Cranberry Sauce

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As I stated in my blog yesterday, I wasn't a very big fan of cranberry sauce until recently. I use to love the kind that came in a can and you couldn't get me to touch the real thing with a 10 foot pole. Then one year my husband's company had a Thanksgiving potluck at work. He signed up to bring cranberry sauce. I asked him if he wanted canned or homemade. He settled for homemade. I had never made cranberry sauce from scratch before but I had just seen a show on TV that made it look easy, so I gave it a try, but made up my own recipe of what I thought would be good. I just threw some things in a pot with the cranberries and cooked it until it looked done. I didn't try it and I sent it with my husband to his work party. He came home and said he was a hit. There was none left and everyone said it was the best cranberry sauce they've ever made. So I wrote down what I did. Next year at Thanksgiving I made if for my family, and again it was a big hit. It gets requested every year and I now eat cranberry sauce. We use it instead of gravy and it is awesome on turkey. 


Cranberry Sauce
1 bag of cranberries that have been washed
1 cup orange juice
1/3 cup water
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 tsp salt
1/3-1 cup sugar*

Put the cranberries into a 2 quart pot and add juice, water, salt, and cinnamon stick and bring to a boil. Once boiling bring down to a simmer. Stir occasionally. Once berries have popped and let out their juice taste test and add sugar and stir. Keep cooking the cranberries till they have reduced by half, this should take about 20-30 mins. The sauce should be a deep red and syrup like in texture. Fish out the cinnamon stick and serve.

* The amount of sugar depends on the tartness of the berries. I've had to add 1 1/2 cups for 1 bag of cranberries, but than only needed 1/3 cup for 2 bags. I used organic this time around so that might have made the difference. Just add a little bit of sugar at a time till it is the sweetness you like.