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Cranberry sauce

Cranberry sauce
Prepare
less than 30 mins
Cook
less than 10 mins
Serve
Serves 6-8

A four ingredient, simple cranberry sauce recipe to go with all your festive mains!

For best results make this cranberry sauce a few days in advance to let the flavours mingle. You can also add a little port, if liked.

By The BBC Food team

Shopping list

Ingredients

Recipe tips

Method

  1. Bring the sugar and orange juice to the boil in a large saucepan. Stir in the cranberries and zest, if using, and simmer for 5 minutes or until tender but holding their shape. Frozen cranberries will take longer than fresh. Refridgerate until needed, it will thicken as it cools.

  2. Remove from the fridge an hour before serving, see the tips section for freezing information.

Recipe tips

Make ahead

The sauce will keep in the fridge for up to one week and can be frozen if it is more convenient to make it further in advance. To freeze cranberry sauce, cool thoroughly then transfer to a lidded container, or if your freezer is a bit full, half fill a plastic zip seal bag and flatten before freezing. Freeze for up to 3 months. Defrost for 24 hours in the fridge and bring to room temperature before serving.

If your cranberry sauce thickens a little too much as it cools, loosen with a splash of water and reheat gently before serving.

What takes the bitterness out of cranberry sauce?

If your cranberry sauce tastes a little sour or bitter, you can simply add extra sugar to balance the flavour. White sugar instead of brown will give a more mellow result.

What can I use instead of port in cranberry sauce?

Cranberry sauce is often enriched with port, but you could use most sweet, fortified wines. Marsala, Madeira and even sweet vermouth would work. Sherry has a more distinctive flavour. As an alternative, using red wine and extra sugar would also give a similar result.

Ingredient swaps and extras

Diced apples make another great addition to cranberry sauce. Use eating apples instead of cooking apples, so they hold their shape better and don’t require extra sugar. A generous pinch of ground cinnamon or a cinnamon stick or two can be simmered with the cranberries to add an extra Christmassy flavour.

What else can you eat cranberry sauce with besides turkey?

Cranberry sauce is delicious served with hot or cold roasted poultry and game. It’s also great with cheese, especially baked or deep-fried camembert and can be used instead of pickle in ham sandwiches. Warm cranberry sauce also makes a wonderful topping for vanilla ice cream, served with speculoos biscuits (such as Biscoff) or ginger thins or shortbread. Try mixing leftover cranberry sauce with chopped apples and making into a crumble or strudel too.