Easy - Make Your Own Cranberry Sauce and Juice

Cranberry Sauce/Jam & Juice

Long time ago, when I roasted my first Christmas turkey, I used to buy canned cranberry jam from the grocery store and heat it up according to directions. I thought that was the only way I could get cranberry sauce for my turkey. Fresh cranberries are meant for decorating the platter then. After reading several cook books, I realized how easily one can make cranberry sauce/jam and cranberry juice and will never go back to the canned and bottled stuffs after my first try. Please give this a try and you can have cranberry sauce all over the place - on your turkey, ham, pancakes, ice cream, and whatever you fancy - even on your toasts because cranberries are so Good!

Cranberry Sauce/Jam

Utensils:-

Stainless steel saucepan

Sieve

Wooden spoon

Large measuring cup

Stainless steel ladle

Ingredients:-

6 cups or (680 g or 24 oz) fresh or frozen cranberries 

(buy them while in season; fresh cranberries freeze well)

1-3/4 cups granulated sugar

1-3/4cups cold filtered water

zest of one lemon

Methods:-

1. Rinse and drain cranberries and wash lemon before you zest. 

2. Place all ingredients into a heavy stainless steel saucepan that has lots of room for cranberries to expand and pop. 

3. Bring to a boil over high heat and turn heat to low. Let cranberries simmer until they are soft and most of them are popped, approximately 20 - 25 minutes. Watch the pot as mixture can easily boil over and make a mess! 

4. Turn heat off and let it cool off for 15 minutes. 

5. Ladle and strain mixture over a sieve using a wooden spoon to press the pulp. Let juice pass through the sieve into a clean bowl or mason jar. Mixture will thicken as it cools. Allow it to cool completely before refrigerating. May keep up to two weeks.

(Makes approximately 4 cups of cranberry sauce/jam).

6. Reserve the pulp in the sieve and return pulp to the saucepan when all is strained, to make cranberry juice! (Waste not, want not)! 

To make cranberry juice:

1. Add 1 to 2 cups of cold filtered water to the strained pulp, that which was left after making the sauce, in the saucepan and bring to a boil. 

2. Strain the juice over sieve into a jug or measuring cup. Discard the pulp.

3. Pour juice into a nice glass and serve! You now have the real cranberry juice instead of drinking the cocktail that comes in a plastic bottle!

4. If you would like to make more juice anytime, just add water to one or two tablespoons of cranberry sauce/jam, dilute to your taste and serve using your favourite glassware. 

If you make the sauce/jam now, it should keep well in a clean glass jar and ready for your Christmas dinner with friends and family! Enjoy!