24.11.08

cranberries cranberries cranberries!

It's that time of year which means I'll be making cranberry sauce, partly to take to Bill & Marianna's Thursday. Since Jessica and I were talking about it on the phone the other day I thought I'd share the recipe with you all just in case you don't have it handy and want to make some yumminess.

Cranberry Relish
(from my great grandmother Mary Jamison Core, to my grandmother Grace Muse Core Booth, to my mom Sara Lee Booth Clay, to me)

  • 1 lb. cranberries
  • 3 oranges
  • 3 cups of sugar
Sort cranberries (like beans), wash and grind. Finely grate orange zest of all three oranges on grater. Add the juice of the oranges and some of the pulp into the mixture. Add sugar, combine thoroughly, refrigerate, and let stand at least overnight (2 to 3 days is best).
That's Mom's original wording (except for the parenthesized part). Funny - one of the things I always tell people when I give out the recipe is that they need to figure out a way to grind coarsely - the "grind" here was always done via a meat grinder when I was growing up - doubtless that's the way Grandma Booth did it and her mom, too. So anyway on NPR the other morning Susan Stamberg was talking about her favorite cranberry relish recipe and she said she grinds hers with an old hand-crank meat grinder, too. I don't have a meat grinder so I always use my Moulinex with the food processing attachment on it but it still is sometimes too runny. Last year I drained half the liquid off for about a day before serving and it turned out great. That is, I drained it for about a day and then I added half the liquid back into the pulpy part. It was the perfect consistency for the first time in ages. For years it's been too runny. Anyway take all of this into consideration when you make yours. Oh and for the record I always go ahead and put all the orange juice in, despite Mom's detail here. It's a bit orangier than Mom's was but I like it both ways and most friend/tasters over the years have like it as well. It's probably also more orangey because of my fantastic microplane zester/grater that John gave me a few years ago. Besides helping you get that much more zest and a finer grind so its flavor is more potent, it makes the zesting so much easier. Before that I always had achy arms the day after cranberry sauce day.

Anyway here's the really yummy-sounding Susan Stamberg's Mother-in-law's Craig Claiborne's Cranberry Relish I might make this year sometime in addition to the family version. It sounds really intriguing. (Tip: they did some weird montage of election soundbytes which Susan works into her lead-in and it is Really Lame so I advise you just to read the article and recipes.)

2 commentaires:

Jessica a dit…

thanks for the tips! I love love your cranberry relish, but I don't think I'll be making any since I won't have a "real" thanksgiving this year.

I'm just hoping there is a mcy D's or something open on T-giving for me to eat at. :)

Miss you!!

Applecart T. a dit…

i have seen zucchini relish recipes also asking for grinding … that left me confused. all i do is dump berries (12 oz) into a pot, use zest and juice of an orange and about another cup of water … and instead of the bag's recommended cup of sugar, use about a third. i am sour t.

it's a little watery. even when i boil forever.