Instant Pot Cranberry Sauce Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What takes the bitterness out of cranberry sauce? ›

If you don't have maple syrup (pancake syrup WILL NOT do, y'all), try honey or a more neutral sweetener like agave syrup, brown rice syrup, or even simple syrup. All of these syrupy ingredients are a perfect quick fix for bitter cranberry sauce.

Try reducing the sauce down even further so more of the liquid cooks off and the mixture thickens. If that doesn't work, add a thickener like gelatin, pectin or a cornstarch slurry (cornstarch whisked into juice or water). Let the sauce cool before refrigerating to completely set.

Adding a teaspoon or two of fresh lemon or orange zest, a tablespoon of chopped candied peel, or even a splash of juice to your canned sauce will brighten flavors and bring in some homemade flavor.

Sugar helps the thickening process, and while it's nice to try to keep your cranberry sauce from being too sugary sweet, you will need at least some sugar to make it work well (about 1/2 cup sugar per 12-ounce bag of cranberries).

Sprinkle with a pinch of salt (in small amounts, it intensifies sweetness)." If you don't have maple syrup or think its distinct taste may overpower your cranberry sauce, you can also try swapping that out for more neutral agave syrup or brown rice syrup.

Sweetness: From sugar, honey, fruits or otherwise, sweetness will counteract bitter and sour flavours. It can also be used to cut down the heat of a particularly spicy meal. Saltiness: Salt plays two very important roles in flavouring a dish. Firstly, it balances against bitterness.

If you have followed these instructions, and for some reason the sauce still won't gel, add 1 envelope of unflavoured gelatin to the sauce and bring to a hard boil, stirring frequently.

The cranberries feel New York to me and the apple cider is definitely a local signature ingredient. Technique tip: You can overcook cranberry sauce and make it overly smooth.

While there are some editors who prefer homemade cranberry sauce, the canned variety also has quite a following. "There's something so beautifully perfect about the texture of canned cranberry sauce, and none of those homemade mess will ever compete," says Senior Digital Food Editor Kimberly Holland.

Instead, the pectin polymers will bind to each other, giving the cranberry mixture more and more structure. The sweet sugar-water molecules get trapped in between the pectin chains, resulting in a tasty cranberry sauce!

Why is my cranberry sauce upside down? ›

But why? Ocean Spray says this is to get the cranberry sauce out in one intact piece. “The rounded part of the can that looks like the bottom has an air bubble in it,” Ocean Spray's representative explains. The bubble is there so you can “break the seal the sauce makes with the can.”

The great amount of antioxidants found in cranberries, such as proanthocyanidins, could help lower your chance of getting cancer. However, more research is needed to confirm this. Cranberries have two big benefits for heart health: lowering blood pressure and improving cholesterol.

Cranberry sauce can be served either as a gooey liquid or as a solid jelly. The jellied version is solid enough to retain the shape of the container in which it's placed whereas the sauce version is much more fluid. The difference between the fluid sauce and the jelly versions comes down to pectin.

This cranberry sauce recipe thickens as it cools. So Let it cool to room temperature in a pan, then transfer it to an airtight storage container to chill completely in the refrigerator.

When to Toss Cranberry Sauce. Cranberry sauce will last for two hours at room temperature. Homemade cranberry sauce will last in the fridge for 10 to 14 days. Canned cranberry sauce that has been opened will last up to a week in the fridge.

Try a pinch of baking soda.

Baking soda is very alkaline, which is a good way to correct overly bitter dishes. Sprinkle just a pinch into your food and mix it in well to see if that helps.

The Fix: Balance bitter flavors by introducing something salty, sweet, or sour. For naturally bitter foods such as kale, you can soften the flavor by add a lemony vinaigrette, Parmesan cheese, and pomegranate seeds. You can also elevate kale by tossing it olive oil and salt, then roasting it in the oven until crispy.

Salt suppresses the bitter flavors and can help release some more of the natural sweetness that comes with cranberry. Although, make sure you only add a tiny bit, a light sprinkle, because too much salt will overpower the juice and ruin it completely. Just do a small pinch at a time until you find the right amount.

This bitterness is due to the high tannin content of cranberries.