In This ArticleView AllIn This ArticleOvercooking ItUndercooking ItNot Making It AheadNot Enough Sweetener or Spice
In This ArticleView All
View All
In This Article
Overcooking It
Undercooking It
Not Making It Ahead
Not Enough Sweetener or Spice
What is this, you say? You’ve only had cranberry sauce out of a can? Sorry, friends, you’ve been missing out. Nothing beats the vibrant red hue and sweet-tangy flavor of homemade cranberry sauce. Sure, the canned stuff is convenient, but cranberry sauce is easy to make at home—plus you can (and should) make it ahead so you can focus on your otherThanksgiving dishesduring crunch time. For those of you thinking outside the can this year, here are four possible cranberry sauce pitfalls with solutions, from how to thicken runny cranberry sauce to how to thin out a sauce that’s too thick.
Thanksgiving Cranberry Sauce Recipes
Pictured recipe:The Best Homemade Cranberry Sauce
Mistake #1: Overcooking Cranberry Sauce
Thick versus thin cranberry sauce is really a matter of textural preference—there is no right or wrong. Those who favor the kind that slips neatly out of a can may not mind a cranberry sauce that’s semisolid, but if you prefer a looser sauce and you’ve wound up with something more like Jell-O, you’ll need to do some troubleshooting. 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 allowsomebut not all of the cranberries to split open—something you’ll achieve with less time on the stove. Cranberry sauce is also best served after it’s cooled, which will thicken it further. If your cranberry sauce is too thick while it’s on the stove, then it will bewaytoo thick when you serve it. To fix a cranberry sauce that’s too thick for your liking, add a splash of water or orange juice to loosen it before you take it off the stove—it’s as simple as that!
Healthy Cranberry Recipes
Mistake #2: Undercooking Cranberry Sauce
On the other end of the spectrum, you might end up with a cranberry sauce that won’t thicken. Nobody really wants to dine on cranberry soup, so to combat this issue, you’ll have to cook it more to release that all-important pectin. But what if you’ve been cooking it forever and it’s still not right? You may have added too much liquid to the cranberries. In addition to pectin, cranberries contain water, which means you only need to add a splash of liquid to get the cooking going. Add too much and you’ll be stirring at the stove much longer than expected. Again, more time on the stove will fix this problem. Another possible blunder that can cause cranberry sauce to be too thin is using too little sugar. 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 leastsomesugar to make it work well (about 1/2 cup sugar per 12-ounce bag of cranberries).
Mistake #3: Not Making Cranberry Sauce Ahead
The turkey is resting and you’ve almost pulled off Thanksgiving dinner, only to realize you forgot to make—you guessed it—the cranberry sauce. You’ve got 15 minutes. Do you whip out a saucepan and start cooking? You could, but how many steaming pots of hot cranberry sauce have you seen lately? Not many. Cranberry sauce is at its best when it has cooled, which, unless you live in the Arctic, takes about two hours. Instead, you can make cranberry sauce ahead of time and save yourself the last-minute panic. Cranberry sauce can hold in the fridge for over a week, so you can fix it and forget it (hopefully until dinnertime). But, back to our original scenario, what should you do? You can make a cranberry relish instead. Think of it as a raw cranberry sauce—no cooking required. A food processor can make quick work of all the chopping. Let the cranberries macerate with a touch of sugar and voilà! You’ve got yourself cranberry sauce (ish).
Pictured recipe:No-Sugar-Added Cranberry Sauce
Mistake #4: Not Enough Sweetener or Spice
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The Bottom Line
If you’re not satisfied with your homemade cranberry sauce because it’s too thick, too runny or too bitter—or if you forgot to make it and are short on time—we have some easy solutions to help you fix the issue. You’ll still impress your guests, get delightful reactions at the dinner table and no one will know there was ever a mistake.
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