cranberries: candied, fruity and drunk
I’m not sure if it was because I was a vegetarian and without the turkey, the cranberry sauce made no sense, because I thought it always came from a can in a fun-to-play-with but terrifying-to-eat cylinder, or because I just didn’t like it, but I never ate cranberry sauce growing up. It wasn’t until my first year in New York when I lived in a worn and infested fourth-floor walkup on Avenue B with my friend Dan that I had the real deal, and completely fell in love. Dan’s from Massachusetts and from what I understand, they take cranberry sauce pretty seriously up there, or at least he did, simmering, zesting oranges and carefully sifting through the rinsed bag for deflated or still stem-attached berries. This classic cranberry sauce recipe (which I am sure he’ll tell me I’m getting wrong) will always be my favorite, stirred into plain or vanilla yogurt or simply taken spoon-to-mouth. I hedge on the sugar a little, preferring it on the tart side, but I never skimp on the orange peel, as there’s a reason it is so often paired with cranberries: they bring out the best in each other. A few julienned or thick-zested strips in the sauce is one of my favorite parts; simmered in the stunning rouge syrup, they candy like an orangette, and are a fantastic surprise when you run across them in your hungry tasting. Lest you need any more evidence of its greatness, look how little we have left from a week ago.
The second cranberry sauce is Alex’s mother’s recipe and his family’s absolute favorite, despite my efforts to convert them to the back-of-the-bag classic. It’s terrifyingly simple (I’ll let you find out for yourself at the end, but promise that you’ll laugh), but I’m warning you, addictive. With mixed berries and walnuts, it seems more dessert than dinner, in my opinion, and the spoonful we had over vanilla gelato two nights ago was almost unbearably delicious. Alex’s mother told him she had a new recipe to try this year – something with jalapenos and ingredients that scare me – and he said, “sure, sounds good, but only if you make the other one, too.”
The final recipe is a new one and for the record, my husband was absolutely horrified at the thought of it, but I persevered. I mean, port? Love it. Balsamic? Ditto. Dried figs? Yum. Black pepper? Intriguing. Rosemary? Could be. Brown sugar? Hells yeah. All together with cranberries? Er, ah, …it took me an hour to even try it and even now, I’m just not sure I fell in love. (Right now, Alex is biting his tongue, but I’m sure it won’t be long until he says “told you so!”). It’s … (hang on, let me try it again) … wine-y. I think it would go well with turkey, or even some roasted potatoes. I’m just not sure it’s good for spooning, and if there’s anything the above two recipes should hint to you, it’s that I like the stand-alone cranberry sauce. At your Thanksgiving table, however, I’m sure it will get no complaints, a sauce for the sauced grownups, if you will.
Homemade Whole Cranberry Sauce
Adapted from the back of the Ocean Spray cranberry bag, and my friend Dan
Makes 2 1/4 cups
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup water
1 (12-ounce) package fresh or frozen cranberries, rinsed, drained and sorted through, removing any stems or deflated ones
Several julienned strips of orange peel, or thick pieces of zest
A few squeezes of orange juice
Combine water and sugar in a medium saucepan. Bring to boil; add cranberries and zest, return to boil. Reduce heat and boil gently for 10-14 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add a few squeezes of fresh orange juice. Cover and cool completely at room temperature. Refrigerate until serving time.
Alex’s Mother’s Cranberry Sauce
1 15-ounce can jellied cranberry sauce
1 15-ounce can whole-berry cranberry sauce
1 bag frozen mixed berries, not defrosted
1 handful chopped walnuts
Break up the jellied cranberry sauce into chunks in a large bowl. Add remaining ingredients. Stir. Frozen berries will melt as it sits.
Cranberry Sauce with Port and Dried Figs
Adapted from Bon Appetit, November 2001
Makes about 3 1/2 cups
1 2/3 cups ruby Port
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
8 dried black Mission figs, stemmed, chopped
1 6-inch-long sprig fresh rosemary
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 12-ounce bag fresh cranberries
3/4 cup sugar
Combine first 6 ingredients in medium saucepan. Bring to boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat to low and simmer 10 minutes. Discard rosemary. Mix in cranberries and 3/4 cup sugar. Cook over medium heat until liquid is slightly reduced and berries burst, stirring occasionally, about 6 minutes. Cool. Transfer sauce to bowl; chill until cold.
Do ahead: Cranberry sauce can be prepared 1 week ahead. Cover and keep refrigerated.
I make three versions of cranberry too … as usual, the photos are inspiring!
This is great. Thank you. I am going to make it for Grandma’s Thanksgiving dinner. I will make it the day before, so please be on Standby so i can call and ask you what the hell julienned means.
I love this! I am a cranberry fanatic, from making sauce to muffins to scones. I honestly would invest in Ocean Spray, if I had the financial resources, just to support the cranberry industry. I probably go through several bags of craisins (dried cranberries) a month at work alone. I’ve never tried cranberry sauce in my yogurt…I’m so going to try that one day!
I rarely make it, since I live alone and my boyfriend is in Texas. Thank you so much for posting some beautiful photos of your glorious sauces, you made my mouth pucker and water at the same time.
I’ve never actually had any cranberry sauce that wasn’t can shaped. I didn’t know cranberry sauce came any other way! I might have to try my hand at one of these recipes soon.
Each one of these looks like it has serious intentions realized! I must try at least one soon. I just used my 3 lb bag to make juice and next I want to do the coffee cake I did last year. Then it ought to be Thanksgiving and one of these should be on the table.
