How to Serve Canned Cranberry Sauce -

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Canned jellied cranberry sauce can make you wonder how to serve it. Luckily, you have a few different serving options and they are all quick and easy to do, so you can enjoy your Thanksgiving, Christmas or other meal.

Canned cranberry sauce standing on it's side.

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Thanksgiving is fast approaching and Thanksgiving dinner wouldn't be complete without mashed potatoes, turkey, and a dish of cranberry sauce on the table.

While making homemade cranberry sauce is always delicious, sometimes serving canned cranberry sauce is the way to go.

Cranberry sauce is delicious on turkey, great in a leftover turkey and cranberry sauce sandwich, or even on top of a baked sweet potato.

If you're wondering how to serve canned cranberry sauce, here are 3 ways, plus what you can do with leftovers. You can get a bit fancier with serving it or keep the presentation quick and easy.

Jump to:

Straight out of the can
Sliced Cranberry Sauce
Cut out into shapes
Leftovers
Other Delicious Side Dish Recipes

Straight out of the can

Canned jellied cranberry sauce on it's side.

Growing up, canned jellied cranberry sauce was the traditional cranberry sauce to grace our Thanksgiving table. It wasn't the good stuff unless it had the rings around it.

We would open the can of cranberry sauce and carefully pour it out of the can and onto a plate so it would stay in log form.

Add a butter knife to the plate and it was good to go.

You can decorate around the cranberry sauce if you'd like with a ring of rosemary stems, or slices or fresh cranberries for a more festive look.

I have never been able to do it, but my Mom does poke holes in the bottom of the jellied cranberry sauce can so it pours out easier. I find the can really thick and what I do is slightly squeeze the can, rotating and squeezing until the sauce comes out.

Sliced Cranberry Sauce

jellied cranberry sauce cut into rounds and displayed on a plate.

Sliced jellied cranberry sauce on a serving platter is another way of serving canned cranberries.

You'll do the same as above, but you'll go one step further and slice the cranberry sauce.

Open the canned cranberry sauce and remove it carefully, so it is all still intact from the can onto a cutting board. Slice the cranberry sauce around where the ring marks are or about a ¼"-½″ apart.

canned jellied cranberry sauce being cut.

Arrange the rings of cranberry sauce onto a plate or platter.

Cut out into shapes

A plate with cranberry sauce cut into shapes.

Another way of serving the cranberry sauce that is a bit more fun, is to use cookie cutters and cut the sliced canned cranberry sauce into fun shapes.

You can choose cookie cutters that are turkeys or acorns to stick with a fall or Thanksgiving theme or generic shapes such as stars or hearts.

If you are wanting to jazz up canned cranberry sauce, you can easily do this. The jellied cranberry sauce is surprisingly easy to cut into. You do have to take care that it doesn't break apart as you move it to the serving platter, but it isn't hard to do at all.

Plus, this allows your little ones who seem to always help in the kitchen something to do, but I would recommend adult supervision, just to make sure the jellied sauce doesn't totally fall apart while cutting into shapes.

Leftovers

Wondering about freezing leftover cranberry sauce?

If you think you'll use it up in the next few days, you can cover or store in an air tight container and place it in the fridge for up to about 7 days.

You can freeze any cranberry sauce that you don't think will be used up within a week. It can be frozen in a freezer container for up to a couple of months. It will become slightly watery though.