Can You Eat Fresh Raw Cranberries?

Cranberries are a quintessential holiday food. Whether you enjoy them incorporated into a jelly-like sauce or baked into sweet and tangy cranberry sauce muffins, there's no denying these vibrant red little berries are a staple of some tasty creations that Americans love. While most cranberries are grown in Wisconsin, nearly 400 million pounds of cranberries are eaten throughout the United States each year (via Agricultural Marketing Resource Center). However, only about 5% of them are sold raw. The rest are processed to be used in other products, most commonly juice.

If you ever see a bag full of raw cranberries and are tempted to shove a handful into your mouth popcorn-style, maybe hesitate before doing so. Is it safe to eat fresh, uncooked cranberries? The answer is yes — you're not going to keel over or anything. The more important question here is, "Why would you want to?" Raw cranberries are aggressively bitter, because they have high amounts of tannins, which are plant compounds found in other notoriously bitter items such as coffee and black tea. If you pop a raw cranberry in your mouth expecting a juicy burst of sweetness, you will be disappointed — and probably puckering.

When we cook or bake with cranberries, most recipes call for sugar or other sweeteners to balance out the natural bitterness of the fruit and create something pleasantly sweet. Plus, cranberries contain pectin, which acts as a natural gelling agent when exposed to heat. It's the reason why cranberry sauces and jellies are so simple to make without the need to use added pectin or other thickeners. Drying is another popular option to make cranberries more palatable. For this method, cranberries are coated in sugar or another sweetener, such as corn syrup or maple syrup, before being baked in the oven. Dried cranberries are great for baked goods, as salad toppers, or when mixed in with chicken salad.

If you must find a way to consume raw cranberries though, you could try blending them into a smoothie with sweeter ingredients to mask their bitterness, such as bananas or oranges. You could also chop cranberries and add them as a crunchy addition to a salad, but remember, less is more. You don't want their bitterness to overpower the whole dish, so try adding a tangy, creamy goat cheese or a sweet vinaigrette dressing for a balanced salad. While cooking cranberries is the best way to enjoy them, it's perfectly safe to consume them raw — you'll just have to get creative in order to actually make them taste pleasant.