I had to make a jelled cranberry sauce for someone who prefers gelled over whole berry sauce, and I think I may actually be sold on it. You just can't get the flavor or the beautifully rich and creamy texture in a can, not even at a Whole Foods. This is pretty tart, by the way; I don't like how many manufacturers and individuals drown out the natural flavor in sweeteners.
Prep time: 5 mins
Cooking time: 1 hour 15 mins
Est. servings: 6 - 8
Today's Specimen
Ingredients
- 1 (12 oz.) bag whole cranberries
- 1 cup water
- ¾ cup sugar (I use evaporated cane juice)
- ¼ tsp. fresh ginger, grated fine
- ¼ tsp. lemon zest
- 2 whole cloves
- 1 star anise wedge (about the size of a large clove)
- ¼ tsp. cinnamon
- ⅛ tsp. allspice
- ⅛ tsp. nutmeg
Directions
- In a small sauce pot on medium heat add water, sugar, lemon zest, grated ginger, and spices until the water starts to roil.
- Turn the temperature down to medium-low and add the cranberries. Cook uncovered for ten minutes, making sure the sauce never comes to more than a simmer.
- Turn the temperature down to low and transfer the cranberry sauce mixture to a food processor and process for two to three minutes to ensure the cloves and star anise wedges are ground well down.
- Transfer back to the sauce pot and cover, cooking on low for an hour, checking every fifteen minutes or so to stir and watch the water level. Add two or three tablespoons of water after half an hour. You want it to be reduced down slightly and pretty thick, but not so much that it has a hard time sliding off a spoon when the spoon is held at about a sixty-degree angle.
- Transfer back to the food processor and process again, this time for just a minute to break up more plant fibers.
- Allow to cool for half an hour, covered.
- Place a fine metal mesh straining screen over a medium mixing bowl and spoon the sauce a half-cup at a time over it and with the back of a spoon spread around and press the liquid through, trying to get as much as can be gotten into the bowl. Scrape the fiber and throw away, then repeat the above until all of the sauce is strained thoroughly. Straining it one more time will get rid of all but the most persistent and fine plant and spice matter.
- Place the jelly in a container and let cool in the refrigerator for at least four hours before serving.
Placing the sauce in the refrigerator overnight before straining will result in a more spicy sauce, but one that may be so spicy as to occlude the cranberry taste.
Next Time in the Lab
The only thing I can imagine I'd do to change this is to see how replacing the two cloves with a juniper berry or two will affect the flavor. Other than that, I consider this sauce to be perfect.
- Substitute 1 juniper berry for the two cloves.
