Delicious, nutritious homemade Jellied Cranberry Sauce with a hint of orange is just what your cranberry sauce lovers want at your Thanksgiving meal this holiday season! Tangy, sweet, and a holiday classic, your own cranberry sauce is the perfect complement to any roast you serve!
Serve this delightful homemade cranberry sauce right after it has been made and chilled, or you can can it to make it shelf-stable for longer storage. And it’s easy to make to boot!
My eldest son has -year after year- requested a giant Thanksgiving style feast on his birthday that falls about a week and a half before Thanksgiving. It’s his favourite meal of the year and he sees no reason to be confined to having it only once.
He also sees no problem with having the gigantic meal twice in one month. …And he knows what he likes.
Since he was able to serve himself at the table, the thing he has grabbed for first from the table is the bowl of cranberry sauce. According to him, it has to be smooth.
He and I both feel strongly about this. Even though Martha and legions of foodies present the beautiful relishes and whole berry sauces with the recognizable berries peeking out of it, I continue to hew the middle-America, smooth, quivering, ruby-red, can-shaped tube of sauce like the one I grew up eating.
My son loves this version the very best, too. Is my love for it nostalgia?
Perhaps, but it’s what I like. …And I know what I like.
(I do like some of the whole berry stuff, but it HAS to be like this homemade sweet and spicy one or all bets are off!)
Fresh Cranberry Sauce
But what I like very best of all is this homemade Jellied Cranberry Sauce. It has all the punch of fresh cranberries, less sugar, and a hint of orange juice all in a smooth, jelled package.
Wonder of wonders, you can whip this jellied cranberry sauce up with minimal prep time, easy to find ingredients, and very little hands-on time. This easy homemade cranberry sauce is a staple of the holiday table.
And I feel like I’m standing on pretty firm ground when I assert that Thanksgiving leftovers are one of the best parts of the season. Leftover turkey sandwiches made from rolls topped with roast turkey breast, leftover cranberry sauce, and a thin layer of pan fried stuffing with a ladle of gravy over the top is one of the best holiday meals in existence.
If you’re a fan of canned cranberry sauce and it’s classic slices, take heart! Homemade cranberry sauce can be umolded like it’s cousin-in-a-can by gently running a little hot water over the outside of the jar, running a flexible, thin spatula around the inside of the jar, and plopping it onto a plate or into a bowl. If you follow the instructions, it’ll be as firm as the commercially available canned stuff.
If you do not bring the sauce to 215ºF after adding the sugar, it may end up softer set. It is still marvelous either way.
Can I Can Homemade Cranberry Sauce?
We have fresh cranberry sauce at our Thanksgiving table without fail, but that’s not the only time we eat it. If you’re like us, you may be wondering if you can can homemade jellied cranberry sauce.
The short answer here is yes. I can homemade cranberry sauce every year.
EVERY YEAR. The great advantage to canning it is that you can store it on pantry shelves for up to a year!
Given that cranberries are usually on wicked sale this time of year, and that we eat it year ’round, it makes sense to make it in massive quantities and can it up. That way we have homemade classic cranberry sauce available year-round.
Do I have to can it?
The short answer is no. If you’re can-phobic, you can certainly pour it into jars or another airtight container, put the lids in place, and refrigerate it up to 10 days before serving.
While I’ve not tried freezing it, I imagine the taste would hold up beautifully in the freezer. Would the gel hold up? I couldn’t say.
Homemade Cranberry Sauce
Why make your own jellied cranberry sauce when the cans are so inexpensive at the store? Because it just plain tastes better!
Homemade jellied cranberry sauce has a better texture, more vibrant, fresher flavour than the stuff that you purchase and you control what goes into it. You can even add a little minced jalapeño if you like a kick to your homemade cranberry sauce or simmer a stick of cinnamon in it if you’d like to spice up your life or Thanksgiving dinner.
How to Make Cranberry Sauce
Ingredients
- Fresh Whole Cranberries
- Juice and Zest of an Orange
- White Sugar
- Optional: Minced Jalapeño Pepper or a Whole Cinnamon Stick
Equipment Needed to Make Cranberry Sauce
- Liquid Measuring Cup
- Microplane or Zester
- Heavy Bottomed Saucepan or Stockpot
- Long Handled Wooden Spoon
- Fine Mesh Sieve
- Immersion Blender or Potato Masher or Blender/Food Processor
- Instant Read Thermometer or Cold Spoon (store a handful of spoons in the freezer.)
Are you looking for more cranberry goodies? Try out this jiggly and delicious Cranberry Ginger Finger Gelatin, Cranberry Eggnog Doughnut Bread Pudding, Cranberry Brussels Salad with Bacon Vinaigrette, and Simple Candied Cranberries + Cranberry Syrup.
You can also break up homemade jellied cranberry sauce with a fork until it is spreadable and use it between layers of cake or to stuff French toast.
Jellied Cranberry Sauce
Combine the cranberries, orange juice, water, and orange zest in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. If you’re using a cinnamon stick or minced jalapeño peppers, add it here. Reduce the heat and simmer gently for 8 to 10 minutes while the cranberries pop open.
