A half-hour of work and two bags of fresh cranberries can furnish you an entire holiday season of cranberry sauce, plus a jar to give away. If you make this the first week the berries appear in the stores, you get a jump on the season's cooking-- and you'll never have to turn back to the dark side again!
Allow me to share:
Cranberry sauce
Start with 2 bags of fresh cranberries, picked over, in a saucepan.
(Set aside a scant 2 cups; this should leave you with a pound, give or take.)
Grate about a tsp of orange zest, then juice 3-4 oranges for 1 cup of fresh OJ.
Add that to the pan along with 1 cup of sugar.
Bring rapidly to a boil, stirring often; lower the heat to medium and cook for 15 minutes. Continue to stir frequently as this boils.
Some of the berries will be left unpopped, but don't worry about them. The natural pectin will cause this sauce to jell without any further effort on your part.
Remove from the heat and add the orange zest, then ladle into jars--pretty jelly jars for gift-giving, but at least 1 pint jar --or a bowl-- for your Thanksgiving table. Refrigerate any sauce that is not in a sealed jar. It keeps beautifully, and it's also tasty as a jelly on rolls or toast.
What about the other 2 cups? Sometimes I've had to discard a lot of berries and don't have this many extra, in which case I just add more berries to the saucepan. But if I have a gracious plenty, I make this:
Cranberry-Orange Relish
Cut a thin-skinned orange into chunks, removing seeds and some of the membrane--but don't get too picky. Measure out 1/2 cup sugar and place in blender or food processor with the orange. Chop; then scrape down bowl and add cranberries and chop briefly.
Do this in two small batches if using a blender, or in one batch if using a food processor. Do not over-process. Voila. This keeps well (refrigerated, of course) and improves if allowed to mellow for a few days before serving.
I absolutely love anything cranberry! I will confess, however, that canned cranberry sauce is a guilty pleasure of mine. The fresh homemade stuff is obviously better, but the canned stuff reminds me of childhood holiday gatherings. I have been known on occasion to put away nearly an entire can of it on my own, and I am not a big person by any means!
ReplyDeleteWell, I can't fight the power of a childhood memory! My sister makes a black-cherry Jell-O, walnut, and ground cranberry dish (our Granny's recipe) that is a lot of work and makes enough for an army...but I think it must have the same pull on her holiday memories. That's how I feel about my cornbread dressing....which goes really well with the cranberry sauce! wink!
ReplyDeleteFinally, I can log in. You would think I am a technopeasant.
ReplyDeleteAnyway. Thanks for the recipe. It will be on my table on Thursday.
~Marcie
What, you mean you don't make Mama Stamberg's Peptol Bismo Pink Cranberry Relish? I've always been meaning to try it, but we haven't made cranberry sauce in ages. As a child growing up in a home where cooking was not elevated to an art form, we always had the canned variety. One of my brothers still insists on the canned variety. I'll eat it either way.
ReplyDeleteYour cranberry sauce sounds rather like the boiled cranberry sauce my mother used to make. Back then, I didn't like cranberries, so I don't know what it tasted like. My dad loved it, though.
ReplyDeleteI have made the Stamberg Cranberry Relish several times, and I liked it. However, since I am the only one who will eat it, I don't make it very often. I usually make a cranberry/apple/walnut jello.