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A
Well, as tradition would have it, on this very lovely Thanksgiving, I will give my Thanksgiving cranberry recipe and a little couple of side thoughts as well. So enjoy.
B
Come and celebrate the holidays with Adam Carolla this December, Friday, December 5th at the Brand new Santa Barbara Comedy Club in Corona, California. On Saturday, December 6th at Dos Lagos Amphitheater with Jay Moore. And on December 18th in Calabasas, California at the Sagebrush Cantina, a live Christmas podcast with Brad Williams. Get tickets for these shows and more@adamcarolla.com.
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From Corolla 1 Studios in Glendale, California, this is the Adam Carolla show. Today, Adam shares his world famous cranberry sauce recipe and some of the things he's thankful about this year. And now with your annual reminder to keep your Thanksgiving falutin free, Adam Carolla.
A
Yeah, get it on. Got to get it on. That's just to get on mandate. Get it on. Thank you very much for listening. It's been a good year with you guys tuning in and lots of fun stuff going on out there and traveling the country saying hi to folks. I like the idea. I love the father son team or the mother daughter teams. I love when you guys come out and you go, I got my son into the show and vice versa and all that kind of stuff. So thank you very much for another great season. We're not done yet, but it's time for the cranberry recipe. Now, the origins of this story go back to maybe my first year in radio. This is Burcham Kroc years probably 94 now. I got into radio in early May. 94. I know that I'm not a date guy and I always tell you guys, I'm not a date person. Where you go, when did the man show start? I don't know. When did Loveline start? I don't know. When did this begin? When did this end? How many seasons? How many episodes? I never pay attention. I don't know. Look, you're talking to the guy who doesn't know what month either one of his parents were born in. Forget about their birth date. I don't know the year I don't know the month. I don't know the day. I'm guessing September with maybe my mom, but. All right, we're not a tight knit family. But the point is this. I do remember when I got into radio because I said, when I turn 30. When I turn 30. When I turn thirty, I gotta be doing it by the time I turn 30. And it was just before I turned 30. So I'll never not know when I got into radio because it was right before I was turning 30. And I do remember my own birthday. I know that sounds selfish. Now, I got in early May, late April, 94, and then was a fixture on Kevin and Bean. So I probably would have done my cranberry recipe thing as Mr. Burcham in 94, because that would have meant that I'd be there for five or six months by now and I would have been ensconced and probably started in 94. Now, my thing with Thanksgiving is I don't think. I think can openers should be outlawed for Thanksgiving. And maybe with an exception for evaporated milk, which is also called pet milk, which is weird. Is evaporated milk and pet milk the same thing? And then why would you call it pet milk if it was evaporated milk? And then why are you putting the word pet into something you're going to use to make pumpkin pie? I don't want to think about cat hair or furballs. But the point is this. I just don't believe we're supposed to be opening cans of stuff. And I know some people are like, I like the canned cranberry sauce, or I like the canned beans or the canned. Whatever. I get it, it's mostly symbolic. But I just don't like the notion of can openers on Thanksgiving.
B
Sure. Evaporated milk is known as pet milk because the parent company was called Pet, Inc. Oh, really?
A
All right, so it wasn't like, open it for your pet.
B
Correct. And you don't really necessarily use a can opener for that. You get away with it because it's. Use a church key, the one that cuts the little V's in the side so you can pour it out.
