I’m going to a Thanksgiving dinner in which I graciously offered to bring “my favorite cranberry creation.”
Problem is, I don’t have one. A friend gave me her recipe that has fresh cranberries and bits of orange (?) in it, but I’ve tasted it before and find it overpowering.
Can anyone provide a great cranberry dish that will really please the crowd?
I searched through http://www.epicurious.com (my favorite place when I need a recipe and can’t find it on my site or in my cookbooks) and came up with four good possibilities for you:
All of which, while cruising through the ingredients look very yummy!
Here’s our family favorite, which I’ll be making:
Cranberry Salad
1-12 oz Package Fresh Cranberries
1 1/2 Cups Sugar
1 1/2 Oranges
1 1/2 Small boxes Cherry* jello
3/4 Cups Pecans (at least)
Wash and stem cranberries. Eighth and seed oranges (do not peel.)
Grind together in food processor or blender** and add sugar.
Mix jello using half the amount of water called for. Add to mixture.
Add nuts and chill.
** Note: The texture should be chunky. You are not trying to puree it into a liquid.
(Also, the cranberry package usually has a recipe for cranberry orange pecan bread that is very good.)
You might try this one–a tradition on NPR for years:
Mama Stamberg’s Cranberry Relish Recipe
2 cups raw cranberries
1 small onion
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons horseradish
Grind the cranberries and onion together. Add
remaining ingredients and mix. Put in a plastic
container and freeze. An hour before serving,
move the container from the freezer to the
refrigerator compartment to thaw. The relish will
be thick, creamy, and shocking pink.
Makes 1 1/2 pints.
Oh, and when she (Susan Stamberg) says “shocking pink” she usually adds “like pepto-bismo”. A friend once made it and said it was good–but I don’t like cranberries or horseradish, so it’s never been a priorty for me to try.
Here’s a real easy one that I make every year.
Buy the bag of fresh cranberries you see in the produce section of the grocery store.
Make the cranberry sauce according to the directions on the package.
After that’s finished, throw in a can of mandarin oranges.
The combination of textures is perfect, the colors look pretty, and it’s yummy to boot!
BTW, this is one dish that can be made the day before and refrigerated. I serve it cold.
Onion and horseradish mixed with cranberries??? This one begs testing BEFORE a big event!
Where’s Zenster, Green Bean, and Turbo Dog? (Ever notice how Turbo Dog has quite the flair for cooking? Something about that name…)
Fenris’s Cranberry Relish:
1 bag of fresh cranberries
2 oranges
1 small bag of nuts (walnuts are esp. good!),
cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves and some sugar.
Toss about 1/2 the cranberries in a pot and cover them with juuuuust enough water to cover. Add sugar to taste (but at least a little…I like a couple o’ tablespoons, but I like it sweet) and simmer until the cranberries burst. Allow to cool. Drain the cranberries from the water: save the water.
Take the rest of the cranberries, the peeled oranges, some orange rind, a 1/4 tsp of cinnamon, a pinch of nutmeg and a pinch of ground cloves and toss them into a food processor. Pulse until well chopped. Add in the cooked cranberries and walnuts (about 2/3ds Cup). Grind some more. If it’s too dry (it should be have the texture of pickle relish) add some of the cranberry water. Add more sugar if needed (to my tastes, it usually is)
You wanna make it even better, but add few more minutes work, zest the oranges and toss the zest in after it’s done grining.
This is better if made a day or two in advance, as the flavors meld in your fridge.
Fenris
This is my husband’s family recipe. It’s quite good–I like it much better than cooked cranberry sauces. You get a little workout while making it, too.
He uses one of those old-fashioned-looking metal crank-style food grinders to grind everything together, so first, you need to put that together and attach it to the counter or table. They still make these–ours is rather new (a wedding present, I think), but I’ve seen them at garage sales and Goodwill, too.
Then, wash one bag of cranberries, tossing out the rotten ones (in case you couldn’t figure that out.) Cut up 2 oranges into eighths, rind and all (do not peel). Cut up two large apples and remove core.
Grind up, alternating cranberries, apples, and oranges. Put a pan on the floor to catch the run-off. (This is pretty good to drink, BTW.)
When finished, stir in 3/4-one cup of sugar (One cup is the original recipe–I think it’s better with a bit less, though.)
Refrigerate overnight. (After this, his mother has added this note–“Not like your father’s make it and eat it in an hour…”) 
I don’t think you’ll please everyone with any cranberry sauce. I’ve got one aunt who insists upon bringing her favorite canned variety every year, much to Mr. Tamex’s consternation.
I think that you could do something cool with that new cranberry-flavored Jell-o, too.
