The Art of Making Perfect Cranberry Sauce for Thanksgiving

When it comes to traditional Thanksgiving sides, cranberry sauce is often an afterthought. However, with a little creativity and attention to detail, this sweet and tangy condiment can be elevated to new heights. In this article, we'll explore the secrets behind making the perfect cranberry sauce, from selecting the right ingredients to adding a touch of flair.

To begin, you'll want to start by gathering your ingredients. This includes fresh or frozen cranberries, granulated sugar, water, and any additional flavorings you desire. For our recipe, we're using Cointreau as our primary liqueur, but feel free to experiment with other flavors like Amaretto for a peachy twist. Next, you'll want to add a splash of the liqueur to your sauce, taking care not to overpower the delicate flavor of the cranberries.

Now it's time to start cooking your cranberry sauce. Begin by placing the cranberries and sugar in a saucepan over medium-high heat. As the mixture reaches a simmer, reduce the heat to medium-low and let it cook for about five minutes, or until the cranberries have popped and the mixture has thickened slightly. Be careful not to scorch the bottom of the pan, as this can impart a bitter flavor to your sauce.

Once your cranberry sauce has reached the desired consistency, remove the lid and allow it to cool slightly. This will help the pectin in the cranberries to activate and thicken the sauce further. At this point, you'll want to be gentle when stirring the sauce, as the cranberries are delicate and can break easily.

The key to achieving a jammy texture is to cook your cranberry sauce slowly over low heat, allowing the mixture to reduce and concentrate. As it cools, the sauce will thicken further, resulting in a beautiful, syrupy consistency. To prevent scorching, stir the sauce occasionally and watch for any signs of steam or smoke. These can indicate that you're getting close to scorching the bottom of the pan.

Now, the moment of truth arrives – it's time to taste your cranberry sauce! If it's too sweet, add a splash more water or orange juice. If it's not tart enough, add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. The ideal texture should be thick and jammy, with a hint of sweetness and a tangy finish.

The final touch: adding a little flair to your cranberry sauce. For our recipe, we're using pistachios for added flavor and texture, as well as a sprinkle of fresh orange zest for an extra burst of citrus flavor. These simple additions elevate the dish from basic to breathtaking, making it perfect for topping turkey sandwiches or serving alongside a plate of warm rolls.

Tips and Tricks

* Use fresh cranberries whenever possible, but frozen cranberries work just as well.

* Experiment with different liqueurs and flavorings to create unique twists on traditional cranberry sauce.

* Avoid over-cooking your cranberry sauce, as this can result in a bitter or burnt flavor.

* Chill your cranberry sauce before serving for an added layer of texture and flavor.

