Cranberry Sauce

Well, Thanksgiving is just around the corner and that means turkey and all the trimmings. Turkey is best when it has been brined for a couple of days. This helps to make the turkey really moist. You can get as creative as you want with your brine. Just start with the basics – salt and sugar, then add anything that sounds good like cloves, anise seeds, mustard seeds, bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, fennel seeds, oranges and lemons. The latest brine I did I even added some whole coffee beans. Yum!

 

Here is a great recipe for Cranberry Sauce:

 

Cranberry Sauce

 

1# Fresh Cranberries

1/2 C Fresh Orange Juice

1/2 C Water

Zest of 1 Orange

3/4 C Sugar

 

Rinse and sort cranberries (some will be soft or scabby looking – get rid of those).

 

Put Orange juice, water, zest and sugar in a pan and bring to a boil.

 

Add cranberries. Bring back to a boil and boil for 20 minutes.

 

Cool and Serve.

 

One of my favorite leftover meals is cold turkey with cranberry sauce. I don’t think I have ever had the canned cranberry sauce, but this fresh version is to die for.  Somehow, turkey just does not have the same oomph without cranberry sauce. When I first made this sauce I followed the recipe which was super simple – 1 C Water, 1 C Sugar and 1 pound cranberries.  What I learned is that oranges make such an amazing compliment to the cranberries that it just could not be overlooked. The great thing about using orange juice is you can also cut down on the sugar.

 

When in season (fall and winter), Costco brings in 2 pound bags of cranberries. Because this is kind of like a preserve or jam, it will last a long time in your fridge so I make up the whole two pounds at a time.

 

Another way to save the cranberries so you can have them any time of the year is to freeze them. I will take one pound portions and put them in “sucker bags” then toss them in the freezer. They thaw out quickly and work just as well for this sauce.

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