Cranberry sauce

Cranberry sauce is a sauce or relish made out of cranberries, commonly associated with Thanksgiving dinner in North America. There are differences in flavor depending on the geography of where the sauce is made: in Europe it is generally slightly sour-tasting, while in North America it is sweetened.

The most basic cranberry sauce consists of cranberries boiled in sugar water until the berries pop and the mixture thickens. Some recipes include other ingredients such as slivered almonds, orange juice, zest, ginger, maple syrup, or cinnamon.

Commercial cranberry sauce may be loose and uncondensed, or condensed or jellied and thus shaped like its can. The jellied form is slipped out of the can onto a dish, and is served sliced or intact for slicing at the table.

Some commercial brands of cranberry sauce may not be appropriate for vegetarians as they may contain gelatin.

Cranberry sauce is often eaten in conjunction with turkey for Christmas or Thanksgiving in the United States and Canada, and it is only rarely eaten or served in other contexts. Despite being called a sauce, cranberry sauce is most often consumed as a food itself, not as a garnish for other food items.