It’s almost time for Thanksgiving in the U.S. and we have a full house this year. I made cranberry sauce this weekend to get a head start. I love canning it because it is one less thing in the fridge during a time when there is barely enough room to fit everything. If we don’t use all the sauce, canning it allows me to save it for Christmas or another time we have turkey. If you aren’t into canning you can make this sauce, but it has to store in the fridge until you are ready to serve it.

True confession: I love the texture of the cranberry sauce that comes out of a can from the grocery store. However I don’t like all the high fructose corn syrup. My recipe using the food mill will get the texture pretty close, and you can adjust the amount of sugar to your taste. Cranberries are really tart so they require a lot of sugar or pucker up!

Homemade Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients

• 2 qts fresh cranberries
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 3 cups of sugar (more or less depending on your taste)

Directions

1. Place two plates in the freezer. If you are preserving, prepare a water bath canning pot.
2. Fill a non-reactive pot with an inch of water and boil the cranberries until you hear them pop! and soften. They will need to be soft enough to run through a food mill.
3. Once they have boiled and softened, about 20 mins, run them through a food mill to remove the skins. Discard the skins.
4. Return the cranberries to the pot and add orange juice and sugar. Continue cooking on medium low heat until sauce sets correctly. Test using the plates in the freezer. Even if you are not canning, you can take this step to ensure the sauce sets correctly. See how on one of my favorite canning blogs, Food in Jars, does it. YOu essentially place the warm sauce on the cold plate, wait a two minutes, and see if the sauce firms up. If not, continue cooking, if yes, it’s time to place in jars for the sauce to cool.

If you are preserving, process 10 minutes in a boiling water bath. Makes about 4 pts.