Want a different one? This could go with a football game pretty well:
BoxJam’s own cranberry-apple Salsa:
1 cup boiled cranberries (not too mushy, though), well drained
1 medium finely chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 medium finely chopped apple
1 small can tomato paste
1 tomatillo
10 cloves garlic
1/2 tbs zest of orange peel
2 tsp mustard
1 tbs brown sugar
1 tsp lime juice
hot sauce and salt to taste
Roast the tomatillo and garlic at 450 for 20 minutes. Mush up the
tomatillo and garlic in a large bowl. Add everything else and stir it
a bunch. Let it chill - the cranberry taste becomes more pronounced
the second day. Makes about 2 bowls.
Frozen Cranberry Salad
1 can whole cranberry sauce
juice of one lemon
1 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup mayonnaise (or salad dressing)
1/2 cup walnut or pecan halves
combine cranberry/lemon juice in pie pan. place flat in freezer and freeze till firm.
when cran is firm, whip cream to stiff peaks, adding sugar.
fold in mayonnaise and spread on cran layer. garnish with chosen nuts, return to freezer.
slice and serve frozen on lettuce leaves for garnish.
Violently loved or despised by all who taste it.
My mom’s creation and I’ve never tasted better. It’s more a fresh-fruit salsa though the sweetness can be adjusted to taste–and improvisations are possible. Ridiculously simple to make, but allow time for the flavors to blend:
@8 oz. fresh cranberries
8-10* red apples, cored and seeded but NOT peeled
4-5* oranges, seeded and stemmed but NOT peeled
sugar/Splenda/sweetener to taste
Mom used an old-fashioned crank grinder but a food processor makes it a breeze. Coarsely grind/chop the fruit and mix it to taste with sweetener of choice. Make at least 12 hours in advance. The idea is to counterbalance the tartness while letting the fruit predominate. The sweetener takes time to mellow so be conservative; the first “after-mix” taste will taste jarring. Let time work the magic.
It’s proud fruit, not candy-sweet but good enough to eat on its own as well as a side. You can make it well in advance–have to–and it lasts beautifully. (The orange keeps the apple from browning.) I make bowls of this stuff in fall, but bobbit in some chopped nuts. A quick grind of nutmeg works too.
Whatever. Good stuff.
Veb
For the full history of Mama Stamberg’s Cranberry Relish, check out this link. Complete coverage, past reports, the full deal.
Uh-oh! I hate to admit it, but my favorite cranberry recipe is this:
Open can.
Plop on plate.
:o
Greenbean:
If I may add one slight improvement…cut it into little slices. 
Don’t ya just love the “slurp!,plop!” sound it makes sliding out of the can?
Oh, gosh! I love it! I also love how the little ridges from the inside of the can still show after you slice it up.
My aunt always makes a wonderful tres gourmet thanksgiving dinner, but she gets a can of the cranberry sauce just because I like it. (What a great auntie!) But she puts it in a silver dish and kind of mashes it up to disguise its can-bound origins. Ruins the whole integrity of the thing, IMHO.
Regarding the Mama Stamberg recipe with the horseradish…it’s great! I’m not a big cranberry relish fan, but I liked this one. Since I never eat much, and the kids hate cranberry relish in any form, one recipe has lasted several years…just freeze in small containers. This year I think we finish up the first batch.
Our smoker has been retired until spring. When the weather is sufficiently warm again, I intend to smoke a turkey breast with a cranberry BBQ sauce. I’ll try to post the recipe when I get home.
If you have a Krogers in your area, they have the best cranberry dish in their deli. We’ve taken it to church and people asked for the recipe. This would cut down on work and chance of turning out less than desirable.
I compeltely forgot about that cranberry barbecue sauce. For those of you who need to do something with their leftover jellied cranberry sauce, here it is.
Cranberry Barbecue Sauce from Barbecue! Bible: Sauces, Rubs, and Marinades by Steven Raichlen
[li]1 14oz. bottle ketchup[/li][li]1/4 cup cider vinegar[/li][li]1/4 cup yellow mustard[/li][li]1/4 cup Worstershire sauce[/li][li]2 tablespoons molasses[/li][li]1/2 medium onion, minced[/li][li]1 clove garlic, minced[/li][li]1/4 cup canned jellied cranberry sauce, cubed[/li][li]1/2 teaspoon corse salt[/li][li]1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper[/li]
Combine all the ingredients in a heavy nonreactive saucepan and gradually bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring or whisking steadily to dissolve the cranberry sauce. Gently simmer the sauce until thick and richly flavored, stirring offen to prevent scorching, 15 to 20 minutes. Ue right away or transfer to large jar, cover, cool to room temperature, and refirgerate. The sauce will keep for several months.
Makes 2 1/2 cups.
Reportedly, the author got this recipe from a guy who was pulled KP for a cook named Annie at Offut Air Base in Omaha circa 1970. When the author and the former airman met on a plane some 30 years later, the airman relayed the recipe.
I made the Mama Stamberg version yesterday for the first time. Results:
Kids don’t like. All adults liked but agree that it would be better with ham or roast beef. Tasted strange with turkey.