Ina Garten's Genius 'Hot Rod' Hacks Turn Store-Bought Ingredients into Holiday Heroes – Try Her Cranberry Sauce Shortcut

If you love to cook, serving up store-bought dishes can feel like a bit of a cop out. While I know it would save me plenty of time (especially as I'm preparing to host Christmas this year), I'm always reluctant to offer guests anything that isn't homemade from scratch by my own fair hands – but since I spotted Ina Garten give store-bought ingredients her seal of approval, I'm starting to change my mind.

In a video posted just before Thanksgiving, Ina Garten revealed that – just like anyone cooking for a crowd – she's 'always looking for shortcuts'. And when it comes to staples like cranberry sauce, she combines a few store-bought finds with fresh ingredients, allowing her to 'hot rod' a dish so that it tastes like it was made from scratch. It's an ingenious trick, and it's really transformed my approach to menu planning and hosting.

'When I say store-bought is fine, I don't mean go to the grocery store, buy an entire Thanksgiving dinner, and serve it – that's not great,' Ina says in the video. 'What I do mean is: go to the store, buy really good ingredients, and 'hot rod' them by adding other ingredients that make the dish so good, nobody will ever know it wasn't made from scratch.'

Before I discovered this hack, I was determined to serve up a Christmas Day menu that was completely homemade – but now I'm planning to incorporate a few pre-made elements from pastry crusts to sauces. Ina's easy cranberry sauce recipe is the perfect example: she 'hot rods' a store-bought can by adding fresh ingredients like orange juice and grated apple.

'I'm going to start with whole berry cranberry sauce,' she explains, adding the entire can to a pot (like the All-Clad stainless steel saucepan – Ina also swears by the All-Clad stainless steel frying pan). Then, the all-important additions: a quarter cup of freshly-squeezed orange juice, a dash of orange zest, and half a grated apple. Once the sauce has simmered for 15 minutes, Ina also mixes in a half cup of raisins and a half cup of roughly diced pecans.

'You have the best cranberry fruit conserve that was incredibly easy,' she says as she dishes up the sauce. 'It's chunky and it's sweet, but it's tart. Perfect cranberry sauce, and no fuss.'

If store-bought ingredients are good enough for Ina, they're certainly good enough for me – and I can't wait to find more ways to 'hot rod' my holiday dishes – next on the list is a no-cook festive grazing table. Time-saving hacks like these really are the secret to seamless hosting.

Ina Garten's Cranberry Sauce Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 can whole berry cranberry sauce
• ¼ cup orange juice
• 1 tsp orange zest
• ½ an apple, grated
• ½ cup raisins
• ½ cup roughly diced pecans

Method

• Add the entire can of cranberry sauce to a medium saucepan along with the orange juice, orange zest and grated apple.
• Simmer for 15 minutes, then add the raisins and pecans.
• Refrigerate the sauce until you're ready to serve.

Shop Everything You Need to Make Ina Garten's Cranberry Sauce

Looking for more shortcuts to revolutionize your holiday prep? Try the Christmas morning mimosa hack – it guarantees delicious (and picture-perfect drinks, every time.