Homemade Cranberry Sauce

If you’ve never made a fruit sauce or jam before, it might sound more complicated than it is. First things first, you should know that the cooking part is easy. It just involves putting everything into a pot and simmering.

And then you don’t have to go through a complicated canning process afterward. You can freeze this jam, so the only thing you have to do is give it time to thaw before you’re planning to serve it.

Is This Sauce or Jam?

That’s kind of a trick question. It’s actually both, so you can use those words interchangeably. Pectin is the ingredient in fruits that make them gel along with sugar and acid. Cranberries are naturally high in pectin, so they get to that perfect jammy consistency without much work.

This sauce turns out chunky. I don’t recommend using an immersion blender to puree it because it will lose so much of its character.

The Ingredients

This is what you need:

• Cranberries are usually sold in 12-ounce bags at the grocery, which is the amount called for in the recipe. Fresh cranberries should have smooth skin and no soft spots. They should be light and bounce.
• Dried figs are not traditional in cranberry sauce recipes, but they add a kind of honey-like sweetness. And most importantly, they give it some texture. When you take a bite of a dried fig it is chewy and has a slight crunch from the tiny seeds. This does mellow out as the figs cook in the sauce, but it is definitely there. My preference is Mission figs.
• Granulated sugar sweetens the tart cranberries. You need that combination of fruit with pectin, sugar and acid to turn these ingredients into a jam-like sauce.
• Orange zest: Instead of including orange juice, the peel is where that fragrant, concentrated orange taste is. Take a vegetable peeler and strip off the peel in paper-thin sections. You can use a lemon as a substitute. Zest is just another way to say peel.

Variation

Spices: If you want to make a spiced jam and lean into fall flavor, stir in 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon and pinches of ground ginger, nutmeg and cloves when you put the ingredients in the saucepan.

How To Make This Homemade Cranberry Sauce

1. Combine the cranberries, figs, sugar, orange peel and water in a medium pot.

2. Bring the ingredients to a boil over medium high heat.

3. Reduce heat and simmer until thickened, about 18-20 minutes.

4. Let the sauce cool before serving. Make sure to remove it from the heat. It will thicken a bit as it cools. Stir it around to check the consistency, but be careful because it will be very hot.

Serving

Spoon the sauce into a small bowl and treat it like a condiment for Thanksgiving or another big traditional meal. It will give you much-needed brightness to cut through all the heavy roasted dishes on the table. And it is wonderful on leftover turkey sandwiches.

Another way to serve the sauce is as jam on a cheese board. It pairs beautifully with hard and soft cheeses, an assortment of charcuterie and crackers.

I also love this cranberry spread for breakfast. Smear it on a toast or swirl it into oatmeal or yogurt. And it’s good along with maple syrup drizzled on pancakes or waffles.

Don’t forget dessert. You can even top vanilla ice cream with it.

Leftovers and Make-Ahead Tips

You can make it 1 week in advance. Store leftover cranberry sauce in a jar in the fridge. If you want to keep it longer, you can freeze it up to 2 months. If you are planning to freeze it, I recommend dividing it into small containers to portion it out, which will make it quicker to thaw.

Since this sauce is so freezable, it is a great thing to make in advance, so then it is checked of your list, which is always helpful when you are putting together a big meal with different dishes and lots of guests.