Sunday, December 4, 2011

Cranberry jam

I had intended to have this posted before Thanksgiving. But instead stuff happened and I didn't. It isn't too late to make it for Christmas. This is a riff on the tomato jam recipe that we love, that was inspired by an off the cuff comment by my husband. We are traditionalist when it comes to cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving. Straight up bag of cranberries, sugar, a little water, a dash of salt, boil, simmer, done. But eating dinner one night with our mushroom meat (aka Quorn) my husband mentioned how much he likes the tomato jam and how it fills the same place as cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving does for him. And voila, an idea was born.

For this adaptation of the original recipe I used one bag of cranberries ~1lb, but two whole cups of brown sugar, 1/2 cup of water (new since cranberries are not juicy like tomatoes), 1 tsp salt, and then the rest I roughly cut to 1/5 of the original recipe. I have to say. This is pretty yummy. Not as spicy as the tomato jam as the tartness of the cranberries mellows that, but it was a hit at the Thanksgiving dinner we went to.

all the things you need

put into a pot

simmer for a very long time (2 hrs?) stirring frequently


until it all breaks down into this

let cool and serve
I admit, it actually is yummier than regular sauce on the post-day sandwich

Side note: I am thinking the tomato jam this is based on is a gateway drug for my husband to come around to the virtues of ketchup. I heart ketchup. My friend Chris and I used to go out for fries as a vehicle for eating ketchup. We would pick traditional diners or greasy spoons that would have the classic heinz in a glass bottle. We always asked for a full bottle and if we didn't use it all, we weren't doing it right. So in the meantime my husband doesn't feel the ketchup love like I do. I think he might slowly be converting.