amylou - Can I just ask about your recipe and the call for dried cranberries- I don't think dried cranberries pop so should this be fresh cranberries?

Blfenton,it has both fresh AND dried cranberries. Fresh cranberries is the first ingredient.....

The dried cranberries and cherries add a different flavor and texture.

Whole cranberries, less sugar, an orange, and walnuts. Tart and crunchy.

Made Elmer's pear, ginger version last Christmas. It was a huge hit ---- hope I saved the recipe.

I am a heathen and like both. To the fresh which for me is normally cranberries and sugar to taste then cooked until the thickness I want. Some years berries are sweeter than other years which is why to taste. I can add sugar later when I add juice from half of a lemon if it needs it. I have also added bourbon when I had some that I did not like the flavor of when drinking it.

Elmer, I would like that recipe, thanks! And thanks to everyone else too.

I like the fresh kind and the ground up relish type. Not a fan of the canned.

After cooking down the berries let them cool a little and push them through a sieve, that will get the skins out. So you'll have the better taste without the lumps/skins. I like to put them in a small mold and serve them on a plate, looks pretty.

I cheat. I buy the cans of cranberry SAUCE, not jelly. I add fresh-squeezed orange juice and the zest of a couple of oranges. It's delicious!

I just downloaded it, then enlarged it. Sounds good!

Great, thanks Mary. If you try it, I hope you enjoy it. It's easy enough to test out before the holiday if you want, not too much of a commitment. We make it from time to time, not just Thanksgiving, when we find fresh cranberries (or if we have frozen some fresh bags, that works too).

If you want a good way to keep fresh ginger, freeze it. Before freezing, cut it into one to two inch chunks first and peel off the "bark" with a spoon. Right, a spoon, it comes right off. Frozen ginger hunks (kept individually wrapped in plastic wrap and then the hunks all together in a baggie) can be easily grated with a microplane and used immediately.

I use Bosc pears, it's the type I like best anyway but the recipe says "firm, ripe" pears and Boscs stay firm when ripe.

I know, I know, but I'm another who prefers the canned jelly over fresh/homemade. Yep, I've made it from scratch many times and it's always been a hit, but I still like sliding that jelly roll out of the can and slicing it using the marks left by the can as my size guideline.

@amylou - sorry for not reading properly. I missed the first line and then focused on the dried cranberries. I like the idea of the dried cranberries so I may try this recipe.

No worries. The base of this recipe came from a magazine,I dont remember which one, but it was still runny,so the next batch I added the dried cranberries and dried cherries to kind of soak it up. It really turned out well!!!

Isn't fresh-anything better than canned-anything? It is for me. I didn't look but I'll bet the canned cranberry products are made with high fructose corn syrup. Not that sugar is all that better for you, but corn syrup is definitely not good to eat.

I also find the canned stuff it too sweet.

Another 'heathen; here, I like the canned jellied cranberry sauce. But I also like the canned whole berry sauce, jarred cranberry orange relish, fresh homemade cranberry orange sauce and/or relish, homemade without any orange in it, homemade with some spices in it (cinnamon & cloves, mainly, maybe a bit of ginger). I'm going to have to try both Amylou's and Elmer's recipes, they both sound really good. I love cranberries!

Rusty

PS Adding a shot or so of bourbon sounds pretty good too! ! !

Isn't fresh-anything better than canned-anything?

Usually, but not when it comes to cranberry sauce.

I may try a few of the above recipes and the hint about getting rid of the skins. Will report back eventually. thanks! Oh and Elmer, yes the canned stuff is very sweet but you only eat a little bit with all that other food so not like you're eating the entire can at once or even 1/4 of it...at least I don't.

I'm a lover of canned cranberry sauce. Love love a great turkey, cranberry, stuffing sandwich, the day after. :o)

Go get yourself an insulin shot after eating all the sugar and bread in that carb bomb sandwich!

It makes sense that people may enjoy canned cranberry sauce because it's been consistent and familiar over the years. But not better than fresh and usually much too sweet. I've had this conversation with many friends of similar age and I've encountered just one whose parents cooked from scratch with fresh and seasonal real ingredients that we all had access to in our area. The rest of us boomers ate a lot of the developing "convenience recipes" using prepared foods and canned this and that. Most of us learned in our adult years to prefer and prepare better stuff. But not everyone. I have a couple of relatives my age who still eat as if it were still 1962. Tastes are personal, no doubt.

Tastes are personal, no doubt.

Yep.

And at Christmas Dinner it takes me quite a while to finish my dinner as I need to finish my turkey, my dressing and the cranberry sauce all at the same time with nothing left over on my plate. So I'm having to constantly get more of something to balance it all out so that my final forkful has a little of each with nothing left on my plate.

And yes the sandwiches the next day.

