Homemade Cranberry Sauce Recipe with Orange - Cherished Bliss (2024)

FAQs

How do you take the bitterness out of homemade cranberry sauce? ›

Add A Splash Of Vinegar

While citrus is a natural pairing for cranberry sauce, bright, savory vinegars like sherry vinegar, balsamic vinegar, and apple cider vinegar play well with the bitter-tart berries. Start with a little, then add more gradually. It's easy to overdo it when in comes to bold vinegars.

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.

Nutritional Facts Face-Off

The homemade cranberry sauce has nearly half the calories, carbohydrates, and sugars compared to the store brand. It also has more fiber as well as potassium!

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. Another possibility is that the cranberries need to boil for longer, releasing their pectin and ensuring a jelly consistency.

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.

Sugar helps the thickening process, and while it's nice to try to keep your cranberry sauce from being too sugary sweet, you will need at least some sugar to make it work well (about 1/2 cup sugar per 12-ounce bag of cranberries).

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.

When to Toss Cranberry Sauce. Cranberry sauce will last for two hours at room temperature. Homemade cranberry sauce will last in the fridge for 10 to 14 days. Canned cranberry sauce that has been opened will last up to a week in the fridge.

Should cranberry sauce be served warm or cold? You could, of course, serve it straight out of the pot, but I think it's best after it's chilled in the fridge. Chilling it helps it firm up some more in the fridge, plus, serving it this way means you can make it days ahead of a holiday.

How long does homemade cranberry sauce last in a mason jar? ›

How Long to Keep Cranberry Sauce. Whether homemade or from a can, cranberry sauce lasts in the fridge for about two weeks as long as you store it in a covered container.

Reduced risk of cardiovascular disease

Cranberries have two big benefits for heart health: lowering blood pressure and improving cholesterol. Some studies suggest that drinking low-calorie cranberry juice regularly can raise HDL (good) cholesterol and lower LDL (bad) cholesterol.

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.”

Reduce heat to a low boil and cook for 10 minutes, until the berries have all burst. Remove from heat. Serve warm, room temperature, or chilled. Cranberry sauce will thicken as it cools.

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. It is also important to let the cranberry sauce cool at room temperature. Moving it to the refrigerator too soon may also affect the gel.

Add Some Baking Soda

If your tomato sauce is too acidic and verging on bitter, turn to baking soda, not sugar. Yes, sugar might make the sauce taste better, but good old baking soda is an alkaline that will help balance the excess acid. A little pinch should do the trick.

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. Saltiness: Salt plays two very important roles in flavouring a dish. Firstly, it balances against bitterness.

I have found that half cranberry juice and half orange juice tastes good. The orange juice cancels out most of the bitterness, and the citrus of the orange juice goes very well with the sour of the cranberry juice.

Add agave nectar to the cranberry citrus mixture to your taste. I started with 1/2 cup and ended up with 1 cup of nectar to the 9 cups of juice. You could also use 1/2 cup of white sugar or 1/2 cup of honey for this. Just taste test as you go to achieve your desired sweetness.