I like just about any kind of cranberry relish or sauce, even the jell stuff. I have 3 bags of fresh cranberries in my fridge and I will probably fix a bag today just for me to have to eat on, it does freeze. However it won't be around that long, :)

Sue

Oh I feel for you. I love the cranberry sauce with whole cranberries but hate the jellied kind.

I think I noticed that too. We like the Ocean Spray whole cranberry and it does seem that they are cheap with the cranberries. But, since we don't even mind the jelled, it was fine.

At our garden club thanksgiving luncheon recently at a restaurant that prepares it for us I too noticed that the canned cranberry sauce had much more jelly that berries. The berries were few and far between. I much prefer homemade.

Cranberries freeze so nicely. You could buy a bag and only make 1/4 of it into sauce, if you wanted, and make the rest throughout the year. And it's so simple to make, takes just a few minutes, really.

Wen usually have both types on our table the jellied for the children and my husband makes the berry type out of a bag. He follows the directions on the bag and it is delicious. Our older son had never had it before and he loved it too. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving

a 12 ounce bag of cranberries makes a little more than 2 cups of sauce, the equivalent of 2 cans. You could make up 1/2 bag and freeze the other half. Fresh-made is better tasting than canned, IMO.

I tasted home-made cranberry sauce for the first time yesterday. Went to my daughter's and she had made it. It was good -- not as sweet as the commercial ones.

I'm always experimenting with jams and jellies....trying to reduce the sugar content....so, yesterday, after making some apple butter (from apples taking room in the fridge from our tree)...I used Apple Cider and no sugar in our Cranberry sauce. Took a long time to get those berries to pop, then more to thicken; but the sauce turned out really good, with a new kind of tartness. I only used 2 cups of berries and cider for water plus a bit more. (OHMYGOSH, the cider had 30g of sugar per whatever....shocking, so we are not drinking it.)

I prefer to make my own and use the recipe on the package of fresh berries. We have the "whole berry" can stuff as backup, but it seems to have less whole berries every year. I also like the fresh berries for cranberry orange bread. We always made that for the holidays.

My brother makes this recipe. I would like to try it out someday, but DH is a purist. Anyone ever made it? Any good?

Cranberry Sauce
Extraordinaire

Ingredients

1 cup water

1 cup white sugar

1 (12 ounce) package fresh cranberries

1 orange, peeled and pureed

1 apple - peeled, cored and diced

1 pear - peeled, cored and diced

1 cup chopped dried mixed fruit

1 cup chopped pecans

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions

In a medium saucepan, boil water and sugar until the
sugar dissolves. Reduce the heat to simmer, and stir in cranberries, pureed
orange, apple, pear, dried fruit, pecans, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Cover,
and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the cranberries burst.
Remove from heat, and let cool to room temperature.

Verrrrry Interesting!

Susan last year I was disappointed with the canned "whole" cranberry sauce. So I looked at a large bag of cranberries at the market that were being sold for $1.50. The directions on the bag to make whole cranberry sauce seemed very simple. 3 cups cranberry, one cup sugar and one cup water- simmer 10 minutes. I thought what the heck I'll do it. The sauce was just that simple and delicious. I put the rest of the berries in the freezer and will add them to some dishes or baking in the next few weeks.

Just want to give you another reason to keep frozen cranberries on hand. They make an ok substitute for bags of frozen corn or peas when an injury needs to be treated with an ice pack. LOL

Has anyone tried Cranberry Pie? A family favorite for years.

2 Cups cranberries, 1/2 cu sugar, 1/2 cu walnuts in a buttered 9" pie pan.

Then cream 3/4 cu melted butter, 1 cu sugar, 1 cu flour, 2 eggs, 1 tsp almond extract and pour over berries, etc and bake at 325 for 50 minutes.

You'd call that "cold comfort", no doubt?

Cranberries are great ... pretty well no matter how fixed.

o j

I use a Cooks Illustrated recipe with similar elements to caflower that I've adapted. It would be a riff on her recipe, another way with different flavors to prepare fresh cranberries which is easy and more tasty than what comes out of a can.

Starting with her recipe, subtract orange and juice, cinnamon, nutmeg and pecans, use 2/3s cup of sugar instead of 1 cup (which I find makes it too sweet for one cranberry package) and add a full tablespoon of freshly ground ginger. Dissolve sugar in water over heat, add remaining ingredients, heat to boil and then simmer until 2/3rds of the berries have burst. Turn off heat, allow to cool.

I make a cranberry salad that everyone likes....whipped cream, pineapple, etc. This year I made relish, using a Kraft recipe.

Jello Cranberry Pineapple relish

1 can (8 oz) crushed pineapple , undrained

1 12 oz. pkg cranberries

1 3 oz. pkg orange flavored gelatin

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup chopped nuts (I didn't use this year)

Drain pineapple, reserving juice. Add enough water to juice to make one cup. Pour everything except nuts to medium sauce pan. Mix well, and bring to boil. Stir frequently. Reduce heat to medium and cook until cranberries are softened, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat, and stir in nuts. Pour into small bowl and refrigerate six hours our until firm. Stir before using.

I like the jellied canned stuff, actually, but I make fancy cranberry sauce for the big day. I like to change it up from time to time, and I've tried many different recipes from Bon Appetit and Gourmet magazines over the years. A nice easy one is uses port wine instead of water, and it's cooked with orange slices and cinnamon sticks. (You discard the orange and sticks before serving.) This year, I used a recipe for Cranberry Cherry relish from the latest "Better Homes and Gardens, Our Best Recipes of the Season." It was cranberries, orange juice, and dried tart cherries, with sugar and white wine. Very nice, not too sweet.

And a new-to-me Cranberry Relish my DD made for our feast. We loved it.

Cranberry Relish
Best made a day ahead.
3 cups cranberries (12 ounce bag)
1 cup apple juice
1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1 large apple, cored and chopped
Combine cranberries, apple juice, sugar and allspice in a medium size nonreactive saucepan.
Bring to boiling over low heat. Simmer, uncovered 5 minutes.
Add chopped apple, cook 5 minutes more.
Serve warm or chilled. Ours was chilled.