A
Yeah, well, I'll expand it and say things that come in a can for Thanksgiving I don't like. And also, I don't like the part where you go to pavilions and pick up everything all made. Now, look, I didn't come here to complain, but I will say that there's something Norman Rockwell about and something communal about the kitchen and people all chipping in and working together in the oven and the heat and the smell and everything. You're not just supposed to dispatch someone to go to Pavilions and pick up chafing dishes or the stuff that Mexican. Guys who aren't celebrating Thanksgiving. No one who prepared your Thanksgiving food is celebrating Thanksgiving. Ah, that's a rule. You need to celebrate Thanksgiving. The people that make the food need to eat the food they make. They can't just have some guy in the kitchen at Pavilions who's from Guadalajara who's no interest in Thanksgiving. Making your Thanksgiving food. All right. So many years ago, we would go to the Bruno's house. The Bruno's were Greg and Pat and Vince Bruno. I didn't know. I thought they were my cousins. I thought he was my uncle. Turns out they were cousins. My dad was pretty fast and loose with the hoots. We didn't have family, we didn't have relatives. We didn't have anything. So we didn't know anybody. And my dad sure as hell wasn't gonna cook a turkey, and neither was my mom. They weren't gonna do anything. So we ended up. We'd have to go places on Thanksgiving because my mom in a million years wouldn't cook a turkey with all the Fixins. And then 200 million years, my dad wouldn't cook a turkey with all the fixes. It'd be impossible for them to do it physically, but also spiritually, it'd be impossible for them to do. They'd go out, spend money, spend all day, be in the kitchen slaving away for your family. Not in the cards. So we would end up going to the Brunos. The Brunos lived in a very small apartment in Santa Monica. I'm talking about 60s, you know, one carport, six units, 700 square foot. I mean, miniature, you know, one bathroom apartment. But to us it had wall to wall carpet and central heating. And they had a color tv. It was sort of nice to us because we were black and white TV and wood floors and shag carpet and all that kind of stuff. So we would end up there. And I remember Pat Bruno, chain smoking mom, by the way. Real character, like short hair, fanny pack, Winston, unfiltered, you know, Called me Ad. Real Philadelphia woman, you know, ad. Kind of a ball buster. Fun ball buster. Worked. Worked all day. Vince, not so much, but her husband Greg, cousin, maybe. He's my cousin. Anyway, everything was good. And we'd go out there and she'd do the fixings. Just basic stuff, nothing fancy. But I remember she would open up A can of cranberry sauce. And I didn't like it. I didn't like this stuff back then. I didn't like the junk. I didn't like synthetic. I didn't like can. I didn't like Sunny D. I didn't like Gatorade. I wanted real stuff. I wanted, like, real orange juice. I wanted. I didn't want fake cheese. I want Velveeta. I don't want American cheese. I wanted real stuff. When I was a kid, I just. As a kid, I knew the difference between a Porsche in a Chevrolet. Like, as a little kid, like, I'd go, that's a fucking cool piece. And that thing's a piece of shit. And I knew it. I wanted good tools. I didn't want a Huffy. I wanted a Schwinn. I knew it when I was, like, little. That's why, by the way, I was miserable, because I was in a sea of huffies and tough skins and shitty tools. But I wanted the good stuff. And at some point, when I got to be, like, 15 or something and we were going to the Bruno's, I showed up with my own Tupperware container of cranberry sauce that I made at home. And Pat was a little put off. She's like, hey, what are you doing? I go, I brought my own cranberry shell. She's like, why? I. I go, I don't want the canned stuff. She was a little offended that I just basically pulled my own Tupperware container out. It's like, hey, bitch, it's Thanksgiving. Save the can. So that's my vibe, and I've always been that way. Also, everyone chills. Everything. Chilling stuff hurts the flavor of it. I know you guys, you put the peaches and the apples in the refrigerator when they're cold, they don't taste as good as room temperature. I. I'm telling you. Homes.com. some might say homes.com is the best home shopping site. Maybe homes.com's super comprehensive and transparent agent directory. Or maybe homes.com is the only site that always directly connects you with the listing agent who knows the home the best. Hmm. Perhaps it's because homes.com has the most in depth neighborhood content of any home shopping site that's extensively researched to highlight the personality of each neighborhood. I say it's all the above. Homes.com goes above and beyond to bring home shoppers the in depth info they need to find the right home. It's homes.com. we've done your homework. O'Reilly Auto Parts. Oh, O'Reilly. Yeah, you know the jingle. These guys keep your car on the road. You don't want to end up on the shoulder of the road looking like a dope. Friendly, helpful service people who actually know their stuff. Not just some kid who'd rather be staring at his phone or probably is staring at his phone. Always used O'Reilly back in the day. The one on North Holly. It was off Laurel Canyon. Used to go there. Now I go to the one in La Canada. Went to the one in Glendale, California. They got what you need. You need wiper, swap, brake, lights out. The pros at O'Reilly, well, they can find what you need. Or they'll hook you up with a local shop if you're not a DIY type. So whether you're a gearhead or you don't know a lug nut from a donut, they will walk you through it. No attitude, just real help. 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November action is free on Pluto TV. Go on the run with Jack Reacher.
