If you don't like cranberry sauce I'll make sure Santa Claus kills you. Yeah, the cool one! Other than pomegranates and beets I can't think of any other fruit or vegetable that is such a brilliant, blood-stained garnet red in color. Thanks to a book I just finished, the gaping maw of the Midgard serpent comes to mind. This is a continuation of last year's spiced cranberry sauce, by the way.
Preparation: about 10 mins.
Cooking: about 30 mins.
Servings: 10 - 12
Est. cost: about $8
Today's Specimen
Ingredients
- 2 12 oz. packages of whole cranberries
- 1 cup brown sugar
- ¾ cup cane sugar
- 2 cups cold water
- 2 tsp. grated fresh ginger
- 2 tsp. lemon zest
- 1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
- 6 cloves
- 1 tsp. nutmeg
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- ⅛ tsp. (1 pinch) allspice
Directions
- In a medium pot on medium-low heat pour in the water and then stir in every ingredient other than the cranberries. Stir until everything's is dissolved evenly into the water and then add the cranberries.
- Cover the lid and as soon as the contents start to simmer drop the temperature down to low and slide the lid of the pot so it's slightly uncovered on two sides. Stir the contents every five to seven minutes and make sure the contents don't actually boil but remain at a low simmer.
- After half an hour of cooking leave the sauce to cool on the counter or wherever for a few hours and then let marinate in the fridge overnight before serving.
Next Time in the Lab
Close! Very close! So close, in fact, I'm not sure what I'd do to improve this sauce any. I suppose I could try it with a bit more lemon zest, but I'm very reluctant to mess with the pungent spices because they're all three of them pretty potent and I like the level of spiciness as it is.
- Increase the lemon zest to a full tablespoon.
- Toss a shot or two of pear brandy in it if I ever have the stuff and don't just drink it all.
