Homemade Cranberry Sauce is tart, a little sweet, and bursting with holiday flavor.
Whether you make a simple 4-ingredient cranberry sauce like I’m sharing here or mix it up with various spices, fruits, and sweeteners, your homemade cranberry sauce is going to rule the table!
It’s super easy to make homemade cranberry sauce, taking just a few minutes from start to finish. Plus, you can make it ahead of time and freeze it!
Here’s all about how to make cranberry sauce from fresh.
The Story Behind the Recipe
This is the year, my friends. This is the year you’re going to do it. You’re going to put aside the can opener, step away from the kitchen counter with purpose, and stride toward the stove top. And 20 minutes later, you will say, “Hey! I can make fresh cranberry sauce, dangit! I rule Thanksgiving! I rule THE WORLD!”
And when your friends and family have one tantalizing taste of your homemade fresh cranberry sauce, they’ll agree with you. Guaranteed.
If you haven’t made homemade cranberry sauce, I have to tell you this: it is SO super easy. How easy, you ask? THIS easy.
Even though there are endless wonderful variations of cranberry sauce out there, really you only need four things: fresh (or frozen) cranberries, sugar, water, and some orange zest or lemon zest. And then you need a saucepan, a stove, a spoon, and about 20 minutes.
Why You’ll Love Fresh Cranberry Sauce
- It elevates your holiday table. There’s just something extra fancy about having a bowl of gorgeous ruby-red homemade cranberry sauce at the table.
- Endlessly customizable. Love cardamom? Crave apples? You can add them to your cranberry sauce! Choose spices and fruits that complement the other dishes on your table or just do a little experimenting. It’s actually really hard to go wrong!
Cranberry Sauce Recipe Ingredients
There are endless variations for homemade cranberry sauce (scroll down to Adaptations/Variations for lots of ideas)!
At its core, fresh cranberry sauce only needs three ingredients – cranberries, sweetener, and water. My base recipe is similar to the Ocean Spray cranberry sauce recipe, but I like to add orange zest for some additional flavor and start with less sugar so that I don’t end up with a cranberry sauce recipe that’s too sweet.
- Fresh cranberries – Find the cranberries in most any produce section. Ocean Spray sells bags of 12-ounce berries, or you may be able to find some in the organic section of well-stocked grocery stores.
- Water – Liquid helps to break the cranberries down, releasing their pectin for a nice thick cranberry sauce. I’ll sometimes sub in orange juice, or a 1/2 and 1/2 combo, for some extra orange flavor.
- Sugar – You will want a sweetener! Granulated sugar is a top pick and easy to adjust until sweetened perfectly. I also like to use pure maple syrup (I start with 1/3 cup).
- Orange zest – Adding the zest of an orange is necessary in my opinion. It helps to highlight and deepen the cranberry flavors. And makes your fresh cranberry sauce smell EXTRA divine when cooking!
A Note About Fresh Cranberries
Take a quick look at the berries. You want the majority to be firm and smooth. If you find several mushy – or even moldy, ack! – berries, it goes without saying that you’ll want to pass on that bunch.
Before cooking, rinse the berries and sort through, discarding any super-mushy or obviously unripe berries.
Adaptations/Variations
Orange Maple Cranberry Sauce
Add orange zest, freshly squeezed orange juice, and a cinnamon stick, plus sweeten with pure maple syrup. A fave variation!
Apple Cinnamon Cranberry Sauce
Add tart apples, cinnamon, and lemon zest for a cranberry sauce with extra fall vibes.
Ginger Pear Cranberry Sauce
If apples and cinnamon can work well win cranberry sauce, why not ginger and pears? This unexpected combo makes an extra special homemade cranberry sauce.
Raspberry Cranberry Sauce
Raspberries pair surprisingly well with cranberries! This one has jammy red zinfandel wine in it too. So good!
Spiced Cranberry Sauce
Add a variety of warm spices like cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves. A touch of pure maple syrup and brown sugar to sweeten deepens the flavor.
Lemon Cardamom Cranberry Sauce
Load up on the lemon zest and throw in a few crushed pods of cardamom when simmering. Pull the cardamom out before serving.
Jalapeno Cranberry Sauce
Add some heat to the situation with jalapeno peppers! The combination of sweet, tart, and heat is addicting. This Jalapeno Cranberry Sauce recipe from Boulder Locavore looks perfect.