Use an immersion blender, potato masher, or a blender to carefully blend the mixture until it is mostly smooth. It does not need to be perfect, but the smoother the puree, the faster it’ll move through the sieve.
Pour into a fine-mesh sieve over a heat-proof bowl and use a silicone spatula or wooden spoon to press it through the sieve until all that remains is a paste of little twiggy bits and seeds from the cranberries and orange zest. Return the cranberry sauce to the pan.
Return the pan to medium high heat, add the sugar, and stir until dissolved. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring frequently, and boil until your cranberry mixture reaches between 215ºF and 217ºF.
Pour into sterile canning jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Wipe the rims, place new lids on the jars, and screw the rings into place until finger-tip tight.
Store in the refrigerator OR place the jars filled with hot cranberry sauce in a canner and cover with hot water. Bring to a boil and process for 15 minutes. Turn off the heat, remove the lid from the canner and let the jars remain in the water for five minutes. Transfer the jars to a wire rack or towel to cool overnight, undisturbed. Wipe the jars down, label them, and store in a cool, dark place for up to a year.
If you do not have an instant read thermometer, you can test the doneness of the sauce by dipping a cold spoon into the simmering sauce and lifting it up. The cranberry sauce should gel against the spoon and hold a clean line when you draw your finger through it.
Jellied Cranberry Sauce {canned or refrigerated}
Rate RecipeEquipment
- 1 liquid measuring cup
- 1 microplane or zester
- 1 heavy-bottomed stockpot
- 1 long handled wooden spoon
- 1 fine mesh sieve
- 1 instant read thermometer
Ingredients
- 9 cups fresh cranberries
- 4 cups sugar
- The juice of one orange plus enough water to equal 3 1/2 cups
- The zest of 1 orange
Instructions
- Combine the cranberries, orange juice, water, and orange zest in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer gently for 8 to 10 minutes while the cranberries pop open.
- Use an immersion blender, potato masher, or a blender to carefully blend the mixture until it is mostly smooth. It does not need to be perfect, but the smoother the puree, the faster it’ll move through the sieve.
- Pour into a fine-mesh sieve over a heat-proof bowl and use a silicone spatula or wooden spoon to press it through the sieve until all that remains is a paste of little twiggy bits and seeds from the cranberries and orange zest. Return the cranberry sauce to the pan.
- Return the pan to medium high heat, add the sugar, and stir until dissolved. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring frequently, and boil until your cranberry mixture reaches between 215ºF and 217ºF.
- Pour into sterile canning jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Wipe the rims, place new lids on the jars, and screw the rings into place until finger-tip tight.
- Store in the refrigerator OR place the jars filled with hot cranberry sauce in a canner and cover with hot water. Bring to a boil and process for 15 minutes, whether in a pint, pint and a half, or quart sized jar. Turn off the heat, remove the lid from the canner and let the jars remain in the water for five minutes before transferring to a wire rack or towel to cool overnight, undisturbed. Wipe the jars down, label them, and store in a cool, dark place for up to a year.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is an estimate and provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe using your preferred nutrition calculator.
did you make this recipe?
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Originally published November 2013, updated November 2020 with additional notes, and November 2022 with improved instructions.
Reader's Thoughts...
Jennifer says
My 7 year old son with allergies and I made this today. We used a blood orange and it came out yummy. We did only make a 1/2 batch recipe. We also saved the cranberry tidbits and orange peel mesh and will be using it as a cranberry blood orange relish. With his allergies it’s sometimes hard to find jellies or jams. So he wants to use it as one.
This recipe was so easy and simple. I can see us making this more often. Thanks!
Elaine R Kist says
There is no need to add pectin to jell?
Rebecca says
Hi Elaine- As mentioned above, there is no need to added pectin because cranberries have a super-high naturally occurring level of pectin.
patricia hardy says
Do I need to use sure jell?
Rebecca says
Hi Patricia- No surejell is needed. Cranberries have a super high level of naturally occurring pectin!
Lee A Slayton says
I made some yesterday and it did not set. What did I do wrong. I strained it to make jellied.
Robyn B says
Do yoh add pectin?
Rebecca says
Hi Robyn- Pectin is not needed because of the extremely high levels of pectin naturally occurring in cranberries.
Nicole says
Would it work to put the sauce in a mold and store in the fridge for a few days?
Rebecca says
Hi there! I’m not sure because I haven’t tried it 🙂 Theoretically, it should be fine! Please let me know if you give it a go.
Melinda says
Is a fley food mill fie enough for straining do you boil strained sauce before packing in jars Have you sealed ppen kettle and stored in fridg?
Rebecca says
Hi Melinda,
A foley food mill is likely fine enough, but I haven’t actually tried it, so I can’t say for certain. There’s no need to re-boil the strained sauce. And I don’t use open kettle processing because it’s not recommended by the USDA, but I have indeed stored the sauce in the refrigerator. Also, as I mention in the recipe card, I do sometimes process it in a boiling water canner for longer storage.
Judy Coutu says
How many pints would this recipe make?
Jo says
I too do this every year and golly gee it is yummy !
