Whole-Berry Cranberry Sauce

Whole-Berry Cranberry Sauce is sweet, tangy, and loaded with whole berries. With just whole fresh cranberries, sugar, and water this sauce makes in minutes and is delicious with both savory dishes and sweet desserts.

There is nothing like making your own cranberry sauce from fresh whole cranberries. While canned cranberry sauce has a scant number of whole berries, this sauce is packed with them.

Jump to:

• What are Cranberries?
• What is Cranberry Sauce?
• Ingredients
• Instructions
• My Top Tips
• Cranberry Sauce Variations
• Make-Ahead & Storage
• Related Recipes
• 📖 Recipe

What are Cranberries?

Cranberries are highly acidic, small, red berries that grow on small creeping shrubs. The shrubs grow in bogs in the cooler areas of the northern hemisphere.

Because of their high acidity, hard texture, and tart flavor, cranberries require sugar to be palatable. Highly sweetened juices and sauces are the most common use of cranberries. However, they are also used in baking.

What is Cranberry Sauce?

Essentially cranberry sauce is made by simmering cranberries in a simple syrup of water and sugar. Most recipes call for 1 cup of water and 1 cup of sugar, which yields a sweet but thinner sauce. If you cook the cranberries longer in this syrup the sauce will thicken. But all of the berries will have burst. This is not a bad thing, but if you want some of the berries to remain whole you need to shorten the simmering time.

However, I have a secret method to make fruit sauces like this and I use the same secret in this sauce as in my Red Wine Sauce with Berries, which is to add additional whole berries to the sauce after it has cooked.

For this whole-berry cranberry sauce, additional whole cranberries are added after the sauce has simmered. The residual heat of the cooked sauce is enough to cook the whole berries until they are tender but still whole.

I also have experimented with the proportions of water and sugar and found that a heavier simple syrup will give me a thicker sauce, which I think is perfect.

So for this recipe, I use ¾ cup of water to 1 cup of sugar. With this proportion of water to sugar, the sauce does not run on a plate. The cranberries are sweetened and the sauce is chunky with burst berries and whole berries.

Although cranberry sauce is the definitive must-have condiment for a turkey dinner for Thanksgiving and Christmas, this sauce is so good you might want to make it year-round! And you can! Just freeze whole cranberries while they are in season and you can make this brilliantly colored, delicious sauce anytime.

So, let's cook!

Ingredients

Here's what you need for this whole-berry cranberry sauce:

• Fresh Cranberries - Fresh cranberries can be found in the produce department from October through December.
• White Granulated Sugar - To keep the cranberry flavor bright, only use white granulated sugar. Sugar tames the acidity of the cranberry and, in general, is essential in making fruit sauces, preserves, and jams.
• Water - You must add water to the cranberries and sugar to make a sauce and not a jam.

Please see the recipe card for the exact quantities.

Instructions

Wash the cranberries well and remove any discolored, soft, or shriveled berries. Set aside 1 cup of cranberries for later.

Put the remaining cranberries, sugar, and water in a 2-quart pan. Cover the pan and bring the cranberries to a boil over medium heat. Then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 10 minutes until the cranberries burst.

Remove the pan from the heat and skim any foam from the top of the sauce.

Stir in the reserved cranberries. Cover the pan again and let it cool for 10 minutes. The residual heat of the sauce will soften the added whole berries without bursting them.

When cool, transfer the cranberry sauce to a covered container and store it in the refrigerator.

My Top Tips

Choose cranberries that are deep red in color for the best flavor.

Although many recipes do not state to remove the foam, skimming the foam from the sauce makes it more beautiful.

Cranberry Sauce Variations

Fruit Flavored Variations

• Cranberry Orange Sauce - Add a 1-inch x 3-inch strip of orange zest to the sauce as it cooks. Remove the zest before storing and serving.
• Cranberry Sauce with Pineapple - Add ½ cup canned crushed pineapple.

Tipsy Variations

• Red Wine Cranberry Sauce – Substitute red wine for the water. Choose a red wine that you enjoy drinking and don't use "cooking wine". Good choices are merlot, malbec, and fruity zinfandels.
• Cranberry Sauce with Grand Marnier - Substitute 2 tablespoons of Grand Marnier for part of the water.
• Bourbon Cranberry Sauce - Substitute 2 tablespoons of your favorite bourbon for part of the water.
• Cranberry Sauce with Port Wine - Substitute 2 tablespoons of port wine for part of the water.

Spiced Variations

• Winter Spiced Cranberry Sauce – Add 1 Cinnamon Stick and a spice sachet of 4 allspice berries, and 2 whole cloves.
• Gingered Cranberry Sauce – Add 1 inch of fresh ginger root that is peeled and finely chopped.
• Cranberry Sauce with Horseradish - Stir in 2 teaspoons of prepared horseradish, not cream-style horseradish, to the prepared sauce.
• Spicy Chipotle Cranberry Sauce - Stir in ½ teaspoon of adobo sauce from a can of chipotle peppers to the cooked sauce.

Make-Ahead & Storage

This sauce keeps up to 3 weeks in a covered container in the refrigerator. So, cranberry sauce can easily be made several days ahead of when you want to serve it.

Related Recipes

• Red Wine Sauce with Berries
• Simple Syrup Recipes Chart
• Sauces, Gravies, and Thickening Agents Chart

📖 Recipe