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Every suspect was a train killer.
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Then buckle up for drive. World War Z.
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Every human being we save Just one.
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Less fight and Charlie's Angels.
A
Damn, I hate to fly.
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Launch into sci fi adventure with the fifth Element and laugh through the mayhem in Tropic Thunder.
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What is going on here?
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All the thrills, all for free. Pluto TV Stream now pay Never.
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Start building the career you actually want. All right, I'm going to tell you this. Take a piece of dog shit, heat it up. It'll smell up the whole house. Take a piece of dog shit and freeze it. You can put it on the counter and people walk by it. They won't even know it. Because when stuff gets frozen, when it gets cold, it loses its mojo. I mean, you take a burrito. You take a burrito, a warm burrito, awesome. Room temperature burrito, Fine, cold burrito. It's lost all of it. It's lost 65% of its flavor cold. I wouldn't even if you took a burrito and you made it cold. I don't mean freeze it cold. I just mean fridge cold. And you told me to take a bite with my eyes closed. I probably couldn't tell you if it was pork or beef or chicken. I might not know flavor wise even what was in the burrito when it's cold. But if you warmed it up, I would definitely know what it is. So cold is kind of the enemy. And so I don't think you're supposed to serve the stuff you really want. I mean, you don't want to serve the mashed potatoes cold. They lose it. Whatever. Warm. Get that cranberry, make it a little bit warm also. You keep the cranberry in the fridge. It gets cold, and. And then you put the turkey and the potatoes and the stuffing down. And then you put a nice big spoonful of the cranberries on there. And the cold cranberry is gonna take down the temperature of the stuff around. It's gonna have a chilling effect. So keep it. You don't have to. I don't want it boiling. But just like room temperature. It'll taste better anyway. I pulled the Tupperware out at Pat Bruno's house. She was not a fan. God, those apartments are like. Like the apartments the size of an apartment you'd have if you went to college and had, like a roommate or something. Except for the whole fucking family lived there. I don't know. What was one car, by the way, One Chevy Nova. One the two adults. My dad's best friend who was an adult. I'm talking 50, 60 years of age, him and his wife, one car between them. Two cars would have been too much for them. That was my dad's financial model. Anyway, they're great people. And Pat had a thing. She liked her stuff. She was like one of these people, you know these people. She had the fanny pack. She smoked. So she had the fanny pack and she had the case for cigarettes with the little holster for the lighter in it and it was leather and it had like a flap on it and stuff. Like, I don't pack a cigarettes. Basically its own container. But all right. She had in there and her fanny bed. And she liked to undo it and get the thing out, open it up. Probably had her initial pull the lighter out of things. Like she was one of those people. She had a plastic half gallon milk holder handle. So a square half gallon milk container, cardboard. And this thing was a plastic square hoop with a bottom on it and a handle. And you'd slide it in and when you reached into the refrigerator, pour milk, you'd grab it by the handle and you'd pour it by the handle and you'd put it back in the fridge. And it was like, you know, there's a part of me that likes it. There's another part of me. It's like, oh, too much. I've never had an issue with pulling milk out of the fridge and dumping some in a bowl and then putting it back. I've never lost the grip on it or whatever. But all right, I kind of liked it. It's $1.50 item, this plastic handle thing. But anyway, one year I went back to the Bruno's and noticed that that handle had broken probably five places because it was cheap plastic. And it sat in that fridge and then probably sat on the counter and then went back in the fridge. That thing heat cycled like 300,000 times and eventually just picked up the handle with the gallon of. Half gallon of milk. The thing just bossed it off. I remember it was such a novelty. But I went back after about a year and I looked. That thing had been glued in seven different