I like cranberry sauce skins and all. We also put jellied cranberry to use after Thanksgiving. For post thanksgiving, we put slices of left over turkey on thin sliced bread with a slice of cranberry jelly.

Cranberry jelly is great with left over stuffing, that is, if there is any. At our house, the stuffing is the first to disappear.

I've had fresh berry cranberry sauce, offered with side condiments of pure maple syrup, salt, pepper, cinnamon. It was tasty, but not a favorite.

My adult sons like the cranberries as a topping on what they call their bowl Thanksgiving lunch. Meat, stuffing, potatoes and veg piled into a bowl and microwaved. Topped with a dollop of cranberries. I cannot even look at that mess. They love it and it doesn't dirty many dishes!

Count me in, Glenda, we could eat together the day after :)

Since I'm often cooking many other dishes and since several of my family prefer the canned jellied cranberry sauce I have often just bought that. Last year though I bought canned whole cranberry sauce, which I remember from when I was a kid as at least looking like the fresh made stuff. The one I bought was almost indistinguishable from the canned jellied stuff, with only perhaps a dozen cranberry fragments

I also like canned cranberry sauce, both the jellied and the whole berry. I almost always have some at hand, as I like it as a condiment with various meats (it's not just for turkey, you know!!) and always include some on a chicken sandwich and even on deli turkey sandwiches. I also make a mean coffee cake that is topped with cranberry sauce and streusel. Since I use it year round and not just during fresh cranberry season, canned cranberry sauce hits the mark both for taste and convenience.

I am the family jam/jelly/chutney maker and I get the request to bring cranberry sauce for holiday dinners. I have made various recipes over the years and generally make two types each season - the standard cranberry-orange relish and one that is 'different'..........could include other fruit (have done with both pears and apples and raisins), less common seasonings (horseradish, jalapenos, red pepper flakes, herbs), nuts, booze. Never the same twice :-))

As to fresh always being preferable to canned.....not necessarily :-) There are some things I prefer canned rather than fresh. Creamed onions are a favorite at holiday dinners (and at other times as well) and I much prefer using canned (jarred) onions rather than fresh or frozen. They have a distinct flavor that is unmistakeable to me and a requirement of the dish........I can always tell when fresh or frozen onions are used as it just doesn't taste "right"!

So yes, it is a matter of taste.......and no one has the right to disapprove of someone else's taste preference or to demean or imply that because they do not share your tastes, they are somehow lacking in either taste or cooking skills!!

Well said:

So yes, it is a matter of taste.......and no one has the right to disapprove of someone else's taste preference or to demean or imply that because they do not share your tastes, they are somehow lacking in either taste or cooking skills!!

Growing up, nobody in the house much cared for cranberries, but because it was part of the meal, and Mom had a special serving bowl that had belonged to G-grandma, Mom would always buy the smallest can of jellied sauce she could find and put it on the table. I always had a little bit, so grew accustomed to it. It doesn't seem like you can compare it to fresh cranberries though- isn't that like comparing fresh strawberries to strawberry preserves? Two different beasts?

My inlaws make a killer fresh cranberry, fruit, jello version that is wonderful. I don't have the recipe. It is a family recipe and they are a little peculiar about sharing things like that for some reason. You'd think after 30 years I might be family...

So anyhow, I'll take whatever is available and eat it happily :^)

Quasifish, I bet one of these is the recipe.

https://www.google.com/search?q=fresh+cranberry%2C+fruit%2C+jello+version&oq=fresh+cranberry%2C+fruit%2C+jello+version&aqs=chrome..69i57&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Maybe you should try a relish. The ingredients are pretty much the same, A cup of sugar, a bag of whole berries and orange peel. You chop them fine in a food chopper and let it set 24 hours. We love both compote and this but maybe the texture all being fine chop would work better for you?

Glenda, I wish I could like your post more than once.

ETA: Gardengal, yours also. At the moment, I have fresh, frozen, and dried cranberries in the house. They are used in muffins, with turkey, Swedish meatballs, and pork roasts among other things.

Elmer, it is not exactly what you say.......It is far more of a case of how you say it. You may not realize it and I doubt you detect it in your own postings but you often come across as condescending and with a strong degree of self righteousness that your way is the best way and everyone else are fools not follow or agree.

Judging from the amount of flak many of your posts generate on this forum, I am obviously not the only one who finds a lot of your comments - or the way your opinions are communicated - borderline offensive.

Mansplaining to the tenth degree.

Everyone has an opinion. I enjoy Elmer's view mainly because he may not go with the flow. Seems to me the same people are always ready to jump on him.

If he would write what he likes and quit ripping everyone else. It is always something with what I post. He knocks me, Glenda, Mamapinky, and several others. Anything certain people post is always got too much fat, too much sugar, too much salt. He knocked me on my turkey on another thread, until I got so mad, I deleted everything. It is back up again. I reposted. He had the nerve (after complaining of too much salt and sugar in something else) to tell me to BRINE my turkey.

