Cranberry Sauce

Few things in life cause as much division between people as cranberry sauce. You either love it or hate it.

With Thanksgiving only a couple days away, it’s time to think of make ahead items, and what turkey dinner would be complete without cranberry sauce? Now, I know what you are all thinking, sauce is a rather loose term for a sliced, gelatinized, can-imprinted piece of “fruit”, but I assure you that making your own is not only simple, but well worth the time. So to further entice you, I’ve included my recipe for cranberry sauce and I hope you do try making it yourself.

Cory’s Cranberry Sauce

1 12 oz bag fresh cranberries
2 oranges, zested and juiced
½ cup orange juice (or water)
1 cup sugar (more if needed, to taste)
2 teaspoons cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg, ground or freshly grated
½ teaspoon cardamom
2 tablespoons cornstarch

In a medium saucepan combine cranberries, orange juice and zest, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmering and cook until cranberries are tender, stirring occasionally. In a small cup, stir the cornstarch into 2 tablespoons cold water then whisk the mixture into the cranberry sauce and cook, continuing to whisk, until the sauce thickens. Taste and add more sugar if necessary.

A couple suggestions to consider would be replacing the additional orange juice or water with a good Port, something I always say I want to try but never do. You can usually find Port with other fortified wines. Another would be to use an orange flavored liquor for a quarter cup and using a quarter cup water, as orange and cranberries have an uncanny affinity for each other. And isn’t uncanny what we’re going for on Thanksgiving?