Berry the Lead
Molded Cranberry Sauce
This recipe is based on the OG kitchen staple, The Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book – It’s a binder and cookbook! – which outlines the correct proportions, so it’s easy to scale up or down, depending on the number of guests. The additional flavoring is pure autumnal inspiration, inspiration, though.
2 cups cranberries
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
(Hint: Juice one orange, then add water until you have one cup of liquid.)
Create flavor sachet using orange rind, cinnamon sticks, and a few cloves. The easiest way to do this is to put them in a coffee filter, tie the top with string.
Combine sugar and liquid in a sauce pan and stir until sugar dissolves. Continue to boil for about 5 minutes. Add cranberries to pot, then add:
Dash ginger
Fresh grated nutmeg
Flavor sachet; tie to a spoon and drop into the mixture to keep track of it.
Reduce heat to medium, and boil some more.
NOTE: Make 3–4 days ahead; keep refrigerated.
Cranberry sauce is an issue dividing our dining tables each Thanksgiving.
Some people yearn for the splosh of the gelatinous form, ridges from the can intact, displayed on a plate between the turkey and the yams.
Others long for a zingy relish, berries still visible, with pink liquid splattering on the tablecloth.
Does anybody eat either of those?
The answer is a little bit, just to be polite.
But what if you found a compromise between those two extremes – a molded form with a tart and layered taste! Cranberry détente is a possible. This magical concoction has the satisfying form people recognize as “cranberry sauce” coupled with fresh, complex flavors that complement the rest of the meal.
Boil cranberries
Really boil them. The trick to taking it from jelly to gelled is the boiling time.
Boil the hell out of the cranberries – Keep the boil going as long as you can and then wait a little bit longer. Usually about 15 minutes of rapid boiling will do the trick. Carefully remove the sachet before moving on the next steps.
The berries will pop as they heat, so stir, from a distance, to keep them boiling over or hopping out of the pot.
At this point you have a red, angry mess on your hands, a far cry from the glassy cranberry sauce of your dreams.
Cranberries, flavor sachet, food mill.
To smooth out the texture, I run the berries through a food mill. Pour the mixture into the mill and turn, working your way through all of the cranberries over large bowl. You will see that it has already start gelling.
This food mill dates from the 1960 at the absolute latest but it’s a safe bet you don’t have one lying around your kitchen. Should you not have an ancient food mill, you can run though cranberries through a strainer or colander for a similar effect.
From the bowl, pour the cranberries into a mold. I use a domed container, which both gives the cranberry sauce shape and allows for easy storage of leftovers. If you want to approximate the size and shape of the traditional can, use a jelly or Ball jar, just make sure the mouth is as wide as the body, or you’ll have a struggle on your hands.
For about 30 minutes of effort, you will have a Thanksgiving side dish that is fresh, flavorful, and delicious. People who think they don’t like cranberry sauce will like this one.
– Tricia Suit