I making the sauce this year. I’ve done it before with a really good recipe, but I can’t find it.
Anyway, I remember it used orange juice instead of water, and had some orange slice in it, and then sugar. So, just berries, juice, slices and sugar.
Now, I know I didn’t put a cup of sugar (per bag of berries) in like all the recipes suggest. That just seems waaaaaay too much. But I can’t remember how much I cut it back. Anybody have some good advice as to how much I can cut back on the sugar and have it still palatable?
I routinely put only a half a cup of sugar, as opposed to the bag’s suggestion of one cup per bag – with no effect on consistency. I can even go as low as 1/3, if using orange juice or canned mandarin orange segments. People find it a little hard to enjoy at first, if they’re accustomed to the very sweet cranberry sauce made according to the bag or bought in a can. But I like it better less sweet. I think it goes better as a condiment on meat if it’s a little bit tart. Even just dialing back to 3/4 cup of sugar gives it an almost imperceptible brightness to the flavor that you don’t get from heavily sweetened cranberry sauce. Only I can eat cranberry sauce with 1/4 cup of sugar 'tho, that’s too lip puckering for just about anyone.
I usually make mine with just orange juice, cranberries and about 1/2 cup of sugar per bag of berries. I do taste it before taking it off the heat and occasionally add a little more sugar at that point, particularly if I’ve put in too much juice and need to thicken it a little more.
If you’re cutting sugar measure the juice carefully and go a little low if you can still cover the berries. Simmer slowly and uncovered to assist in the thickening.
Even the Evil Mrs. Plant, who liked the canned goop because she knew where to slice it :rolleyes: came to like the Real Stuff. The New and Improved Mrs. Plant likes it warm. It is a tiny fault to counter her many superb qualities.
