As we continue thinking about Thanksgiving, we come to a controversial subject…cranberries! Some people think it’s not Thanksgiving without a can of jellied cranberry sauce, some people like to make their own cranberry sauce, and some people apparently don’t like cranberry sauce at all – I don’t understand those people, but as they say, there’s one in every crowd!
I like making everyone happy, so we actually have three kinds of cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving – a can of jellied cranberry sauce, homemade whole berry cranberry sauce, and cranberry jello, and I like them all! If getting the jellied sauce out of the can is kicking your butt, my advice is open the can, carefully run a knife between the side of the can and the cranberry sauce, and if necessary, open the bottom of the can too. But I don’t think anyone’s reading this for that advice, so here are my recipes for two kinds of cranberry sauce – a traditional whole berry sauce and cranberry jello.
This whole berry cranberry sauce recipe is my niece Casey’s, but a version of it has been in my family forever – it started out as my grandfather’s contribution to Thanksgiving dinner. Believe it or not, this was actually my first published recipe! A while ago, I found my old high school newspaper, and apparently we did an article about Thanksgiving recipes and I contributed this! Who knew? Anyway, Casey inherited the job of making this when she was just a little kid, and she’s tweaked the recipe some, so this is really her recipe (and that’s her stove with a pot of cranberries on it).
Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce
12 oz bag fresh cranberries
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup orange juice
1 orange
- Rinse the cranberries in a colander and remove stems. Put the cranberries, water, and orange juice in a deep pan or pot and set to medium heat.
- Let the cranberries cook approximately 10 minutes, stirring often. They will start to pop…this is what you want. You can help them along with the back of a spoon.
- Add the cup of sugar gradually, stirring as you go (less can be added for a more tart sauce…feel free to taste before dumping the whole cup).
- Drop temp to low and zest peel of whole orange over top.
- Take apart orange segments so that there is no membrane, just the flesh. You can do this over a bowl or the pot itself so you don’t lose any juice! Add it all into the cranberry mixture.
- Stir to combine and taste…add more sugar or orange juice if too tart. Continue to cook on low and stir often until all ingredients are integrated and sauce is nice and thick.
- Serve that day or store covered in the refrigerator for up to two days.
- Top with Candied Orange Peel (below) if desired. [Note from Aunt Ally: you do desire that – the candied orange peel is yummy!]
Candied Orange Peel
2 Oranges
2 ½ Cups Sugar
4 Cups Water
- Peel oranges, keeping the peel in as many large sections as possible.
- Gently peel or cut away as much of the white pith as possible with a peeler or sharp knife
- Cut the peel into small strips, approximately ¼ “.
- Add 2 cups water to a small pot and add orange peel. Bring to a boil and cook for about 15 minutes (if using a thinner skinned citrus fruit like a clementine or mandarin, this step can be skipped)
- Remove orange peels from pot and set aside. Drain the water from the pot.
- Add 2 cups of water and two cups of sugar to the same pot and add back the orange peels. Bring to a boil, stirring often.
- Drop the temperature to a simmer and cook for approximately 45 minutes-1 hour with a watchful eye, stirring often You don’t want anything to stick to the bottom of the pan If it starts to bubble too much, drop the heat. The mixture will end up with a thick, syrupy consistency.
- Remove the peels from the pot and lay them out on a sheet of wax paper. Pull them apart as quickly as possible so they stay as individual strips and not one blob
- Sprinkle remaining sugar on orange peels while they are still warm. Roll them around to make sure they are fully covered
- Let cool (best when done in the refrigerator). Can last for days sealed and refrigerated.
Now, here is the cranberry jello recipe. I know some of you are running and hiding because when you think of jello molds, you picture something like this.
Now that you’ve recovered from that, I’m here to tell you that jello molds do not have to be disgusting! This is a light and delicious cranberry sauce – it’s kind of a middle ground between jellied cranberry sauce and whole berry cranberry sauce. Also, today is National Bundt Pan Day, and if you have a Bundt pan, this mold is an excellent use for it! I used to use a Bundt pan for this, but my mom gave me these adorable old individual jello molds and now I use them. If you don’t want to deal with the whole unmolding process, which is kind of a pain, what would be nice is to serve it in individual small glass dishes – you can often find nice ones at the dollar store (you knew I was going to say that, didn’t you?) or you may have some on hand.
Before we get to the recipe, here’s a picture to erase whatever that Spaghetti-o thing was from your mind!
Molded Cranberry Salad
2 boxes red jello (any flavor)
1 can whole berry cranberry sauce
8 oz. crushed pineapple, drained as much as possible (it’s ok if there’s some juice)
8 oz mandarin oranges, drained
8 oz chopped walnuts (optional, but even my husband who doesn’t like walnuts eats them in this)
- Boil 2 cups water.
- Add water to jello and stir until powder dissolves.
- Add cranberry sauce and stir until the jelly is dissolved. You should see the cranberries floating free.
- Add pineapple, oranges, and chopped walnuts.
- Pour into Bundt pan, individual serving dishes, or other container.
- Refrigerate 3 hours or until firm (I usually make it the night before).
- To unmold, leave dish at room temperature for about a half-hour and slide knife around edge of pan. If you forget to take the dish out in advance, you can put the dish in a shallow pot of hot water – be very careful not to get water into the jello and don’t leave it too long or it will melt (but it will firm up again in the fridge and it’s still delicious).
Note: you must use canned pineapple – jello will not set if you use fresh pineapple.
Hope this has expanded your cranberry horizons beyond the can!