An Ode to Ocean Spray Cranberry Sauce
Whether you prefer canned or homemade cranberry sauce, Ocean Spray has been making our Thanksgiving tables sweet and wobbly since 1930.
By Aimee Tucker|Nov 18 2021|
Coffee By Design | Portland, Maine
Photo Credit : Katherine KeenanThanksgiving just wouldn’t be complete without a helping of colorful, tart-sweet cranberry sauce alongside the turkey and mashed potatoes, and here in New England, Ocean Spray jellied canned cranberry sauce has been a source of hometown pride since 1930. Based in Lakeville-Middleboro, MA, Ocean Spray operates as an agricultural coop that works with more than 700 cranberry growers in Massachusetts, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia and other parts of Canada to produce (among many other things) one can of cranberry sauce per family per year on average. That’s over 70 million cans!
Photo Credit : Aimee Tucker
Friend to all things cranberry, Ocean Spray sells fresh berries each fall in addition to the canned sauce (both whole berry and jellied), not to mention dried cranberries (Craisins®) and a full beverage line year-round. While some families prefer the fresh berries for making homemade cranberry sauce or relish from a family recipe, many others — Ocean Spray says a whopping 74% — are staunchly loyal to the can.
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Photo Credit : Ocean Spray
Why? Some simply prefer the firm texture (better for sandwiches!) and familiar flavor (my sister tried serving a homemade cranberry pineapple relish one year alongside the canned jelly slices and it went over with our family about as well as margarine and skim milk in the mashed potatoes), but others consider canned cranberry sauce a once-a-year comfort food and reminder of childhood, like candy corn or marshmallow chicks. For can-lovers, those telltale ridges bordering each slice are a thing of Thanksgiving beauty.
Photo Credit : Aimee Tucker
According to Ocean Spray, Americans consume 5,062,500 gallons of jellied cranberry sauce every holiday season (enough to fill about 50 Macy’s Day Parade balloons!), which really got us wondering — how do Yankee readers stack up? Will your Thanksgiving table include canned or homemade cranberry sauce? Both? And will the leftovers make it into a “Day After Thanksgiving” sandwich? Let us know below.
Here’s some of what we’ve heard from the Yankee Facebook audience:
- “It’s not Thanksgiving dinner at our house without a beautiful antique relish dish full of sliced, jellied cranberry sauce ..with the can ridges!” – Catt K.
- “Homemade, no offense Ocean Spray, we grew up eating your canned cranberry sauce and I still like it, but I prefer a homemade sauce with pieces of real cranberry in it.” – Patrick C.
- “Homemade. But I yield to those who have fond memories of the sliced cranberry sauce in a fancy dish. Ours was pressed glass seemingly designed only for cranberry sauce from a can. YUM. (I will give Ocean Spray their due; if it is going to be canned, it better be Ocean Spray!!)” – Barb L.
- “Both! Because it’s Thanksgiving and on one day a year… I’m all for people enjoying what they prefer. And who am I to judge?” – Linda K.
This post was first published in 2014 and has been updated.
For those of you that might want to try a homemade version this year along with the canned, here are some of our favorite homemade cranberry sauce recipes:
Homemade Cranberry Sauce Recipes:
Easy, Homemade Cranberry Sauce
Spiced Cranberry Sauce
Cranberry-Apple Chutney
Gingered Cranberry Sauce with Maple Syrup, Pineapple & Pecans
Chai-Spiced Orange-Cranberry Sauce
Our family prefers making the sauce from the berries just as instructed on the bag. I bought several bags to make it through several dinners long after the holidays. That said, I will move on next to the canned whole cranberry sauce as the next resort. It wouldn’t be the holidays with out the cranberries. I am just greedy and want it anytime of the year.
Easter and thanksgiving, a can of whole berry cranberry sauce to make my grammie’s cranberry salad! (Cranberry sauce, cherry jello,crushed pineapple and gingerale)
I prefer homemade especially since it is so easy to make but I’ve used the canned in a pinch and it’s pretty good.
As a child, my Uncle Ned and I took the can cranberry and cookie cutters and made cranberry duckies for Thanksgiving.
We eat the Ocean Spray whole cranberry sauce all year with chicken, ham etc. I make a delicious jello salad with it mixing mandarin oranges, raspberry gelatin, pineapple and nuts. At Thanksgiving and Christmas I always make cranberry relish with the fresh Ocean Spray cranberries. Love Ocean Spray!
This has been a tradition since I was young at my Grandma’s house in the early 1950’s. Disappointed to find that high fructose corn syrup is now an ingredient, so will be making my own.
I feel the same! We avoid HFCS at all costs! I make my own whole berry sauce, since it is so easy! But growing up, we had Ocean Spray on our table many times throughout the year!
If you have to have jellied cranberry sauce with the can impressions fine. There’s no excuse for buying whole berry cranberry sauce in a can when you can make it fresh with cranberries. Boil water. Add 1 cup sugar plus a pinch of salt. Heat til sugar dissolves add a package of cranberries and simmer for 10 minutes. That’s it.
