Your go-to traditional homemade cranberry sauce recipe! Learn how to make whole berry OR jellied cranberry sauce. Fresh cranberry sauce is so much better than canned.
For many of us, cranberry sauce is a MUST HAVE on your Thanksgiving, Christmas, or holiday table. Most people don’t realize just how easy it is make homemade cranberry sauce. Today, let’s learn how!
As much as I love the classic can ridges on my store bought cranberries, I prefer to make my own at home. Making whole berry or jellied cranberry sauce is so much easier than you think, and only uses 3 ingredients: cranberries, sugar, and water. That’s it.
How to shop for fresh cranberries:
Right around October, you will usually start to see bags of fresh cranberries popping up at your supermarket. They are usually inexpensive, only a few dollars for enough cranberries to make a whole batch of homemade cranberry sauce.
To make the best homemade cranberry sauce, you will want to find cranberries that are still very firm and have not been damaged. Look for bags of berries that don’t have any smashed or broken cranberries and have mostly round, firm berries. The color will range from light, bright red to a dark, deep red. Both are very normal.
Look for a 12oz bag of fresh berries to make about 2 cups of whole berry cranberry sauce or 1 cup of jellied cranberry sauce
How to make homemade whole berry cranberry sauce:
Both whole berry and jellied cranberry sauce begin the same way. By combining the cranberries, sugar, and water in a medium sauce pan over medium heat on your stove top.
Give everything a good stir and bring to a low simmer. Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally at first.
After about 5 minutes, the berries will start to burst, and you will need to stir more often to keep the berries from sticking to the bottom of the pan.
After 10 minutes, your berries should be completely broken down and resemble whole berry cranberry sauce. At this point, you have made your whole berry cranberry sauce. Remove from heat and place berries in the refrigerator to cool for 1 hour.
How to make homemade jellied cranberry sauce:
To make jellied cranberry sauce, you will need to strain the berry skins out of your whole berry cranberry sauce. Grab a fine mesh sieve and place it over a medium bowl. Spoon your cranberry sauce into the sieve and start to press the sauce through the sieve with the back of a large spoon. Do this until all of the sauce is in your bowl and the skins are left behind in the sieve.
Spoon the strained sauce into a serving container and evenly flatten out the top a bit. Refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.
Homemade cranberry sauce recipe:
How to make both whole berry AND jellied homemade cranberry sauce at home! This classic holiday favorite is so much easier than you think, and so much better than canned store bought!
- 12 oz fresh cranberries
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup water
Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat.
Simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally at first, then constantly once the berries start to burst.
When the berries have burst, and you have a saucy, chutney like consistency, remove from heat. Let cool slightly, about 10 minutes. For whole berry cranberry sauce, spoon into a serving container and refigerate for 1 hour.
Place a fine mesh sieve over a large bowl. Pour the sauce into the sieve, and press the sauce against the sieve with a wooden spoon or spatula until all of the berry skins are separated from the sauce. Remember to scrape the bottom of the sieve to get the last bit of sauce into the bowl. Eat the cranberry skins, or reserve for another use!
Pour into your desired serving container and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
If you make this recipe, please let me know on social media or in the comments below! Leave a star rating in your comment or tag me on Instagram with #Rhubarbarians.
Thank you so much for reading and supporting Rhubarbarians. If you’re looking for a group of people cooking vegetarian recipes through the seasons, join us on Facebook in our vegetarian and vegan recipes group!
Hope you enjoy,
Trish
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LouAnn says
Instead of a strainer I have always used a Foley food mill to make the jellied sauce. My husband’s grandmother gave me one when we were married 40 years ago after a visit of picking cranberries in October while visiting her. We make cranberry sauce, cranberry juice, cranberry bread and cranberry cookies. A lot of cranberries! We harvested 6 gallons this year from a small bog we planted.
Trish Bozeman says
Wow that’s awesome! We don’t have a Foley food mill, but someday I would like to try this method. Send me some of those cranberries, LOL!
Jean says
I just cook it to the jellying point. You can look it up online. I think cranberries have a lot of pectin, so I don’t think you need gelatin. Just try cooking it longer, til it kind of “sheets” off the spoon.
Patricia Bozeman says
Hi there! There isn’t actually gelatin in this recipe.
Trish 2 says
I have been making this for 40 years from my Mom’s recipe which is basically the same, except the bags of cranberries used to be 16 oz. I’ve been having trouble getting it to jell. Any suggestions to solve my problem?.
Patricia Bozeman says
Hi Trish. If you want it to the consistency of the canned stuff, you might try to add some pectin to the mix. You could try cooking just a bit longer and see if it thickens up too. Good luck!
Patricia Bozeman says
You definitely should!
Susie Queue says
I love this sauce with the cranberries left in. That’s how I make it every year. Sometimes I add orange zest, and I always add a bit of Port..I’m from the UK and we don’t get it in cans!
Patricia Bozeman says
I love it both ways! I usually leave the berries in because it’s easier. Such good stuff!
Marissa @ OMG FOOD says
I love your photos on the cooking process from berry to jelly! I started making cranberry sauce a couple years ago and it’s one of my favorites. I’m also a huge fan of the canned stuff; it’s a guilty pleasure. I make a cranberry-habanero jelly I’m hoping to post by next week, but busy schedules are dumb, so we’ll see. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Yay, Thanksgiving time!
Patricia Bozeman says
Thanks Marissa! I love spicy pepper jelly!
Lindsey (LouLouBiscuit) says
Although I’m all about homemade, from scratch, wholesome ingredients, I too have trouble enjoying cranberry sauce in any other form, besides straight from a can! I’ll have to give this a go! It looks delicious!
Patricia Bozeman says
Thanks Lindsey! You should definitely try it out!