Adam Carolla Show – "Adam Carolla's Secret Cranberry Recipe"

Date: November 27, 2025
Host: Adam Carolla

Episode Overview

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.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Thanksgiving Traditions and Family Memories

• Adam’s Gratitude for the Audience:

  • Begins by thanking fans for their support throughout the year and highlights the multi-generational appeal of the show.
    • "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." (01:52)

• Origins of the Cranberry Recipe:

  • Adam’s tradition started in his early radio career, recalling a time on the Kevin & Bean Show in 1994 as 'Mr. Burcham' (03:00–06:00).
  • Notes that he remembers when he entered radio:
    • "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..." (02:30)

2. Food Philosophy: No Cans on Thanksgiving

• Adam’s Rule on Canned Foods:

  • Firmly opposes canned foods for Thanksgiving; except for rare cases like evaporated milk, but even that is questioned.
  • "I don't think. I think can openers should be outlawed for Thanksgiving... I just don't believe we're supposed to be opening cans of stuff." (04:20)
  • Explains his reasoning: preserving tradition, quality, and the communal spirit in the kitchen.

• On Pre-Made Grocery Store Meals:

  • Adam rails against store-prepared Thanksgiving meals, joking about the disconnect when food is made by people with no connection to the holiday.
  • "No one who prepared your Thanksgiving food is celebrating Thanksgiving... The people that make the food need to eat the food they make." (06:00)

• Personal Anecdotes and Culinary Preferences:

  • Recounts childhood Thanksgivings with “the Brunos”—distant relatives who provided contrast to the Corollas' lack of holiday engagement.
  • Shares an early culinary stand: Bringing his own homemade cranberry sauce to avoid canned versions, even as a teenager—a subtle act of rebellion.
  • "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." (08:10)

3. Culinary Pet Peeves: The Cold Food Rant

• Temperature Matters:
  • Adam is animated in his dislike for serving chilled side dishes, especially cranberry sauce. He insists flavor is muted by cold and urges listeners to serve things at room temp.
  • "Chilling stuff hurts the flavor of it... when they're cold, they don't taste as good as room temperature." (10:30)
  • Memorable Analogy:
    • "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." (14:10)

4. The (Not So) Secret Cranberry Sauce Recipe

• Adam’s Step-by-Step Instructions:

  • The recipe is simple and based on the classic bag instructions:
    • Buy a bag of fresh cranberries and rinse them.
    • Use half a cup of water in a saucepan, bring to boil.
    • Add cranberries, cover, simmer 5–10 minutes.
    • Add sugar to taste (Adam prefers less than a cup, as "it’s not dessert").
    • Stir, taste, finish at room temp, not chilled.
  • "You don't need me because the recipe's on the back of the sack of cranberries... I would just add it [sugar] to taste... It's as easy as it gets." (19:00–20:30)

• Core Messages:

  • Make your food from scratch; it’s more meaningful, tastes better, and brings people together.
  • "No cans open. And cranberry sauce was so damn easy to make. So incredibly easy to make." (18:50)

5. Tangents & Nostalgia: The Bruno Family and The Carton Caddy

• Colorful Family Memories:
  • Adam reminisces about Pat Bruno—her fanny pack, chain-smoking, and odd kitchen gadgets like the plastic milk carton holder.
  • Engages with the co-host about whether these items still exist (spoiler: they do, now called the 'Carton Caddy').
    • "They’re actually still selling these. They're called the Carton Caddy." (22:03, B)

6. Cranberry Sauce at the Table: Options for All

• On Coexistence of Fancy and Basic:

  • Adam loosens up when it comes to accommodating tradition-bound relatives who love canned (jellied) cranberry sauce.
  • "I don't mind living in a world where there is canned cranberry sauce and the jellied cranberry sauce at the table... But the base is this. The base must exist." (23:03)
  • His philosophy: Start with the homemade as the foundation, supplement with extras as needed (“you must have good old-fashioned fucking french fries... then if you want to do the quarter sawn ones that are baked...knock your fucking self out”). (23:30)

• Humor and Acceptance:

  • Co-host shares that his own "special needs" father insists on canned jelly cranberry sauce, and Adam responds with warmth.
  • "The greatest president in the United States ever had Ronald Reagan like jelly beans. That was his business... if a great man wants gelatinized cranberry sauce... then that's his business. But I'm saying supplementary to the fresh stuff..." (24:52)

7. Thanksgiving Well Wishes

• Final Note:
  • Adam signs off by wishing the audience a happy holiday.
  • "Now have yourself a happy Thanksgiving." (25:29)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "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)

Important Segments & Timestamps

• Opening and Theme: 01:27–01:52
• History of the Cranberry Recipe and Thanksgiving Observations: 02:00–08:00
• "No Cans on Thanksgiving!" Rant: 04:00–06:30
• Personal Family Stories and Culinary Opinions: 06:30–14:00
• Food Temperature Rant: 13:23–15:45
• Adam’s Cranberry Sauce Recipe (step-by-step): 18:40–20:50
• The Carton Caddy Story: 20:55–22:20
• Philosophy on Thanksgiving Options (fresh vs. canned): 23:01–24:52
• Closing Well Wishes: 25:29

Tone & Style

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.