Ocean Spray cranberry sauce has been a staple in the Thanksgiving Dinner in my family for well over 70 years !! You are correct in saying that those ridges created by the can are something of beauty ( and showed that you knew how to get the sauce out of the can ) . In the recent years though , my wife and I tend to lean towards the Sauce with whole berries still in it. Although it does make it move around on a leftover sandwich , we still prefer it. I had taken a trip to Cape Cod many years ago and one of the places we visited was the Ocean Spray operations. The fragrance of cranberries was exuberant to say the least. My wife has made homemade cranberry sauce over the years , but we always followed the recipe recommended by the company. It is fun to see the berries POP when cooked. It came close to the canned version , but we have gone back to the canned version. I enjoyed this little story about the sauce and most definitely a table set at Thanksgiving without cranberry sauce , just isn’t complete!!!
I enjoyed seeing “the old can”, which I remember vividly as a child. I grew up in northern NH and my fathers’ family was from Maine, where we always went for Thanksgiving until “grampy” died in 1961. I remember, very fondly, the jellied version, which is what was always served “chez grampy”! I also remember one year in the late 1950’s when the Ocean Spray cranberries were contaminated and couldn’t be sold, which left a holiday dent in that Thanksgiving meal, in my mind! My mother goofed, she always served it, also, with her gorgeous roast stuffed, with Ritz cracker stuffing with Bell’s seasoning, which she made “for special occasions”, birthdays, etc., and once bought the whole berry by accident, which I really liked better, but she went back to jellied. I love to cook and have made my own many times and I even have some in my fridge right now, which keeps for a very long time with all that sugar in it. I like it in chicken sandwiches. I am able to find very fancy cranberries in the Boston, MA area and my husband really liked cranberry bread, for which I had a wonderful recipe he really enjoyed. I also have a very close friend who has worked in the marketing department there, it has been her only job. It was headquartered on the Plymouth, MA waterfront when she began working there many years ago. My husband and I took their tour when it was in Plymouth and we really enjoyed going there, also.
Since I was a little girl I have always loved Ocean Spray jellied cranberry sauce. Believe it or not……my late father and my sister to this day doesn’t like it at all. Must be something wrong with them!
I love both the jelly and the whole berry versions of canned sauce. When I was young, in the Thirties, one of my jobs at Christmas was stringing fresh cranberries to make garlands for the tree. I wonder if anybody still does this.
My husband makes his own cranberry sauce for Thankgsgiving. My Mom used 2 cans of Ocean Spray and 2 jar of chili sauce to make cocktail meatballs for appetizers . Roll mouth size meatballs and put directly into the combined chili and cran sauces on the stove. They will cook in the sauce . Easy for any holiday. Thanks Mom for great memories !
I love to make the real sauce as it makes the kitchen smell like the holidays. But to tell the truth I love the Ocean Spray canned whole cranberries which I put on really any sandwich.
My husband worked for Ocean Spray in the early 80’s. He reminds me that the retail price was 4 for $1.00.Today price is 1.25 to 1.50 per can on sale. The product today is the same good quality today as back then Try the cranrasberry sauce for a nice change. All three jellied, whole and raspberry are very good quality.Private label may be cheaper but the quality is not as good as OS.You get what you pay for
I grew up with the canned sauce – jellied and I do love it, but now I make my own fresh relish with whole berries, pineapple, an apple, an orange and jello – cranberry jello if I can find it! My daughter loves the jellied kind from a can and I usually try and mail her one for the holidays. I buy the whole berries and use them in all sorts of things. I also make my own cranberry jelly – which is really good!!
I grew up with the OS jellied sauce and will allow no other on my table. I also by the fresh ones (many bags) so I can make the cranberry nut bars recipe on the bag for a friend who just loves them. I use fresh cranberries in breads, muffins etc. and my husband uses them to make cranberry wine. We have also stopped using raisins in recipes and use Craisins instead. My Mother made day after sandwiches with turkey, stuffing and jelly cranberry sauce, I hated them! Soon after we were married (62 years ago) we went to his grandmothers house for thanksgiving and I enjoyed the first of the only kind of turkey sandwich We have had since. White bread, mayo, and turkey. The cranberry sauce goes on the plate BESIDE the sandwich, not in it.
Cranberries grow wild here in Maine and my friends and I pick many quarts of them. I give most of mine away to those who can no longer get out to pick their own. Mine go in the freezer, to be used for fresh cranberry sauce during the holidays. We even added some to the apple cider we were making. That was a tasty combination.
I live most of my life in Connecticut but now live in Indiana. It is hard, almost impossible, to find Ocean Spray (fresh) cranberries here. I still look but usually have to buy another brand.