This year is my first time using orange juice. Exciting !
Rebecca says
Ooooh, you’re going to love that combo!
Erica says
Do you add pectin ?
Rebecca says
Hi Erica- I do not add pectin. Fresh cranberries contain a crazy amount of naturally occurring pectin!
SHAWN REILLY says
How may jars (and what size) does your recipe make?
Linda Brusehaver says
Gonna can today..have 2. 8 lb. Mesh bags froz. Berries from cranberry festival in northern wisconsin..they keep forever..make my own juice too..Linda
Michelle Stephens says
I will have to try this. I been wanting some stuffing and it’s the summer and I have been looking for jellied cranberry sauce for months now . So I thought about making it myself so I saw this recipe.
Darlene Kraft says
Mine did not jell I did what you said to do and it’s just liquid
Rebecca says
Hmmm. It sounds like you made have had an old batch of cranberries. It’s hard to know what went wrong since I was not in the kitchen with you.
Angela S Hill says
I bought a 32 oz bag of cranberries. What amounts should I reduce the ingredients to make this?
Your recipe calls for 48 oz. bag or 4- 12 oz bags.
Cassandra says
Thank you for the receipe. I want to learn to started canning food.
Angela Ponder says
I just wanted to note that you should not use clementines. It came out very tart. Though it didn’t say how much zest to use so I may have over did that. Do you know how hard it is to zest a clemantine… they get mushy as you go… same with the squeezing out the juice. Boy… that was not a good idea.
I 1/4 this recipe with a cranberry bag of 14oz.
And because of the reviews that sauce did not set up I boiled for the full 10 minutes. Though the cranberries that I used were from Dole and they were soft and popped right away. Less then 2 minutes. I doesn’t say on the package but I’m sure they preboil these.
I knew there would be to much water in the dish to set. So I continued to boil them and the water reduced and it got thicker as it cooked.
I was going to keep the left overs in the siv but it was so tart I tossed it out. Next time I make this I will leave the orange out and make it just like the can. Good luck to you all..
I’m not leaving stars since I had so many different issues it wouldn’t be fair to the blog.
Rebecca says
Wowza! It sounds like you had a real time of it, Angela. Let’s see if I can address a couple of your issues. I’m with you on Clementines. Don’t use those. Stick with a regular old navel orange. And the zest will sort itself out if you use an orange, since you use the zest from the whole orange. Be sure you’re just using the orange zest and not getting into the white pith. The pith might make it unpalatably bitter to most folks.
It’s fine to quarter the recipe, as long as you quarter everything in the recipe. So if you use 1/4 of the cranberries specified, you’d use 1/4 of the juice of a whole orange plus enough water to equal 1 cup of liquid total, 1 cup of sugar, and 1/4 of the zest from a whole orange.
The process is still the same, though. No matter how long it takes them to pop, you still want to gently boil for 10 minutes to help extract and activate the natural pectin in the sauce. The acidity of the orange juice helps with that.
It probably won’t be really thick when it’s done. It’s when it’s cooled that it has set up. Pectin is a natural gelling component in food and if you have good cranberries, there should be enough in there to make a good, soft-set to stiff gel when the liquid cools and is chilled.
About the Dole cranberries; from your description, it sounds like you got a bad bag. Cranberries should be smooth, firm, unblemished, and vibrant in colour. If they’re soft, they’re bad. I have never heard of a company pre-boiling cranberries because that would basically destroy the cell structure. Cranberries are a curious combination of hearty-in-transit and ticking time bomb. If they freeze, you can still use them and you’ll end up with a product that will be as good as using them from fresh, but you should never thaw before cooking because that will turn them to mush.
So my best guess, from what you’re saying, is that you either had a bag that had gone bad, or been frozen and subsequently thawed.
Seasons01 says
After they were set they were great. My husband liked them. My 16 yo did too. My 11 yo didn’t. The cranberries mellowed out a lot. And tasted pretty good!
Seasons01 says
How long does this take to set? I’m thinking of making 1/2 of the recipe this am. Put in glass jar and refrigerate until Turkey time.
Jessica Rosek says
I made this last night put in fridge to set and it did not jelly not sure what I did so wrong followed the recipe to a tee… If there anything to help thicken it?
Rebecca says
Hi Jessica- It sounds like for whatever reasons, your cranberries may not have had as much pectin as they usually do. I’d recommend you try this easy fix.
I’d grab some unflavoured gelatine powder at the grocery store (usually sold as Knox Unflavoured Gelatine) and follow these instructions.
Measure 1 cup of your cold cranberry sauce into a heat-proof bowl and sprinkle 4 tablespoons of the gelatine over the it. Let it set undisturbed for 1 minute.
Measure 3 cups of your cranberry sauce into a saucepan and bring to a boil.
Pour the boiling cranberry sauce over the gelatine, then stir gently for about 5 minutes, or until the gelatine is completely dissolved. Pour into jars or a heat-proof bowl/pan, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until ready to use.
If you do this, it will not be suitable for canning, but it will be firm for your meal!
Christina says
How long does it take to set in refrigerator?