so it begins…
tonight i made real cranberry sauce from scratch!
we never had cranberry from a can growing up; my uncle squire attended to the cranberry orange relish that was a staple on the thanksgiving table. and that relish* STAYED a staple for my entire 37 years…EXCEPT THIS YEAR. i’m changing it up.
sorry uncle squie 🙁
i went searching for a reasonable recipe to make cranberry sauce, and it turns out they’re all pretty reasonable. cranberries, juice, sugar. alton brown’s and the pioneer woman’s recipes were pretty similar, and they eschewed the refined sugar and went the natural route: honey and maple syrup, respectfully.
i went with the pioneer woman’s recipe as i like the taste of maple syrup over honey, and i doubled it.
it’s so simple, i can still remember it:
- bag of cranberries
- 1 cup cranberry juice
- 1 cup syrup
- orange zest
- 3 tblsp orange juice (i put a little more than that)
(i also threw in a pinch of salt.)
so what we’re doing here, effectively, is making a cranberry JAM. bring it to a boil and then let it simmer for 10-15 minutes. i then poured it into jam jars, and now they’re all sitting in my garage waiting for thursday, when it will be served cold.
i’m hoping the stuff holds their jar shapes so we can make them jiggle.
(also, i might add, my new kitchen is MUCH more conducive to good food photography.)
(except when i can’t focus, apparently.)
*relish: throw cranberries and a whole orange into a food processor. blend. throw in a bowl and mix with a boatload of sugar. taste. probably add more sugar. serve cold.