Secret for Homemade Cranberry Sauce Straight From City Kitchen

Great news! You may have bought your last can of jellied cranberry sauce.

After chatting with Ericka Floyd, line cook at the prestigious in the Village, we believe that making your own cranberry sauce is well worth the few minutes it takes to mix the limited ingredients and create your own cranberry masterpiece.

All you need is a bag of fresh cranberries, and a water and sugar mixture. Of course, you can add other ingredients such as orange or lemon zest, or walnuts, but the base remains the same.

“Start with equal parts of sugar and water,” said Floyd. “Then add two times that in cranberries.”

That means if you have one cup of water and one cup of sugar, add four cups of cranberries. Put them in a saucepan and cook over medium/high heat. Make sure it’s not too high to prevent the sugar from burning, but turn it high enough for the water and sugar to create a jelly-type consistency.

Cook until the cranberries soften and break up, then set aside too cool. The sauce will thicken up as it cools.

“You can season with lemon juice, lemon zest, orange zest, whatever you want,” Floyd added. “Adjust the taste after you cook it down a bit – if you need more sugar or more cranberries do that.”

But don’t add more water unless you have enough cranberries to counter it if the mixture gets too runny.

Now here’s the cool part. If you’d like, strain the relish and reserve the liquid. Place the liquid in a small bowl and let it cool. It should form into a semi-solid cranberry jelly. This will make those family members happy who don’t like the whole cranberry in their sauce.

If you want a bit of citrus flavor, Floyd recommends adding the lemon or orange zest while you are cooking the cranberry sauce. This will bring out more of its flavor.

So there’s the good news: Cranberries, sugar and water. Could it be any simpler? Now have at it!