There's a time and place for canned cranberry sauce, but it's also great to make your own from scratch. DIYing your cranberry sauce puts you in charge of the flavors and ingredients, so you can make it exactly how you like it. The most challenging part of making from-scratch cranberry sauce? Figuring out how many bags of fresh cranberries you need per person. Read on for everything you need to know so you can buy the perfect amount of fresh cranberries for the cranberry sauce for your Thanksgiving feast or any other cranberry goodies you're making this fall.

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What is the Typical Serving Size for Cranberries?

If you check the back of a bag of fresh cranberries, you'll see that a serving is 1/2 cup and a 12-ounce bag serves seven. The thing is, it's uncommon to eat fresh cranberries straight up, and cranberries break down and burst when you cook them. That means that if you're making a common dish like cranberry sauce, you'll end up with less volume than you started with, according to recipe developer Julie Hartigan of Cooking With Julie.

When making cocktails or scones, though, you'll use fewer cranberries per serving because raw cranberries are so tart. "They're more of a garnish than the main ingredient," Hartigan says.

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How Many Bags of Fresh Cranberries Do I Need Per Person for Cranberry Sauce?

Back to arithmetic: A typical bag of fresh cranberries tends to weigh in at 12 ounces. "Usually one bag is perfect to make cranberry sauce or quick breads," Hartigan says -- and you might find that recipes for cranberry baked goods purposefully call for 12 ounces of cranberries to make things easier on home bakers.

One 12-ounce bag of fresh cranberries makes about 2 1/4 cups of cranberry sauce, which should be enough for about 8 to 10 people, Hartigan says, adding that you can halve that amount of cranberries when making a cranberry-apple or cranberry-orange sauce because the additional fruit will bulk up each serving.

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When Should I Buy Dried vs. Fresh Cranberries?

Dried and fresh cranberries couldn't be more different: The former are dried and sometimes sweetened, which makes them a perfect salad garnish or sweet potato topper, while most people find raw cranberries to be way too tart to eat straight up. You'll want to pay close attention to cranberry recipes for that purpose -- a baked good that calls for dried cranberries (like cranberry cookies) will taste way sweeter than one that calls for fresh cranberries (like cranberry bread).

What to Do if You Buy Too Many Cranberries Per Person?

Luckily, fresh cranberries freeze well and can be fun additions to smoothies, muffins, pancakes, vinaigrettes, chutneys and quick breads, according to Hartigan. Because fresh cranberries are available only during a small window of time around the holidays some people intentionally buy more cranberries so they'll have a freezer stash.

And because extra homemade cranberry sauce can be swirled into yogurt, spread on a sandwich, or folded into oatmeal, there are plenty of delicious ways to use any leftover cranberry sauce, too.

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