Cranberry Orange Sauce Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How do you cut the tartness out of cranberry sauce? ›

Sugar – you NEED sugar in this recipe to cut through the tartness of the cranberries. I use cane sugar here, but you can use any sugar of choice, from granulated, to coconut sugar, to maple syrup.

The sugar in the syrup helps the mixture thicken. It could also be because you haven't cooked the mixture long enough. The cranberries need to cook long enough to burst so that they release plenty of pectin which is a thickener naturally found in cranberries.

Instead, the pectin polymers will bind to each other, giving the cranberry mixture more and more structure. The sweet sugar-water molecules get trapped in between the pectin chains, resulting in a tasty cranberry sauce!

While there are some editors who prefer homemade cranberry sauce, the canned variety also has quite a following. "There's something so beautifully perfect about the texture of canned cranberry sauce, and none of those homemade mess will ever compete," says Senior Digital Food Editor Kimberly Holland.

If you don't have maple syrup (pancake syrup WILL NOT do, y'all), try honey or a more neutral sweetener like agave syrup, brown rice syrup, or even simple syrup. All of these syrupy ingredients are a perfect quick fix for bitter cranberry sauce.

Taste and, if the mixture is too tart (keeping in mind that cranberry sauce is supposed to be a little tart!), add more orange juice, honey or maple syrup to taste. The sauce will continue to thicken as it cools.

If your cranberry sauce is too thick, it's most likely overcooked. When you cook cranberries (or any berries), they burst, releasing pectin—a natural thickener. The key to a perfect consistency is to allow some but not all of the cranberries to split open—something you'll achieve with less time on the stove.

Spike cranberry sauce with citrus

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.

Cranberry sauce can be served either as a gooey liquid or as a solid jelly. The jellied version is solid enough to retain the shape of the container in which it's placed whereas the sauce version is much more fluid. The difference between the fluid sauce and the jelly versions comes down to pectin.

Luckily, there is a very easy way to fix an over-sugared homemade sauce: You just need a little citric acid.

Why is the label upside down on a can of cranberry sauce? ›

According to Ocean Spray, that's intentional: It creates a seamless serving experience. The cans are "filled and labeled upside down with the rounded edge on top and the sharp can-like edge on the bottom to keep the jelly whole," an Ocean Spray spokesperson told CNN Business.

But that's not the case for prepared cranberry sauces, where prices are up. Lochner pointed out that processors set those prices, not growers, and that there are higher input costs unrelated to berries — like “processing the fruit and getting it to market.” Ocean Spray isn't immune either.

Cranberry sauce is best served at room temperature or slightly chilled. (You've got enough things on the menu to warm up! Don't make the list longer!) I tend to make cranberry sauce a few days before Thanksgiving and then set it on the table about an hour or two before we plan to eat.

Everyone found the biggest difference between the two to be texture; the homemade sauce had a distinct Jell-O springiness. The Health Nut: Store-bought. "The homemade's flavor is a little more mild and the texture more gelatinous, which isn't what I'm looking for in a cranberry sauce." The Foodie: Store-bought.

For example, a tomato sauce that is primarily sour or acidic to the taste could benefit from a pinch of sugar – yes, sugar! – to balance the flavor and give it more depth.

How Do You Neutralize Sour Taste in Food? If a dish is too sour, add a little bit of sugar! Sweetness balances out sour flavors, so if something makes your mouth pucker, a dash of sugar may help soften the blow of the sour food.

Neutralize the Acid

There is no getting around it—cranberries are tart. One way cooks counteract this is to add sugar to the recipes.

Sweetness: From sugar, honey, fruits or otherwise, sweetness will counteract bitter and sour flavours. It can also be used to cut down the heat of a particularly spicy meal.