Homemade Cranberry Sauce Recipe

This amazing homemade fresh cranberry sauce comes together in minutes and is the perfect complement to your turkey dinner.

Cranberry sauce has been around for over 2 centuries in the United States. Some late 18th century writings reference a simple cranberry sauce using water, sugar, and cranberries created by Native Americans and was officially recognized by cookbook author Amelia Simmons in 1796.

Cranberry sauce became popularized in a can in the early 1940s with the mass preserved food era to help get American soldiers fighting in WWII food that would last. However, there is no comparison when it comes to flavor between to canned jelly version and homemade fresh cranberry sauce.

Ingredients with this recipe:

• 1 cup water
• 1 ¼ cup sugar
• 12 ounces or about 4 cups fresh cranberries
• zest of 1 orange
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Serves 10

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 20 minutes

Procedures:

1. Add the water and sugar to a medium-size pot and bring the mixture to a rolling boil.
2. Next, add in the cranberries and return them to a boil. The cranberries will begin to pop.
3. Once boiling, cover and simmer for about 15 minutes or until it becomes very thick.
4. Remove the pot from the stove and add in cinnamon, nutmeg, and orange zest and using a rubber spatula mix everything together but also press on the cranberries a little bit to help break them up more.
5. Add the cranberry sauce to a container and cool in the refrigerator until cold, which takes about 30-45 minutes.

Chef Notes:

Make-Ahead: You can make this recipe up to 2 days ahead of time. Keep in the refrigerator until ready to use.

How to Store: Cover and keep in the refrigerator for up to 7 days. You can freeze it covered for up to 3 months. Thaw it in the refrigerator until soft.

The sauce will thicken up a lot once it is cool.

You can use frozen cranberries in this recipe.