You either love it or you hate it at Thanksgiving. And I’m not talking about turkey. Now I’m a traditionalist when it comes to Thanksgiving Dinner. I like the turkey, the mashed potatoes, the gravy, the green beans, the rolls, the pies and most of all the Ocean Spray Canned Jellied Cranberry Sauce. But I thought, why not try making some cranberry sauce and see what happens.

So like most things we do here on the blog, I decided to test out these flavors on my roommates (and a new taste tester friend: Courtnee!)! Before we got into it I asked each person what their go to thanksgiving cranberry sauce was:

Michelle: Ocean Spray Jellied Canned version
Haris: Whole Berry Canned version
Richie: Homemade
Courtnee: Not a fan but will eat the Jellied Canned version if asked to

Now for the main event. I spent about an hour making three different cranberry sauces which I got from Pinterest and will link below. Then we grabbed some ritz crackers and tested out the flavors.

First up, a pretty simple regular homemade cranberry sauce. Ingredients: orange juice, sugar, cranberries, water and orange zest. I’m not actually sure if orange juice is pretty normal in a cranberry sauce but it sure did taste delicious. I served slightly warm and the comments were positive all around.

Link: The Flavor Bender

Second up I made a Ginger Cranberry sauce. Disclaimer: No red heads were harmed in the making of this sauce. I chose this recipe because I love the idea of a little Asian Fusion Thanksgiving treat. This recipe was also pretty simple. Ingredients: Ginger, Orange Juice, Sugar and Cranberries. I would recommend adding more ginger if you want a little more flavor, but overall, this was my favorite!

Link: Attainable Sustainable

Here in the third position we have a Spicy and Sweet Cranberry Sauce. Haris loves all things spicy so I thought, why not try this recipe out. It’s a little more complex than the other two recipes. The spicy flavors come from chipotle peppers in adobe sauce and serrano peppers. Now I added more of the serrano peppers than the recipe calls for to turn up the spice a bit, which seemed to be a crow pleaser. If you are looking for a way to spice this Thanksgiving up, this is the way to go!

Link: Let’s Dish

In fourth position in the tasting we hit my go-to holiday favorite: the Ocean Spray Canned Jellied Cranberry sauce.

And the last member of our tasting was the Whole Cranberry Canned version from Ocean Spray.

I asked each person to rank from first to last their favorites in the testing and here are the results:

Michelle: Homemade Regular; Spicy and Sweet; Ginger; Canned Jellied; Canned Whole Berry

Haris: Spicy and Sweet; Ginger; Homemade Regular; Canned Whole Berry; Canned Jellied

Richie: Ginger; Spicy and Sweet; Homemade Regular; Canned Whole Berry; Canned Jellied

Courtnee: Spicy and Sweet; Homemade Regular; Ginger;  Canned Jellied; Canned Whole Berry

Myself: Ginger; Homemade Regular; Canned Jellied; Spicy and Sweet; Canned Whole Berry

What can I say? I still have a heart for the canned stuff, but this year will probably be making some homemade versions to go with that turkey too. Make sure to check out the links above and give those food sites some love! And if you have a favorite cranberry sauce recipe make sure to share it int he comments or on the Spoonful of Daydream Facebook page!