How To Make Homemade Cranberry Sauce

I have a confession: I love canned cranberry sauce. But trust me, you will never go back to the canned stuff after trying this recipe. This past Thanksgiving, every store I went to was out of cranberry sauce. This recipe saved the day and kept my favorite side on our holiday plates. This homemade cranberry sauce only uses 3 ingredients (4 ingredients if you include water) and takes less than 15 minutes from start to finish to create that lovely classic Thanksgiving side dish.

How Do Cranberries Turn into Homemade Cranberry Sauce?

If you have ever tried eating a raw cranberry, then you know that cranberries are a very hard fruit, tart fruit. Cranberries chock-full of pectin. Pectin is a fiber found in fruits that acts as a thickening agent, and this is why the canned cranberry sauce we know and love molds into an almost gel-like texture.

To make cranberry sauce you need to heat cranberries (raw not dried) in water and add acid and sugar to get the bonds of the cranberry sauce to hold together to create that thickened texture. You can adjust the texture of the sauce by adding more or less water to make the sauce runnier or more jelly-ed. If you adjust the sweetener, the texture will change as well. For the pectin to set correctly, 12oz of cranberries need a least 1/2 cup of sweetener.

What to Do If My Homemade Cranberry Sauce is Too Thick?

There are a couple of reasons your sauce is on the thicker side:

1. the sauce is overcooked
2. the sauce needs more liquid.

Overcooking the berries is the #1 culprit for overly thick sauce. To ensure that the sauce is cooked through, but not overcooked, stop cooking the sauce once nearly all the cranberries have burst. If you wait until all the cranberries burst, you will likely overcook the sauce. As cranberry sauce cools down, it will thicken up. If it feels too thick on the stovetop, make sure to add more water or grapefruit juice (1 tbsp at a time) to loosen up the sauce. If the sauce doesn’t have enough liquid in it you can fix the sauce by adding water, too.

What to do if my Cranberry Sauce is too thin?

The issue here is either

1. There is TOO much water in the mixture
2. There is too little sugar.

As I mentioned before, cranberry juice requires both acid and sweetener to activate the pectin to create the correct consistency. Try adding 1 tbsp at a time of sweetener to activate the pectin in the cranberries. Remember that the sauce will thicken up a good amount when it is removed from the heat. You will start to see the texture of the sauce will remain when it cools to room temperature.

What Can I Use If I Don’t Have Grapefruit Juice?

Don’t have any grapefruits on hand? Not a problem, you can use another citrus fruit. I like to use grapefruit in mine since ruby red grapefruit season starts around the same time as Thanksgiving, and I nearly always have them on hand. But using orange juice fresh or store-bought, will do the trick. So will lemon juice. Be careful, if you are swapping out the grapefruit juice, you may need to either up the sugar levels (when using lemon juice) or decrease the sugar level if you are using sweetened store-bought orange juice.

Homemade Cranberry Sauce Ingredients

Cranberries

Pick up that 12oz bag of raw cranberries that comes out around the holidays. (You know the one). You will need raw cranberries for this recipe, dried cranberries will not work properly.

Grapefruit Juice

The pectin in the cranberries needs both sugar and acid to set the sauce into a thickened sauce. This recipe calls for Cranberry and grapefruit a match made in fruit heaven. I love the tangy/sweetness that they play off of each other. Grapefruit also doesn’t overpower the cranberry flavor. You can also add in other citrus juices, but make sure to adjust the sugar content as needed.

Brown Sugar

Any type of sugar or sweetener (ie granulated sugar, maple syrup, honey) will work, but brown sugar is my favorite. It adds a little more depth of flavor to this recipe. I like a slightly more tart cranberry sauce, but you can add up to 1/3 cup more sugar if you want a sweeter sauce.

How Do You Make Homemade Cranberry Sauce?

• Rinse the bag of cranberries and sort through the berries. Discard the berries that feel very squishy or are bruised. A little squish is okay, but if the cranberry is very soft and wrinkled, remove it. Set the good cranberries to the side.
• Add water, grapefruit juice, and brown sugar to a medium stovetop saucepan, and place on medium-high heat.
• Stir the sugar until dissolved in the water-juice mixture. Bring to a boil. Then reduce the heat to a simmer. 
• Next, add the sorted cranberries carefully to the pan. Stirring occasionally, cook the berries for 7-10 minutes. Be careful as you wait for the berries to burst, they can splatter up on you. 
• When most of the berries have burst, remove the sauce from the stove, transfer it to a bowl, and let it cool. The mixture will thicken as it sits. Wait for the cranberry sauce to return to room temperature before refrigerating.
• Refrigerate for at least 3 hours before serving. Homemade cranberry sauce can be prepared up to a week in advance.

Can I Make Cranberry Sauce Ahead of Time?

Yes! It’s a hearty lil’ dish. You can make this recipe up to a week in advance. Make sure to store it in an airtight container in the fridge. Its long shelf-life makes cranberry sauce an easy dish to prep ahead of time to make your holiday prep easier. 

More Thanksgiving Sides

Need more recipes for your Thanksgiving table? Check out some of our favorite recipes for Thanksgiving!

• The Best Savory Sweet Potato Dish
• Easy Honey-Glazed Carrots
• Healthy Homemade Maple Applesauce (with “Imperfect” Apples)