spots. It took a thing that retailed for under $2 and spent a day putting that thing back together so it could be used. And that's how the Corollas rolled. Well, it's not how the Corollas rolled. My dad wouldn't have had one in the first place. But the Bruno's rolled that way. Not gonna throw that thing out also. I don't know, Dawson. Do they still make those? What would you even call that? I'll take it and drop it off at Pat's grave if they do. But anyway, it stuck in my head that there should be no cans opened on this one day of the year. No cans open. And cranberry sauce was so damn easy to make. So incredibly easy to make. And for some reason, this became Mr. Bertram's calling card. And once I did it on Kevin and Bean in 94, I guess I just carried it on up until now, so it's pretty easy. First off, you don't need me because the recipe's on the back of the sack of cranberries. But you buy a sack of cranberries and you rinse them off and you take a half cup of water and you bring it up to a boil in the saucepan and you put the cranberries in there and you put a cover on there. I'd lower the heat a little bit, let it simmer for about five to 10 minutes. You don't have to do anything, just put the thing on there and then you add some sugar. And I would just add it to taste. You know, the package says a cup of sugar. I would do half a cup or even less because you can just keep spooning it in and tasting it until it gets how you like it. Because it's not dessert. I mean, it shouldn't be that sweet. It's cranberries. It's there to mix in with the stuffing and the potatoes and, you know it's there, but it's, you know, it's its own flavor. So let's not make it into cranberry pudding. You know, I want to taste those cranberries. So you add it in, you simmer it in, you put it in a bowl, let it sit out. Room temp. I, I don't know. I'm telling you, I wouldn't make it at noon and put it in the fridge and serve it at 4:00'. Clock. I, I, I'll take it at room temp. I think it loses a little something when it gets cold. And like I said, it's going to affect the temperature of those around it. It's as well. So do those things still exist, those half gallon holder?
B
You actually said gallon? Yeah, I couldn't find any gallon.
A
I said half gallon. Then I said gallon. I corrected myself.
B
But yes, yes, they have half gallon. The half gallons kind of seem to make gallon does have a handle built into it.
A
Yes, yes, Half gallon, easy. Carton holder.
B
Yeah, they're actually still selling these. They're called the Carton Caddy.
A
Vintage 1960s, right? Yep. What? Etsy, 96 bucks. Maybe Pat Bruno was onto something back in the day. I wonder if Greg's got that thing. I wonder if he got it in the will.
B
By the way, my mom made the cranberry sauce two days ago. She wanted to get it done and out of the way. But for the last two years we've been making that cranberry sauce. I grew up with a father who loves the jellied stuff. And so every year we had the can okay on the table. Change that.
A
Let me go ahead and say this, Dawson, God bless your dad. I will have. And I'll say this to all you. And I'll be honest. I'll be honest with you. Can I be honest? Yeah. Okay. Because you know what? I'm not gonna lie to you because I'm being honest.
B
Right?
A
All right. I don't mind living in a world where there is canned cranberry sauce and the jellied cranberry sauce at the table. Who knows? Perhaps there's a relative that escaped a mental institution earlier that week and is sitting in and prefers it. That's fine. Or maybe you got an 8 year old kid and he's special needs and he's got a little rain man in him and he just loves. He loves to gelatinize stuff. That is fine. That is fine. And you know what? I don't mind a table that has passion fruit iced tea on it. And I don't mind a table that has cubed potatoes, purple potatoes or new potatoes. But here's the deal, everyone. First you have fresh cranberry. Then you add the gelatin iced stuff supplement. And first you have regular iced tea. And then you add the passion fruit if you want. And first you have hash fucking browns. And if you want to add the new potatoes as an option, that's fine. But the base is this. The base must exist. That's what I'm. That's what I'm saying. I'll take it to fries. You must have good old fashioned fucking french fries. And then if you want to do the quarter sawn ones that are baked with the skin on them, knock your fucking self out. But I want fries first. Right? Okay. That's all. So I don't have a problem with the preference with the dad and the gelatinites.
B
Can I tell you the truth? Can I be 100% honest with you right now? 100% honest.
