The Best Store-Bought Cranberry Sauce

Tasting expert Jack Bishop challenges Bridget and Julia to a tasting of cranberry sauce.

Read our full Cranberry Sauce review: https://cooks.io/3fEOsCR
Buy our winning jellied sauce: https://cooks.io/3M9UE23
Buy our winning whole-berry sauce: https://cooks.io/3fM67bR
Get our Simple Cranberry Sauce recipe: https://cooks.io/3RT2UVr
Get our Jellied Cranberry Sauce recipe: https://cooks.io/3fHEkJy
Browse our latest recipes: https://cooks.io/3f0Hdoo

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– Julia do you make homemade cranberry sauce? – Oh yeah, and I like it very tart and I like whole berries. – Yeah, I like the relish where you just grind everything together, the oranges and the cranberries. – [Julia] Mm mm hmm – So homemade, we both like.

But Jack is here and he’s going to ask us to reconsider the pre-made stuff. – I might be a tough sell on this one. – [First Person] Good Luck – I want you to have an open mind here – Okay – So, we have four samples as you can tell two of them

Are what I’m going to call whole berry. Basically they’re pieces of cranberry in number one and number two. Number three and four are the jellied. The jellied are sieved. So there’s absolutely no skins, there’s no texture to it they’re put inside the can with water and sugar,

And then cooked, and basically the natural pectin in the cranberries sat inside the can, and that’s how you get the ridges. So the whole berries are cooked with sugar and with some water- they can be sieved and then they add back cranberry solids, most brands just leave

The cranberries that they cook in there. I want you to pay attention to what else is there besides cranberry, water, and sugar. Now those are the three essentials. When I’m making my cranberry sauce at home I like to make Grand Marnier – [Julia] Ooh, that sounds swanky.

– We would know this if we had been invited. – So, there is no Grand Marnier here and I would say the additions here were minuses rather than pluses. So I’m throwing you a big hint- anything that you’re noticing in these samples? – Cinnamon. That’s what I taste in this one.

– [Jack] Okay, is that a good thing or a bad thing? – Well, I love cinnamon but it tastes a little bit like pie filling. – And you? – Well the texture of one and two is striking. Number one feels more like whole berries in jelly.

Where number two there’s really more of a sauce. And I thought based on that I was going to like the saucy one more, but this one is so sweet- the sweetness is too much for me. The tartness of number one is where it’s at for me.

– Okay, and what do you guys think about these jellies? – They taste the same to me. – You sure about that? – Pretty sure. – Julia, never is confident- have you noticed that? – (sarcastically) I know. – She has no opinions whatsoever. – I know, I got to say I’m not hating them. There’s something about that retro kind of feel to it

Spread it on a sandwich the day after Thanksgiving. – Yeah, that’s what they’re good for. I think four is very sweet, personally. – It’s very sweet but this one tastes less sweet but it also taste a little watery to me. I don’t know. – All right, so we’re going to pick.

– [First Person] One. – One, and if you had to pick a jelly, favorite? – I think I’d go with four. – And you? – Number one for sure. – Okay. – For jelly it doesn’t matter, I’ll take both or neither Well, I agree with you four has more flavor but it’s sweeter three is more tart which I like, but it also is very flat so – Yeah – All right, let’s do a little bit of reveal. So number one, you guys both picked our winner. New England Cranberry. Simple, water, sugar, cranberries.

– That’s what it tastes like, yeah. – It’s sweet but not too sweet it’s got a nice texture. So, number two- the Harry and David. – [Ladies] Ooh – And this was pretty controversial. Cinnamon – Yeah – Yes, also has port – (smacks lips) Oh

– Walnuts, and it sounds nice but honestly it distracts from the cranberries. And so it was in the middle to the bottom of the pack. Number three, was Woodstock. So, this was bland you felt it was watery it just basically didn’t have as much flavor, it was at the bottom of the

Rankings when it came to the jellied sauces. And then our favorite jellied sauce- this is sample number four. This is the Ocean Spray – Quite the nostalgia in that can there. – Yeah- – You know it’s upside down right? The can is upside down. – Do you know why that is?

– I don’t know, you guys are teaching me here, uh oh. – Yeah, you see this is really what you think of as the top of the can but it’s on the bottom of the label. That’s so there’s an air pocket at the top – That’s right

– So you can jiggle it out in one piece! – Oh and that’s where you get the sound? – Yes! Exactly – So there you have it, if you’re buying prepared cranberry sauce look for New England Cranberry Colonial Cranberry Sauce. – Or if cranberry jelly is more your jam then go with Ocean Spray Jellied Cranberry Sauce. – Thanks for watching America’s Test Kitchen, what’d ya think?

– Well leave a comment and let us know which recipes your excited to make or you can just say hello. – You can find links to today’s recipes and reviews in the video description. – And don’t forget to subscribe to our channel. – See you later. – I’ll see you later.