Few things beat a leftover turkey and homemade cranberry sauce sandwich in the days after Thanksgiving or Christmas. If you made a big batch of sauce for the holidays, you might be wondering, “Can I freeze it?”
Can You Freeze Cranberry Sauce?
Yes, you can freeze cranberry sauce for up to 3 months. The biggest threat to the cranberry sauce is freezer burn. So, when youāre wrapping it and preparing it for the freezer, make sure itās well-protected and fully covered.
Do Does Cranberry Sauce freeze well? Yes
Can you refreeze Cranberry Sauce? Yes
Looking for a full list of Thanksgiving foods you can freeze? Here it is!
How to Freeze Cranberry Sauce
Youāll be pleased to hear that there isnāt anything remotely complicated about freezing cranberry sauce. Whether your sauce is homemade or shop-bought, you can freeze it in precisely the same way.
Here are the steps you need to follow to safely preserve your cranberry sauce in the freezer.
- Separate Sauce Into Portions: The best way to make your cranberry sauce last for a more extended period of time is to separate it into individual portions or serving sizes before you freeze it.
- Place in a Freezer-Safe Bag: When youāre happy with your portion sizes, go ahead and place your cranberry sauce in individual freezer-safe bags. If you prefer, you can use containers, but if youāre splitting your sauce into portions, you might be tight for space in the freezer.
- Label and Freeze: Note down the date that you prepared the sauce, as well as the recommended use-by date on the front of the bags before you freeze them. Remember, you can freeze cranberry sauce for around three months.
3 Tips for Freezing Cranberry Sauce
Now you know how to freeze it, we’ve got our 3 top tips which we strongly recommend following when freezing cranberry sauce to have the best results:
Remove Air
When adding your cranberry sauce to the freezer-safe bags, make sure you press out as much air as possible before placing them in the freezer. This will protect your sauce from freezer burn. You can also add the bags to a Tupperware box and freeze them together if you wish.
Keep it in the Fridge
If you think you might use your cranberry sauce within two weeks, you donāt actually need to freeze it. Providing itās well covered, it will keep in the refrigerator for two weeks without spoiling. If youāve made your cranberry sauce from scratch, keep a couple of empty jam jars spare and use them to store it.
Expect Textural Changes
Some canned cranberry sauces that are shop-bought donāt freeze overly well. This is because the jellied texture changes and becomes watery. While it wonāt harm you, you might not enjoy the taste and texture of shop-bought cranberry sauce once it has been defrosted.
How Long Can You Freeze Cranberry Sauce?
You can freeze cranberry sauce for around three months.
As mentioned, you can also keep it in the refrigerator for up to two weeks after youāve prepared it. This makes it ideal and easily accessible for those delicious leftover turkey sandwiches we mentioned in the introduction!
When kept in a covered dish or jar with a tight-fitting lid, cranberry sauce will last for between 10 and 14 days in the fridge.
How Do You Defrost Cranberry Sauce?
To defrost cranberry sauce, you will need to remove it from the freezer the night before you plan to use it. Simply transfer it to the fridge, and it will have thawed overnight.
If you split the cranberry sauce into small portions before freezing it, it shouldnāt take very long to thaw.
However, if youāre in a hurry to thaw your cranberry sauce, you can always use some room-temperature water to speed things up. Add some water to a bowl and float the bag of sauce in the water.
This should help it thaw much more quickly than leaving it in the fridge overnight.
Can You Refreeze Cranberry Sauce?
Providing you have defrosted your cranberry sauce in the fridge, itās perfectly safe to refreeze it if you have leftovers after using it for a second time.
Generally speaking, the more you freeze and refreeze an item, the more likely it is that its texture will deteriorate. This is why we encourage you to freeze it in smaller portion sizes, so you donāt take out more sauce than you need at any one time.
Does Cranberry Sauce Freeze Well?
Homemade cranberry sauce freezes exceptionally well, and you probably wonāt notice the difference between freshly prepared sauce and the sauce youāve just defrosted.
While you should follow the same process for freezing shop-bought cranberry sauce, due to the texture of the jelly, it doesnāt freeze as well as its homemade counterpart.
Therefore, if youāve got some shop-bought cranberry sauce thatās about to go out of date, itās better to find a way to use it up rather than freezing it.
Related FAQs
If you’ve still got questions about freezing cranberry sauce or cranberries in general, then these may help:
Although it is fine to freeze canned cranberry sauce, you should do so out of the can. You should also expect some textural changes when you freeze canned cranberry sauce.
Yes, homemade cranberry sauce can be frozen in airtight containers or freezer bags for around 3 months.
Yes, you can freeze jellied sauce, but you will find it splits and becomes unpleasant to eat. Instead, it is better to freeze a looser, more liquid-based sauce.