A
You know what?
B
My dad.
A
I'm going to assault you by not lying to you.
B
My dad was special needs and one of his special needs was jellied cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving. If we did not have it, we never found out because we always had it.
A
I don't mind. Listen, the greatest president in the United States ever had Ronald Reagan like jelly beans. That was his business. You know what I mean? It was a quirk. That's fine. I don't like jelly beans. But if Ronnie wants jelly beans and if a Great. Man wants gelatinized cranberry sauce, and that's his. Especially if it's his house. Then that's his business. But I'm saying supplementary to the fresh stuff. And the same with iced tea. The same with hash brown, same with fries. All right, you guys got it? Good. Now have yourself a happy Thanksgiving.
B
Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at the Adam Carolla show.
C
This November action is free on Pluto tv. Go on the run with Jack Reacher.
A
Every suspect was a train killer.
C
Then buckle up for drive. World War Z.
A
Every human being we save is one.
C
Less bite and Charlie Angels damn, I hate to fly. Launch into sci fi adventure with the fifth Element and laugh through the mayhem in Tropic Thunder.
A
What is going on here?
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All the thrills, all for free. Pluto TV stream now pay never. This November action is free on Pluto tv. Go on the run with Jack Reacher.
A
Every suspect was a train killer.
C
Then buckle up for drive. World War Z.
A
Every human being we save Just one.
C
Less fight and Charlie's Angels, damn, I hate to fly. Launch into sci fi adventure with the fifth Element and laugh through the mayhem in Tropic Thunder.
A
What is going on here?
C
All the thrills, all for free. Pluto TV stream now pay never.
A
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It would be crazy if there were any catches.
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But there aren't, right?
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Right. Because that's how car buying should be with Carvana.
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Date: November 27, 2025
Host: Adam Carolla
This Thanksgiving-themed episode is a blend of Adam Carolla’s trademark humor, nostalgia, and practical wisdom. Adam shares his "secret" cranberry sauce recipe—a tradition dating back to his earliest days in radio—and delivers a wider commentary on food, family, and keeping the holidays genuine. Listeners are treated to Carolla's personal stories, strong opinions on Thanksgiving table etiquette, and a bit of holiday philosophy, all in his unfiltered, comedic style.
Adam’s Gratitude for the Audience:
Origins of the Cranberry Recipe:
Adam’s Rule on Canned Foods:
On Pre-Made Grocery Store Meals:
Personal Anecdotes and Culinary Preferences:
Adam’s Step-by-Step Instructions:
Core Messages:
On Coexistence of Fancy and Basic:
Humor and Acceptance:
"I don't think can openers should be outlawed for Thanksgiving... I just don't believe we're supposed to be opening cans of stuff."
(A, 04:20)
"As a kid, I knew the difference between a Porsche and a Chevrolet... That's why, by the way, I was miserable, because I was in a sea of huffies and tough skins and shitty tools. But I wanted the good stuff."
(A, 08:10)
"Chilling stuff hurts the flavor of it... when they're cold, they don't taste as good as room temperature."
(A, 10:30)
"Take a piece of dog shit, heat it up. It'll smell up the whole house. Take a piece of dog shit and freeze it. You can put it on the counter and people walk by it. They won't even know it. Because when stuff gets frozen, when it gets cold, it loses its mojo."
(A, 14:10)
"No cans open. And cranberry sauce was so damn easy to make. So incredibly easy to make."
(A, 18:50)
"First you have fresh cranberry. Then you add the gelatinized stuff supplement... the base must exist."
(A, 23:03)
"Now have yourself a happy Thanksgiving."
(A, 25:29)
Adam Carolla’s delivery remains irreverent, reflective, and sardonic throughout, mixing wry personal stories with practical food advice. The mix of humor and nostalgia is balanced by genuine gratitude and a dose of culinary purism tempered by real-world acceptance.
This episode serves as both comedic holiday comfort and a genuine endorsement of keeping Thanksgiving hands-on, homemade, and inclusive—even if, somewhere on the table, there’s still a little slice of jiggly nostalgia from a can.