Conclusion

With these simple tips and tricks, you'll be well on your way to creating the perfect cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving. Remember to take your time, stir gently, and don't be afraid to experiment with new flavors and ingredients. With a little love and care, this sweet and tangy condiment can become the crowning glory of your holiday table.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enall right cranberry sauce come on oh you can't have Thanksgiving without cranberry sauce it's such an important staple as a side ingredient so we're gonna make a perfect cranberry sauce what is a perfect cranberry sauce to me well it shouldn't be too sweet or too acidic it needs to be right down the middle also a perfect cranberry sauce in my opinion should have a beautiful vibrant color where it's not overcooked where the flavor is going to dull it's going to look a little bit Brown and muted we're actually going to use orange fresh orange that's going to support the flavors of the cranberry so we're going to use the oils on the outside and the zest and then the beautiful flesh and flavor on the inside so don't add water to your cranberry sauces here we're going to add orange to it great technique doesn't mean more time this is as simple as a normal cranberry sauce but the flavor is going to be way better so we're going to start with the zest of it cranberries are full of pectin but there's actually even more pectin in Orange Peel so is going to help fortify it a little bit this is super exciting so you could actually just straight up peel the outside of the orange and put it in there but I like using the microplane because it reduces the amount of pith that you're going to actually add which is going to add even more bitterness but I feel like there's already enough Bitters and tannins already in the Cranberry so we want to reduce that so we're going to be using two oranges this is going to yield about a pint of cranberry sauce you can scale it up if you want using the tools and Chef steps smells so good love it so that's enough does it need to be perfect you can do all this by hand on a table with a knife chopping it up it will be a little bit messy but the benefit of using a food processor it's cleaner and you're going to be able to save all the juices because we don't want to be adding water to our cranberry sauce that's just diluting the flavor we want to be adding flavorful ingredients such as an orange or a grapefruit so now we're going to remove the pith so ends so when I'm removing the pith I always like to do the first cut or this is the point of reference so what I'm actually looking at is this line here so I'm going to be chasing that down this is going to help with a better yield I like doing it this way because it's a fun technique I don't know whenever I'm cooking it's an opportunity to just refine a skill have fun with it whack these up a little bit so they fit in the food processor easy boom all right nothing precious about this we're just beating it up we're at save all the juices we're not using water we're using orange juice it's kind of got like a thin marmalade like texture we got our lovely Orange it's our base liquid that's going to be supporting the flavor of the cranberry so we're going to add our cinnamon pinch of salt got our sugar mix that up start hydrating the sugar so I like to mix these ingredients first before adding The Cranberries because I like to be in control of the texture of the cranberry a lot of times either you'll find like whole berries in your cranberry sauce or it's just completely mashed to nothing I like to find a sweet middle ground in between this is our base but if you want to take it to the next step I like to add a liqueur to it Cointreau is my favorite because it's going to fortify the orange flavor you can use an Amaretto for a nice kind of peach pit vanilla flavor so totally up to you just a little bit splash all right we got our cranberries you can use fresh frozen you're going to get the same result so once the Cranberries are added that's where I begin to get really gentle with the mixing I don't want to beat them up too much I want to keep the whole texture at the beginning because I can always beat it up a little bit later on to alter the texture look at that beautiful and come in so we're going to start on medium high heat and it's going to be covered at the beginning once we reach a simmer so it's going to go for about five minutes that's going to cook the berries then we're going to remove the lid and that's going to allow a lot of evaporation to happen so at this point the Cranberries are fully cooked pectin's activated now we're just going to be reducing it down so that we have the right texture at room temperature or cold depending on how you want to serve it it's kind of cool with cranberries because they're so high impact in about one percent pectin I believe once they're cooked that pectin is going to be activated and as it cools and evaporates it's going to get even thicker and more concentrated I like to be very gentle at this point because those cranberries are delicate so all I'm looking for is making sure that I'm not scorching on the bottoms I'm looking good you gotta watch the steam Steam and smoke are two very different things and they act differently so if you ever notice like a puff happening while there's steam evaporating that means you have a scorching spot so you need to quickly dump it out real quick don't scrape the bottom because then it's just going to spread the bitterness or if you drag the spatula it doesn't quickly fill in with all the moisture that means we're getting close it's very jam-like marmalade-esque it's dealer's choice at this point you can keep cooking up farther and it'll be even thicker at the table when you serve it because it's going to be thinner while it's hot I like a thicker cranberry sauce because you have your plate all your different little stuff you got your rolls you got your stuffing your turkey got your green bean casserole I wanted to be able to sit in one spot and not pool everywhere so I'm going to call it and shut the heat off all right it's cooked we got cranberry sauce it's nice Jammy it's not too sweet not too tart beautiful color too so the thing at this point is you can serve it right away if you want I always like to think about what is the temperature and texture you want with your meal I'm going to show mine like the texture of that but you can also make this a week in advance so just pop in the microwave reheat it your coffee how you chill it is kind of up to you I always prefer chilling over ice you can just leave it room temperature for about 15 minutes and then I like to spread it into a flat container in the fridge that creates more surface area and it's going to cool a lot faster at this point you might be tempted to mix it to help speed up the chilling but I say don't do that because I don't want to disturb or break up these beautiful berries that we have the cranberry sauce is at the texture I like it's chilled it's going to be nice and refreshing supporting all these Savory warm ingredients at your Thanksgiving dinner pectin set up nice and jammy look at that it's got some body to it just putting a little love into it this year cranberry is not going to be an afterthought at your Thanksgiving dinner to bring this to the next level I like to add some ingredients to the top of it I like to add pistachios for flavor texture color and then a little bit of fresh orange zest because the Orange is in there already we know that we got the Cointreau too but fresh bitters from the oils on the zest is going to be amazing there you have it perfect cranberry sauce it's Jammy not too sweet not too tart beautiful texture beautiful color this is all you need at your Thanksgiving dinner I feel like we eat cranberry sauce once a year but if it's