On Thanksgiving Day, football fans root for opposing teams on TV, and political arguments break out at the table, but the most intense rivalry happens in the kitchen: homemade vs. canned cranberry sauce. There's even more controversy within the can-fan community: whole-berry vs. jellied. With this in mind, here are answers to all your canned cranberry sauce questions.
How It Started
The reason cranberry sauce goes so well with Thanksgiving dinner has everything to do with tannins. Located in the cranberry's skin, tannins bind with protein and fats—such as turkey, gravy, and buttery mashed potatoes—much the way a tannin-forward red wine, like Chianti, pairs with a fatty steak. But where did this tradition begin?
The first commercial cranberry sauce was canned in 1912 by Marcus L. Urann, a Massachusetts lawyer who left his career to run a cranberry bog. Around the same time, Elizabeth Lee, a New Jersey cranberry grower, was also boiling her berries to make a jelly-like sauce.
By 1930, Urann and Lee combined efforts, along with banker John C. Makepeace, also of Massachusetts, to form a cranberry growers cooperative named Ocean Spray. The fledgling cooperative added more growers, marketed "cranberry juice co*cktail," and, by the early 1940s, perfected the recipe for jellied cranberry sauce in a can, today's holiday staple.
Ingredients
Cranberries' tartness comes from their high concentration of acid. In fact, cranberry juice has the same pH as lemon juice so, for cranberry sauce to be palatable, it needs a fair amount of sugar (or other sweetener).
The list of ingredients on a can of cranberry sauce typically includes:
- Cranberries
- Corn syrup (sometimes high fructose)
- Water
- Citric acid (a preservative)
"Wait, canned cranberry sauce has no pectin or gelatin?" you may be wondering. "Then how do you explain its gelatinous consistency?" Interestingly, cranberries' naturally high pectin content is responsible for the canned sauce's Jell-O-like texture, making the addition of pectin or gelatin unnecessary.
Health Benefits
Cranberries may be small, but they loom large among antioxidant-rich foods, outranking nearly every fruit and vegetable, second only to blueberries. Cranberries are also rich in vitamin C and fiber, as well as the metabolism-boosting mineral manganese. And yes, you reap all these benefits whether the cranberry sauce on your holiday table is homemade or canned, jellied or whole-berry.
How to Get Jellied Cranberry Sauce Out of a Can
Serving the whole-berry sauce from a can is as easy and unceremonious as plopping contents into a serving bowl. For many proponents of jellied cran-in-a-can, the best part is jiggling out a perfect cylinder of red gelatin ribbed with imprinted can lines. Part of getting this magic trick right is designed right into the can, which is labeled upside-down.
Yes! Check the label of your jellied cranberry sauce can, and you'll notice its rounded end is at the top, and the straight-edged end of the can (the end you use a can opener on) is at the bottom, the opposite configuration of most cans. This way, the air pocket inside the can is at the rounded end, which makes it easier to get the sauce out.
Follow these steps for a perfect can-shaped jellied cranberry presentation:
- Open with a can opener, usually at the bottom of the can (according to the label).
- Hover the can at an angle over a serving plate, open-end down.
- Slide a butter knife around the inside of the can to ensure the sauce separates cleanly from the can walls.
- Gently shake once or twice until the jelly easily slides out onto the plate.
Serving Options
For most Team Canned Jellied Cranberry Sauce members, the point is to keep the shape intact and simply slice it into circles. This hits their nostalgia buttons and keeps the sauce contained, preventing it from running into the mashed potatoes and gravy.
You can also try some of these serving ideas:
- For a bit of fun that'll still please the purists, use cookie cutters to cut those round slices into festive fall shapes.
- To put a custom spin on your presentation, elevate jellied cranberry sauce slices with sugared herbs and candied spices, yet retain those expected circles.
- If it's the taste your guests are after and not so much the circle shapes, try blending a can of jellied cranberry sauce with a can of whole-berry style sauce, and then add a little orange juice or zest with perhaps some rosemary as a finishing touch.
- For the perfect marriage of the convenience of a can with the look and taste of homemade, try citrus spice cranberry sauce. It jazzes up a couple of cans of whole-berry sauce with orange segments and zest, along with a spicy kick from cinnamon, star anise, and cloves.
Shelf Life
If you bought too many cans of cranberry sauce this year, don't fret. Unopened cans of cranberry sauce—as well as jams and jellies—last for one year in your cupboard and still taste great. That's one thing to cross off next year's holiday shopping list! After a year, can contents are still safe, but their taste and texture may start to deteriorate.
Once a can has been opened, leave contents out no longer than 2 hours, and then refrigerate them in an airtight container (not the can) for up to a week. Freezer storage is not an option for leftover canned cranberry sauce because, unlike homemade cranberry sauce, freezing makes it watery.
How to Use Leftover Cranberry Sauce
When it comes to leftovers, cranberry sauce was meant to be mixed with a little mayo and spread on good toasted bread for a day-after-Thanksgiving turkey sandwich, but that's just a start.
Here are just some of the ways cranberry sauce—jellied or whole-berry—can add a healthful zing to your favorite foods any time of year:
- Topping for ice cream
- Add-in for yogurt
- Filling for a homemade toaster pastry
- Spread atop toast or a bagel (with or without cream cheese)
- Replacement for jelly in a peanut butter sandwich
- Mix-in for oatmeal
- Featured fruit in a baked crisp or crumble