I realized after I sent this what the gorgeous bird was that Mom used for special occasions, which she stuffed with Ritz cracker stuffing with Bell’s Seasoning. They were capons, huge and succulent! One of our friends made a comment about that stuffing, which she also used for turkey, made on Thanksgiving morning, “it made him just shiver” it was so good!!!!!!!
A quick update to my email of last week about Ocean Spray cranberries: I found them in my local Target Store. Yay! For Ocean Spray!
We have jellied canned, my favorite to eat, and homemade, my favorite to make. Happily we have people in the family who like both. Agree with comment about leaving cranberry sauce on the side for cold sandwiches. And stuffing should be eaten hot with the meal or heated up for hot turkey sandwiches (be sure to make extra gravy) but never in a cold sandwich. It just makes sense.
I grew up in Plymouth County, MA and loved checking out the local cranberry bogs over the year as the cranberries ripened.My job at Thanksgiving was to cut out the jellied cranberry sauce into shapes using my mom’s cookie cutters. My family is all gone now (I’m 80 yrs. old), but this article brought back wonderful memories of my early family days. I make my own cranberry sauce now, and relish each taste.
I buy the cranberries in the bag every time I shop during the season. They are put in the freezer and I make cranberry sauce all year. It is good for you and we love it any time. My son likes cranberry sauce with applesauce mixed in. A little cinnamon mixed with it makes the combination yummy.
I serve Ocean Spray jellied cranberry sauce in our traditional Pyrex primary color refrigerator set container, the middle-sized blue one which is the perfect size for one can. It’s been tradition since the 1950’s and we’re not stopping it now!
Miss buying the cran-raspberry sauce in store we love it PLEASE bring it back
I grew up eating OS jellied cranberries, sliced & served in a cut-glass dish. Now I make my own using whole berries, adding OJ & dried ginger.
I’m a Texan, born and raised, and I LOVE this stuff! I used the ridges as a guide for slicing.
I grew up very close to the cranberry bogs in Sharon, Mass. Great memory!
When I was a child mom always served the jellied sauce (Ocean Spray of course). When I grew up I tried the whole berry and from that day on thats all I will ever eat(Ocean Spray of course). I always, at any given time have at least 4 cans in my pantry. Husband isn’t a fan, but I LOVE anything cranberry. BUT I will only use Ocean Spray, by far the best. Don’t wait for special occasions or just holidays, break out that cranberry sauce anytime. Serve it in a crystal dish alongside just about anything and you add elegance and deliciousness to your meal!
My favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner is the leftovers. Sandwiches made with turkey, stuffing, canned jellied cranberry sauce, on bread with mayo and pepper, open faced turkey sandwiches smothered in gravy, with squash, mashed potatoes and spoonful of cranberry sauce on the side. the ultimate comfort food for myself
I love OP cranberry sauces but like my mom I make my own from fresh cranberries. My brother makes a delicious orange cranberry relish for Thanksgiving and we like that too. My husband from Florida laughs that I have several frozen bags always handy in the freezer. I use cranberry sauce year round – as a condiment to meat , mixed into yougurt , cottage cheese, baked into breads and muffins and stirred into hot holiday drinks . I love them Year round .
Hanson,Ma was the home of Ocean Spray. Hand scooped bogs flooded and used for ice skating all winter.
With all the diet juices they make, I’d love if they came out with a sugar free version. Since I’m diabetic I use the fresh berries to make sugar free jellied sauce for those of us that have to watch our sugar but I prefer the canned jellied kind.
Mark R. – New Jersey
Ocean Spray cranberry sauce, both jellied and whole is a year-round dinner treat for us – well, maybe not with pasta or pizza- but, practically everything else! And, on chicken or turkey sandwiches, you are set for a great lunch. I grew up just a mile or two from the Ocean Spray bogs at Double Trouble in the New Jersey pine barrens. How beautiful and serene a place in every season. And, for years I attended the Cranberry Festival deep in the woods at Chatsworth, New Jersey, every mid-October. Wonderful experiences to be remembered a lifetime, all thanks to Ocean Spray and the tasty fruit that says, “Autumn”, the cranberry.
As a kid I would butter two pieces of toast and make a sandwich with Ocean Spray cranberry sauce, Don’t knock if you haven’t tried it
Gotta have it! Period. My mom used to insist on making homemade, which was okay, if it jelled properly. But with her gone, I must have my Ocean Spray, whole berry or otherwise. Even better was the cranberry orange relish Ocean Spray used to make, but I guess they discontinued it. Haven’t seen any for a number of years.
Looking forward to my cranberry fix. My son in law works for Makepeace corporation ( Oceanspray grower) and I see his dedicated efforts to bring a successful harvest , and the pride he takes in growing cranberries. Besides making my own cranberry sauces with a pinch of clove, I make cranberry orange zest breads too, a Christmas morning tradition my adult children request every year.
Happy Holidays. Annie C.
So glad I live in New England. (Taunton MA). Love everything fall! Whole cranberry sauce is my go to. Find any reason to eat it, turkey or not.