin (that stuff that makes jellies and jams thick) that you simply have to cook the cranberries and they will release their natural pectin and produce a cranberry jelly. The flavor is so much fresher and bolder than the canned stuff.

💰 Is It Cheaper?

Honestly no

This isn't one of those cases where you are going to save money by making homemade. Those cans are dirty cheap right at Thanksgiving time. The price of the canned stuff might be the same or less than to just buy the bags of fresh cranberries.

So don't do it thinking your going to save money. Do it because you are making a better sauce to share with your family and friends.

🛒 Ingredients

Homemade cranberry sauce can be as simple as three ingredients - fresh cranberries, sugar, and water. Most canned cranberry sauces save money by using high fructose corn syrup. A lot of people try to avoid this sweetener. In all likelihood you, that HFCS comes from GMO corn, another reason avoid it. I use a non-GMO sugar to make my cranberry sauce.

Here is what you will need to make the cranberry sauce.

• 12 oz fresh cranberries (most bags are 12 ounces)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water

💡 Tip - You can buy your cranberries early. They last quite a while in the fridge. Check out my post When Can You Buy Fresh Cranberries to learn about their season and also my post on How To Know When Cranberries are Bad.

While this is enough to make a basic cranberry sauce, you can opt to add more flavor by using any of these ingredients.

• Cinnamon
• Nutmeg
• Ground Ginger
• Fresh Ginger
• Orange Zest
• Dried Orange Peel
• Orange Juice (replacing some or all the water)
• Apple Juice (replacing some or all the water)
• Maple syrup (reduce the sugar)

Something I like to do is add some mulling spices to the water for a spiced cranberry sauce. Bring the spices in the water to a boil, turn off the heat, and let it steep for 30 minutes. Then filter out the mulling spices. And now you have flavorful water to use.

For another take on this recipe, try my Ginger Ale Jellied Cranberry sauce.

🗜️ Equipment

In order to make this a jellied sauce without the skins or pieces of berry you are going to need some special equipment. But nothing fancy. A fine-mesh sieve and a large spoon will do the trick.

Something that is a little fancy that you could use is a food mill. I think it's easier to do. It does means more parts to clean and they take up more space. There is pros and cons to using either.

A food processor could be used as well, however you won't get the skins out, just make them smaller. And you will have to wait to do it when the sauce has cooled some but not enough too much. I don't really recommend using it but if that is all you got, give it a try.

📋 Instructions

Here is how to make the cranberry sauce.

In a large pot, bring the sugar and water to a boil. You really need to use a large pot. so that it doesn't boil over. It will be easier to stir too. Even if it seems like overkill go with the bigger pan.

Then dump in your cranberries. Reduce to medium heat until you have a gentle boil going.

Let the sauce cook for about 7 minutes or until it starts to gel.

If you are unsure if it's done you can test it by placing a plate in the freezer with a little bit off the sauce on it. Wait a couple minutes and the check it, if the sauce does not quickly run down the plate it's ready.

When finished place a sieve over a large enough bowl and push all the sauce through until you have just the skins left. Some sauce will stick to the bottom of the sieve so make sure to scrap it off. You don't want to lose any of it.

But if you decide you want whole berry sauce, then you can skip the straining altogether, your sauce is already done. You could also make two batches, one of each if you have guests with different opinions on their cranberry sauce.

🔴 Molding the Cranberry Sauce

Want to have some fun with your cranberry sauce? You can place it into any kind of mold you like to give it the shape you want. Last year, we used a silicone Bundt pan to look like it does in the photo above. It was really easy to slowly pop the cranberry sauce out and put it onto a plate to serve.

Got a clean can? You can make your homemade sauce look just like the canned stuff although yours will taste better. Any type of gelatin mold will work. You can make small individual ones using Silicone Baking Cups.

If you are going to do this, make sure to keep in the fridge until service and then remove it right before eating. Excess liquid will eventually leak out and can hinder the appearance of your cranberry sauce.

🥚 Make Cranberry Curd

Here is an amazing trick for you - if you take this recipe and follow it all the way through, then keep going by adding to it some whole eggs, egg yolks and butter. Then cook to thicken, you will have a delicious, creamy cranberry curd that can be used in desserts or spread on your morning toast. My favorite way to use Cranberry Curd is in Ginger Snap Tarts. If you ever tried making lemon curd and failed, this is a great option to redeem yourself as it's a lot easier to get right.

For a different type of "cranberry sauce" try our recipe for Cranberry Applesauce. It's made from sweet apples with some cranberries thrown in. If you want more cranberry sauce recipes, dont' miss my Ultimate Guide to Homemade Cranberry Sauce. Check it out and decide what recipe you want to make for your Thanksgiving!