Even
though we have a long time to wait until Thanksgiving, I can never
get enough cranberry goodness. So, when I was looking for a vintage
Jell-O recipe to make without having to buy many ingredients, my eye
was immediately drawn to the several cranberry-based gelatin recipes
in TJOJ, specifically the Cranberry Sauce, as it requires only cranberries, water, gelatin, sugar, and salt.
Now,
of course, I wanted to make this dish as crantastic as possible, so I
replaced the water and flavored Jell-O for unflavored gelatin and
cranberry juice with a splash of lemon extract. I also ran out of
sugar before I hit the 2/3 cup mark, so I just left it at that,
thinking the juice would provide enough extra sweetness.
The
recipe is relatively straightforward, except that I think I made an
error in the sieving stage. When straining the cranberry mixture, I
had a hard time expressing much pulp, so I added everything from the
top of the strainer bowl back in as well as what little pulp I could
scrape off of the bottom, including the skins. That made the texture
a little strange, and added some extra tartness. I reckon it's just a
little extra fiber, but if I were making this again, I would just
strain the mixture and not worry about getting the pulp back in. I
don't think it makes a lot of difference.
The
end result is truly a strong expression of what cranberries are. It
tastes like canned cranberry sauce times thirty. I actually have to
pour extra sugar or honey on top to make it pleasant to eat, so I
strongly recommend adding all the recommended sugar if using 100%
cranberry juice. If you are concerned about using too much sugar, I
would recommend using half cranberry juice and half water, and in
that case, I think you could get away with half a cup or so. I do
recommend adding a little lemon extract, and for once I don't mind
the salt called for in the recipe.
This
dish is quite pretty (it would look gorgeous served in a crystal bowl), and for me it made eight relish-sized servings. I
think it would go great with turkey or any other poultry, as well as
with pork. While I will always default to my traditional cranberry
relish (one bag of fresh cranberries, one orange cut into eighths,
and sugar to taste, whizzed in a food processor for approximately
five seconds or until finely diced, then left to stew in its juices
for at least an hour), this is easily my second choice for a
cranberry dish to go along with white meat, as it is potent and has a
much more glaze-like texture than the canned variety even when fully
set, plus it doesn't look like it came out of can.
Oh,
and as an added bonus, I tried this recipe with its serving
suggestion of a mint garnish and mayonnaise. Why mayonnaise? I don't
know, it seems like mayonnaise was a hit fashion accessory in the 1960s, as
they recommend serving about half of the recipes in this book with
it. Anyhow, I actually enjoyed eating the sauce this way, as the
mayonnaise does make it creamy and it cuts the sourness
significantly. It also makes it taste a bit more savory. The mint
doesn't add much flavorwise, but it certainly looks nice.
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