How to Make Cranberry Sauce
- Place a medium-sized saucepan over medium heat. Add all of the ingredients – cranberries, water, sugar, and orange zest. Bring the mixture to a boil.
- Continue to let the sauce boil, stirring occasionally, until the sauce gets juicier and the berries burst and break down, about 15 minutes.
- Taste the sauce! If it’s too tart, add more sugar – about a tablespoon or two at a time – until the sweet/tart balance is just right. Individual tastes can vary, but I like it to be sweet with just a little teensy bit of puckery tartness that lingers (can I just say that using the word “linger” in a post about cranberries scratches an itch in my Gen X soul?!)
- Once you’ve found the perfect amount of sugar, stir and cook for another minute or so to make sure the sugar dissolves.
- Remove from heat and let cool, then spoon into your serving container or an airtight container for storing.
Tips for Success
- Buy your cranberries early! At least where I live, grocery stores will often sell out of the bags of cranberries a week or two before Thanksgiving. Panic-inducing! So I always grab a few bags at the beginning of the month and pop them in the freezer as insurance.
- Please don’t skip the tasting step. Cranberries can really vary in sweetness, and so it’s important to start with a small amount of sweetener, taste, then add a little more until it’s just right. Fresh cranberry sauce, in my opinion, should taste a little tart but not mouth-puckeringly so.
Make-Ahead Tips
The cool thing about homemade cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving is that you can make it WAY ahead of time. It’ll keep nicely in the refrigerator for up to a around 5 days (some sources do say up to 2 weeks, but I’m cautious so I stick it in the freezer if it will be much longer than that.
You can also freeze it for up to 3 months ahead of time then place it in the fridge overnight to thaw before the big day.
Homemade Cranberry Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 12 ounces fresh cranberries (about 3 cups)
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar (+ additional sugar if needed)
- 2 teaspoons orange zest (from one medium-size fresh orange)
- 1 cup water
Instructions
- Rinse and sort the berries – if any are super mushy, discard them.
- Place a medium-sized saucepan over medium heat. Add cranberries, 1/2 cup sugar, orange zest, and water.
- Cook, stirring occasionally, until the sauce comes to a boil.
- Continue to boil until the sauce gets juicier and the berries burst and break down, about 15 minutes
- Taste for sweetness. If it’s too tart, add more sugar – about a tablespoon or two at a time – until the sweet/tart balance is just right for you.
- Once you’ve found the perfect amount of sugar, stir and cook for another minute or so to make sure the sugar dissolves.
- Remove from heat and let cool, then spoon into your serving container or an airtight container for storing.
- Keeps for up to one week refrigerated in an airtight container, or for up to two months in the freezer.
Hi! I’m Karen – I’m a real person with real recipes. No A.I. here! Since 2009, every recipe on Kitchen Treaty is thoroughly tested and loved before I hit “publish.” I’m a home cook, certified plant-based pro, and mom. I’m a vegetarian married to a carnivore, and my goal is to coexist deliciously.
Been making my own cranberry sauce for ages. So easy! In fact my kids have taken over this particular recipe now– it’s an easy Thanksgiving recipe for the younger set to start off with.
Thanks, Mary! Getting the kids involved with this one is such a fabulous idea.
Great recipe! I have used one very similar for many years, and have tried to cut down on sugar. Since the sugar causes it to “gel” making it hard to cut back much, I recently tried a waterless recipe. Just the berries and (less) sugar, which sauces up once the berries pop. Turned out great! I confess that I do add a spoonful or two of orange juice concentrate because I like the fruit sugar and orange flavor with the cranberries.
I love your recipe for cranberries! Their so delicious! Thanks for sharing your great recipe! 🙂
If I’m substituting maple syrup for sugar, is it the same amount?
Thanks!
When I use maple syrup I usually start with a little less. 🙂
Thanks! I’m going to try it!!
This is the first time I make cranberry sauce and this recipe was perfect. I actually wanted it for filling a cake, so I added more sugar and the mix was a bit thinker than usual but that was actually better for what I needed it! Thank you for a simply yet delicious recipe!
Thanks so much for your review, Leonor! Oh man, I bet that cake was absolutely fabulous.