made right it should be enjoyed throughout the year whether it's in a milkshake or on your ice cream or in a turkey sandwich made this for me um look at that that's a turkey sandwich with cranberry sauce that's perfectall right cranberry sauce come on oh you can't have Thanksgiving without cranberry sauce it's such an important staple as a side ingredient so we're gonna make a perfect cranberry sauce what is a perfect cranberry sauce to me well it shouldn't be too sweet or too acidic it needs to be right down the middle also a perfect cranberry sauce in my opinion should have a beautiful vibrant color where it's not overcooked where the flavor is going to dull it's going to look a little bit Brown and muted we're actually going to use orange fresh orange that's going to support the flavors of the cranberry so we're going to use the oils on the outside and the zest and then the beautiful flesh and flavor on the inside so don't add water to your cranberry sauces here we're going to add orange to it great technique doesn't mean more time this is as simple as a normal cranberry sauce but the flavor is going to be way better so we're going to start with the zest of it cranberries are full of pectin but there's actually even more pectin in Orange Peel so is going to help fortify it a little bit this is super exciting so you could actually just straight up peel the outside of the orange and put it in there but I like using the microplane because it reduces the amount of pith that you're going to actually add which is going to add even more bitterness but I feel like there's already enough Bitters and tannins already in the Cranberry so we want to reduce that so we're going to be using two oranges this is going to yield about a pint of cranberry sauce you can scale it up if you want using the tools and Chef steps smells so good love it so that's enough does it need to be perfect you can do all this by hand on a table with a knife chopping it up it will be a little bit messy but the benefit of using a food processor it's cleaner and you're going to be able to save all the juices because we don't want to be adding water to our cranberry sauce that's just diluting the flavor we want to be adding flavorful ingredients such as an orange or a grapefruit so now we're going to remove the pith so ends so when I'm removing the pith I always like to do the first cut or this is the point of reference so what I'm actually looking at is this line here so I'm going to be chasing that down this is going to help with a better yield I like doing it this way because it's a fun technique I don't know whenever I'm cooking it's an opportunity to just refine a skill have fun with it whack these up a little bit so they fit in the food processor easy boom all right nothing precious about this we're just beating it up we're at save all the juices we're not using water we're using orange juice it's kind of got like a thin marmalade like texture we got our lovely Orange it's our base liquid that's going to be supporting the flavor of the cranberry so we're going to add our cinnamon pinch of salt got our sugar mix that up start hydrating the sugar so I like to mix these ingredients first before adding The Cranberries because I like to be in control of the texture of the cranberry a lot of times either you'll find like whole berries in your cranberry sauce or it's just completely mashed to nothing I like to find a sweet middle ground in between this is our base but if you want to take it to the next step I like to add a liqueur to it Cointreau is my favorite because it's going to fortify the orange flavor you can use an Amaretto for a nice kind of peach pit vanilla flavor so totally up to you just a little bit splash all right we got our cranberries you can use fresh frozen you're going to get the same result so once the Cranberries are added that's where I begin to get really gentle with the mixing I don't want to beat them up too much I want to keep the whole texture at the beginning because I can always beat it up a little bit later on to alter the texture look at that beautiful and come in so we're going to start on medium high heat and it's going to be covered at the beginning once we reach a simmer so it's going to go for about five minutes that's going to cook the berries then we're going to remove the lid and that's going to allow a lot of evaporation to happen so at this point the Cranberries are fully cooked pectin's activated now we're just going to be reducing it down so that we have the right texture at room temperature or cold depending on how you want to serve it it's kind of cool with cranberries because they're so high impact in about one percent pectin I believe once they're cooked that pectin is going to be activated and as it cools and evaporates it's going to get even thicker and more concentrated I like to be very gentle at this point because those cranberries are delicate so all I'm looking for is making sure that I'm not scorching on the bottoms I'm looking good you gotta watch the steam Steam and smoke are two very different things and they act differently so if you ever notice like a puff happening while there's steam evaporating that means you have a scorching spot so you need to quickly dump it out real quick don't scrape the bottom because then it's just going to spread the bitterness or if you drag the spatula it doesn't quickly fill in with all the moisture that means we're getting close it's very jam-like marmalade-esque it's dealer's choice at this point you can keep cooking up farther and it'll be even thicker at the table when you serve it because it's going to be thinner while it's hot I like a thicker cranberry sauce because you have your plate all your different little stuff you got your rolls you got your stuffing your turkey got your green bean casserole I wanted to be able to sit in one spot and not pool everywhere so I'm going to call it and shut the heat off all right it's cooked we got cranberry sauce it's nice Jammy it's not too sweet not too tart beautiful color too so the thing at this point is you can serve it right away if you want I always like to think about what is the temperature and texture you want with your meal I'm going to show mine like the texture of that but you can also make this a week in advance so just pop in the microwave reheat it your coffee how you chill it is kind of up to you I always prefer chilling over ice you can just leave it room temperature for about 15 minutes and then I like to spread it into a flat container in the fridge that creates more surface area and it's going to cool a lot faster at this point you might be tempted to mix it to help speed up the chilling but I say don't do that because I don't want to disturb or break up these beautiful berries that we have the cranberry sauce is at the texture I like it's chilled it's going to be nice and refreshing supporting all these Savory warm ingredients at your Thanksgiving dinner pectin set up nice and jammy look at that it's got some body to it just putting a little love into it this year cranberry is not going to be an afterthought at your Thanksgiving dinner to bring this to the next level I like to add some ingredients to the top of it I like to add pistachios for flavor texture color and then a little bit of fresh orange zest because the Orange is in there already we know that we got the Cointreau too but fresh bitters from the oils on the zest is going to be amazing there you have it perfect cranberry sauce it's Jammy not too sweet not too tart beautiful texture beautiful color this is all you need at your Thanksgiving dinner I feel like we eat cranberry sauce once a year but if it's made right it should be enjoyed throughout the year whether it's in a milkshake or on your ice cream or in a turkey sandwich made this for me um look at that that's a turkey sandwich with cranberry sauce that's perfect\n"