Simmer 12 ounces of cranberries with ¼ cup sugar and ¾ cup water until most berries burst, about 10 minutes, then stir in ½ cup mandarin marmalade off the heat. Its peel stands in for grated zest, and the granulated sugar drops from ¾ cup to ¼, since the marmalade brings its own.
What does the marmalade replace?
| Usual ingredient | Swap in | What changes | How to adjust |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 tbsp grated orange zest | ½ cup (120 ml) Mandarin Marmalade | Soft shreds of cooked peel instead of fine zest, so the sauce has more chew | Snip any long shreds with scissors before stirring them in |
| ¾ cup sugar | ¼ cup sugar plus the marmalade | Part of the sweetness now comes from the jar, along with its peel | Taste while warm and add sugar 1 tbsp at a time |
| 1 cup fresh orange juice | ¾ cup water | The orange flavor comes from the jar, not the juice | Use orange juice instead of water for a stronger orange note |
| Cook everything together | Marmalade stirred in off the heat | The marmalade's pectin joins the berries' own, so expect a firmer set once cold | Stop simmering as soon as most berries have burst |
Cranberries release their own pectin as they pop, which is what thickens a homemade sauce; dried cranberries have lost it and don't gel as firmly. Our Mandarin Marmalade adds more: its label lists cane sugar, mandarins, water, lemon juice concentrate, fruit pectin and citric acid. Stirring it in off the heat keeps the peel's aroma and stops the extra pectin and sugar from over-thickening or catching on the pan.
Mandarin suits this sauce better than a bitter jar, because cranberries bring plenty of sharpness on their own. The mandarin jar is made primarily from Satsuma-type mandarins grown across six small groves in the Redlands area, and it's the most aromatic marmalade we make: honey and soft citrus sweetness, with only a gentle bitterness from the peel. Our Navel Orange Marmalade gives a more familiar orange flavor if that's what your table expects.
Marmalade in cranberry sauce isn't new. Taste of Home's test kitchen publishes a no-cook version that stirs a 12-ounce jar of orange marmalade into two cans of whole-berry sauce with a little orange juice and ground spices. This card starts from fresh berries instead.
Orange cranberry sauce recipe
The method follows Southern Living's cranberry orange sauce: berries brought to a boil in sweetened liquid, then simmered with cinnamon and ginger until most have burst. The marmalade swap is ours.
Time: 20 minutes (5 to prepare, 15 on the stove), plus cooling · Yield: close to 2 cups
Ingredients
- 1 bag (12 oz / 340 g) fresh or frozen cranberries, rinsed
- ¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar
- ¾ cup (180 ml) water or fresh orange juice
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 tsp grated fresh ginger (optional)
- ½ cup (120 ml) Mandarin Marmalade
Steps
- Put the cranberries in a medium saucepan with the sugar and water, over medium heat.
- Bring to a boil, stirring once or twice so the sugar dissolves.
- Add the cinnamon stick and ginger.
- Lower the heat. Simmer about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally so nothing sticks, until most berries have split, around two in three.
- Remove the saucepan from the burner.
- Stir in the marmalade until it melts into the sauce.
- Taste, and add more sugar a tablespoon at a time while the sauce is still warm if it's too sharp.
- Let the sauce cool to room temperature, then remove the cinnamon stick.
- Chill before serving.
Notes
- Make ahead: serve it chilled so it has time to set; the original recipe keeps it in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. Food Network Kitchen freezes homemade cranberry sauce for up to 3 months.
- Frozen berries go in straight from the bag, with no thawing. Fresh bags disappear from stores after the holidays, so freeze a few in November if you want this sauce in spring.
- Spices: the Taste of Home marmalade version adds ground cloves along with its other spices. A pinch of cloves in place of the ginger moves this sauce in that direction.
How do you make it without marmalade?
Skip the marmalade, raise the sugar to ¾ cup, use 1 cup fresh orange juice in place of the water, and add 1 tablespoon grated zest with the ginger. Zest only the orange skin, not the white pith underneath, which is bitter. The full original, with two cinnamon sticks, is on Southern Living.
In a hurry on the day, the Taste of Home shortcut needs no stove at all, and one 11-ounce jar of our marmalade is close to the 12 ounces it calls for. Other ways to put a jar to work around the holiday meal, from a glazed ham to the day-after turkey sandwich, are in our marmalade ideas for the holiday table.
Photo by Elena Leya on Unsplash.
