Easy Homemade Cranberry Sauce Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How many cranberries are needed to make one can? ›

The average number of cranberries used per can of sauce is 200. If you lay out all the cans of sauce consumed in a year from end to end, it would stretch 3,385 miles.

Was your cranberry sauce cooked or fresh? If cooked then the time to add more sugar was during the cooking time. If it was a fresh ground sauce and not cooked then add sugar and orange juice and simmer to dissolve the sugar. You can taste as you go but be careful not to burn your mouth on the hot sugar.

Cranberries contain natural pectin and will gel without any additions. Cook until the berries pop to release the juices and then simmer another 5 minutes or so. It will not seem thick then but will thicken as it cools. If you really want it thicker, you can add additional pectin with a product such as Sure-Jell.

Adding a teaspoon or two of fresh lemon or orange zest, a tablespoon of chopped candied peel, or even a splash of juice to your canned sauce will brighten flavors and bring in some homemade flavor.

One 12-ounce bag of cranberries equals 3 cups.

One 12-ounce bag of cranberries makes about 2 1/4 cups of basic cranberry sauce—in my house, that's enough for about five people. Going the canned route? You'll need at least one can for six people.

Dear Evelyn: I had the same problem when I first started making my own cranberry sauce. I found out that you should cook them just until they pop. Further cooking will make them bitter, and once that happens, you need to start again.

Jelling. Homemade cranberry sauce is meant to thicken, or “jell,” while cooking. If it stays soupy, that could mean a couple of things. One possibility is that you may not have used enough sugar: Sugar helps the sauce firm up, so be sure to use the full amount called for in a recipe.

Mistake #2: Your Cranberry Sauce Is Too Runny

You may have added too much liquid to the cranberries. In addition to pectin, cranberries contain water, which means you only need to add a splash of liquid to get the cooking going. Add too much and you'll be stirring at the stove much longer than expected.

If you inadvertently added too much water, simply bring the cranberry sauce back to the stove top and bring it to a low boil, cooking it down just a bit to help thicken it up.

Why does my cranberry sauce have seeds all? ›

Why is my cranberry sauce so seedy? Cranberries do have seeds inside them. Sometimes, when using frozen cranberries, if it does not cook long enough, the seeds may not break down. This can cause the sauce to taste seedy.

My cranberry sauce is too sweet now that I taste it. How do I fix it? Add a splash of red wine or apple cider vinegar and a pinch of salt to lessen sweetness.

Why won't my cranberry sauce gel? Boiling is critical to release pectin, the key gelling ingredient, from the cranberry. You must cook the sauce for at least 10 minutes at a full boil for the pectin to react with the sugar and create the proper gelled texture.

How to Thicken Cranberry Sauce. If you prefer thicker cranberry sauce, simply simmer the sauce a little longer on the stove – but keep in mind that it will thicken as it cools.

But why? Ocean Spray says this is to get the cranberry sauce out in one intact piece. “The rounded part of the can that looks like the bottom has an air bubble in it,” Ocean Spray's representative explains. The bubble is there so you can “break the seal the sauce makes with the can.”

There are three cups of cranberries in a 12 oz.

There are about 4,400 cranberries in one gallon of a typical cranberry juice product.

Making a gallon of cranberry juice takes about 4,400 cranberries.

One 12-ounce bag of fresh cranberries will yield about 3 cups whole or 2-1/2 cups chopped.