Martha Stewart's Make-Ahead Cranberry Sauce Is Ready in Just 30 Minutes

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As much as we love digging into a plate loaded up with juicy turkey, rich gravy, buttery stuffing, and creamy mashed potatoes, there’s one seemingly small dish that the meal just wouldn’t be complete without: cranberry sauce. In a meal begging for some acidity, cranberry sauce does a lot of heavy lifting on the holiday table, waking up the flavors on our plates with its sharp, sweet-tart flavor. So why are so many of us still dumping cranberry sauce onto our plates out of a can, when we spend so much time and effort on the rest of the meal? It’s actually not hard to make cranberry sauce — like, at all. Martha Stewart just shared her go-to, make-ahead cranberry sauce recipe, which was originally printed in Everyday Food magazine. In just 30 minutes, with four ingredients, you’ll have homemade cranberry sauce you can be proud to place on the table next to your turkey.

Martha Stewart’s easy cranberry sauce recipe can be made a week in advance, saving you time on the big cooking days that preceed the holiday. And when we say it’s easy, we really mean it. All you have to do is combine frozen or fresh cranberries with sugar, orange zest, and water in a saucepan (like this one from Stewart’s own brand), seasoning it with salt and pepper to taste. Bring that to a boil, then simmer until thickened, adding in some orange juice when you take the cranberry sauce off the heat.

That’s literally all it takes to make this classic at home. You can push the mix through a food mill if you want it to be smooth rather than a chunky whole berry sauce, or leave it as is. But that’s just the beginning of the options you have for making this cranberry sauce recipe your own.

Many people enjoy a spiced cranberry sauce. Adding a cinnamon stick and a few cloves to the cranberry sauce as it simmers, then removing them once you remove the sauce from the heat, will infuse the cranberry condiment with warming flavors. If you crave food with heat, try adding in some fresh sliced jalapenos, or some toasted dried chiles. A grating of fresh ginger will add a peppery kick, and you can experiment with using maple syrup or brown sugar instead of white sugar, too.

Once you’ve mastered Martha Stewart’s simple 30-minute cranberry sauce recipe, the recipe is yours to run with and have fun with. Your Thanksgiving plate will never taste the same again, and when you’ve been eating metallic-tasting cranberry sauce from a can for decades, that’s a good thing.

Before you go, check out our slideshow below:

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