Once upon a turkey celebration, many years ago, the whole family was assembled and the food was on the table when my oldest son (for whom it is the most important part of the meal) asked, “Where’s the cranberry sauce?”

Horrors! The bag of cranberries was still sitting untouched in the fridge.

I excused myself, moved to the stove, and cooked up some cranberry sauce “à la minute”.  The still-hot bowl was brought to the table, where this most seasonal of condiments was eagerly added to half-finished plates. To my great surprise, hot cranberry sauce was a hit! Since then, it has been part of our traditional spread, or at the very least, the story is revived, even if the sauce has been properly made in advance.

Cranberry Sauce, With Orange

Ingredients:

1 package fresh cranberries (you can use frozen if it’s not cranberry season), 12 ounces, or about 4 cups

½ cup orange juice

½ cup sugar (I like mine quite tart — you can add up to 1 cup of sugar if you like yours sweeter)

Zest and flesh of one orange (no pith or membranes – section out the segments after you remove the zest)

Method:

Roughly chop the orange segments.

In a saucepan, combine the cranberries, orange juice, orange segments and sugar.  Bring to a boil over medium high heat, then reduce to a low simmer.

Continue cooking until all berries burst and sauce starts to thicken, which doesn’t take long.

While the cranberry sauce is still hot, stir in the orange zest.

 

(If you’re not a purist, a pinch of red pepper flakes added here takes cranberry sauce to a whole new level.  Entirely optional, of course, but worth the experiment in my opinion.)

Cool slightly and serve warm (it will be a bit runny and very sauce-like),

…or…

Make cranberry sauce a few days before “Turkey Day”, store refrigerated in a covered container, and serve cold (it will be thicker and more jam-like).

…or…

Make cranberry sauce up to 6 months ahead and freeze in an airtight container, thawing to serve.