Deb…
To the top recipe add/do the following..
Reduce the water by like 1/2… replace it with orange juice AND lemon juice… near the end of the cooking add some Vanilla..yes, thats right Vanilla..
I was like you till about 4 years ago about cranberry sauce.. blah hated it.. seemed pointless sitting there with all the other beautifully cooked items on the table.. i gave it a try 1 year.. i was like.. cmon people it’ll be yummie i swear (with a can on standby in the fridge “just in case”) It was totally gobbled up. The Vanilla adds a lil some some and it makes perfect sense once you try it… next time you make it, add a lil, please, do it for me… you’ll thank me.
My favorite dish, next to the stuffing. Now I need a recipe for string bean casserole and sweet potato casserole. I’ve already got my Mom’s recipe for stuffing. I think the dogs and I are going to have our own Thanksgiving feast since my Dad is pretty stingy with the leftovers.
I forgot to metion that we’ll probably be doing fried turkey. My friend has an excellent recipe for the marinade that we inject it with.
Okay. The journalist side of my brain must pose the question. Why are you a vegetarian? How long have you persued the lifestyle? Any regrets? Just can’t leave my day job alone….
And the sauces, by the way, do look intriguing. No doubt we’ll have them alongside our bird. And as I was reading early in the post about your excess, I was going to suggest you use them to glaze a pork roast — it is especially delish this time of year. Then I read the next piece about your food choices…and thought that’s a wasted idea! LOL!
Er.. ummmm
I also add a smidge of cinnamon and a few gratings of nutmeg…
Those all sound tasy to me. I tried making the Ocean Spray recipe one year, only to have my fiance complain about it and demand the canned stuff. Maybe I’ll try again this year :)
About not eating cranberries as a kid, I didn’t either but I love them now. I read somewhere that as you age you lose your bitter tastebuds or something like that, so you start to enjoy bitter foods that you didn’t like as a kid, such as cranberries or broccoli or what have you.
I’ve always put a splash of bourbon in my Ocean-Spray-adapted recipe, but I’ll try it with orange peels as well this time!
I have to admit, I have always *cringe* been a fan of the canned stuff. But this year I am seriously considering making a batch of my own. I mean, if I liked the canned stuff so much, I should LOVE fresh right??
I forgot to request the day before Thanksgiving off this year for my prepping, I hope work lets us out early so I can start working on all the yummies!! =)
I LOVE Thanksgiving! =)
i have a couple suggestions… one, use blood oranges (zest and juice) if you can find them, and add about 2-3 T of cointreau or other orange flavored liqueur. wait… a third and fourth too: definitely add a skosh of black pepper, and a bit of vanilla. the cranberries are the only thing i look forward to at thanksgiving. :)
The first recipes is closest to the version I make, which includes crystallized ginger (yum!): http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/2870
Have you tried the Mamma Standburg’s (may be spelling it wrong) cranberry relish from NPR. It’s got sour cream and a little bit of horseradish in it–i’ve never tried it (it’s not for spooning, and i’m a vegetarian) but it’s a favorite at Thanksgiving. Just google NPR cranberry relish, and you’ll be sure to find it.
Good Luck!
ohhhh the second recipe is GOLD.
I don’t eat Turkey but I LOVE cranberry sauce. I live in MA but discovered it in college in San Diego when I made a complete Thanksgiving dinner with everyone’s “Add up all your Turkey points from shopping here and we’ll give you a free Turkey” Turkey. Off the top of my head, my recipe included the obvious ingredient of cranberries but I also used brown sugar and one small can of Dole pineapple/orange juice. Honestly, I can’t remember anything else except that I ate Turkey that year just to eat the sauce. The recipe called for either pineapple or orange juice and I took a leap of faith. Geez….now I’m hungry……
i have a step by step instruction for mama stamberg’s cranberry relish on my site. it’s a glorious savory relish that is a melange of flavors with cranberry as only one element. i serve it every thanksgiving.
I had the small but essential job of providing the cranberry sauce this Thanksgiving. Usually I go for chutney-style, but when I found myself at the grocery store without my list of ingredients I could only recall Alex’s Mother’s recipe. It was so simple and absolutely delicious! Thank you!
My family loves cranberry sauce — even though they are all vegetarians. We don’t do the turkey thing, but we have everything else including stuffing with a really good vegetarian gravy.
I love the cranberry recipe with the orange peel. It’s very close to the one I make — I just make use of the whole orange by juicing it and substituting the freshly squeezed orange juice for the water. Really good.
You MUST try Ina Gartens Cranberry Compote. OMGoodness…it’s the best. I probably made 5 batches of it between Thanksgiving and New Years 2007. We couldn’t get enough of the stuff. I’m on cranberry duty from now on, according to the family!
Oooops…Cranberry CONSERVE is the name of Ina’s recipe.
I made the homemade whole cranberry sauce today to serve with a roasted pork loin. It was delicious! I’m making a double batch this weekend for two early Thanksgiving dinners. Thank you for an easy recipe that tastes superb!
I made the homemade whole cranberry sauce recipe over the weekend for Canadian Thanksgiving – I was amazed at how easy it was, and how different it tasted to what I am used to (the Australian jar of cranberry sauce) Loved hearing the cranberries pop in the saucepan too! I am keen to make it again, just so I can tinker with the seasonings and flavours!