If he doesn't like something, that would be fine! Why does he not just post a recipe of what he DOES like, instead of saying, " Sherry, you are ______. you need to ____. you only like it because you don't know any better, ect." Yes, he is very condescending and obnoxious. I could just ignore him easier if he didn't have to keep on directing comments to me by name. If he will leave me alone, I will be very glad to NEVER post about him again!

ETA: This is the condescending post.

Elmer J Fudd

sherry, I'd be concerned that with a closed lid, you're really steaming the turkey and not roasting it. The resulting flavor could be very different between the two. You could always brine or buy a brined turkey to help insure the meat is moist.

Even easier is to buy a good turkey and check the internal temperature periodically and carefully to avoid overcooking that results in dry meat.

Here's a hint we learned - apparently turkeys that meet the requirements of being "kosher" are treated with salt and remain very moist as if brined. Here's a good article by an expert, J Kenji Lopez-Alt (formerly of Cooks Illustrated) that can also serve as introduction to their excellet website Serious Eats

Lopez-Alt on turkeys

Later edit to add:

This comment makes no sense now because the comment it was responding to seems to have been deleted. In that deleted comment, the person said they cooked a turkey in a roasting pan with a tightly sealed lid as a way to keep the meat moist. That's why I suggested that the resulting steaming method was probably not a good choice and missed all the good flavors that develop by roasting and browning the skin. I doubt anyone has seen a recipe for cooking a turkey by steaming it, I know I haven't.

Yes, I like my turkey. My family likes my ROAST turkey and I don't need an idiot telling me how to cook my turkey. He DID NOT just post his way, he had to tell me I was wrong! This is what is wrong with "Elmer".

Sorry, as soon as the name calling starts, you lose credibility with me.

Thanks dolly, I think you get it.

Anyone who likes steamed turkey should of course go ahead and make it that way. Few people cook it that way because they find results are better with other methods. Isn't mentioning this reality not so much a criticism but more so an observation?

Most people are open to ideas of others and enjoy learning from them. No one needs to agree with me, nor me with them, but I find I learn from people who disagree with me and you may too. Others like to close down when hearing a disagreeing view. Fine with me, but you're as much a cause of your reaction as I am. I'm sharing a different perspective or a different idea, not criticizing. I don't ever intend to offend but I know I am direct. Thanks.

edit to add:

Name calling?

After brining a turkey, it's rinsed thoroughly inside and out to remove the surface salt. The salt is used in brining anything to help the water be absorbed, not to make it salty.

Quit addressing post to me Elmer and I'll let you be a jerk! ETA: If you would actually open your mind, you might could learn something from me!

' I don't need an idiot to. . . .'

I was in a group earlier this year and someone mentioned the term "Mansplaining". One of the female members apparently wasn't familiar with the term, and asked "What is Mansplaining?"

In the back of my mind I heard the voice of Admiral Akbar frantically saying "Itss a Trap, Itss a Trap!"

I don't have a recipe but wanted to say that I'd never tried anything but the canned sauce that you like. It was all my mom ever had and I didn't like it. But, a few years back my sil made a sauce that was delicious. It had a tang to it but with a bite of turkey, it was sooo good. I hope you find a great recipe to make for your daughter.

As an interesting aside Cranberry sauce is with mint jelly a left over from the days when people routinely ate fruit pastes and jellies of all sorts with their meat.

I also just follow the package directions with a little less sugar, cranberries want to jell and a lot of sugar to make the reaction isn't necessary, and then I run the resultant popped mush through a sieve or one of the various doohickies that I have for removing seeds and skins, put it back in the pot with the sugar and cook to jelling stage. it sets up beautifully and I use a nice mold for a pretty shape as people did in the good old days when any table had multiple shaped jellies. The taste is definitely superior to canned but if tradition is why you have it on the table sliced carefully to match the rings on the can then that isn't as important is it?

AMEN!!! gardengal

Patriciae - I don't think the taste would be superior to me, but then that's just my personal tastebuds. I've made the homemade jellied version as you suggested and well, its just not superior for me but its great that you and yours like it better. I will say that I was able to put the homemade jellied sauce into a sheet pan to chill and it was easier for my granddaughters to do their cut outs using the little leaf and acorn pattern cookie cutters that we still do for a pretty Thanksgiving platter. It looks so pretty and those girls are now grown up but they still make the pretty cut outs. It is not our tradition to cut the canned stuff into can size rings.

“He had the nerve (after complaining of too much salt and sugar in something else) to tell me to BRINE my turkey.”

Now, that’s funny!

A properly brined turkey iis not salty. The solution is used to plump the bird with water thus making it moist. Rinsing removes surface salt.

I have a new recipe tucked away that includes port wine. Not sure what port wine tastes like, but I’ll find out.