Best Ever Cranberry Sauce - Really!

Sooner or later I would hope we all graduate from buying canned cranberry sauce to making homemade.

Now in my progression I started by buying a bag of fresh cranberries and followed the basic recipe on the package - a cup of water, a cup of sugar - boil all for 10 or 15 minutes. It was exquisite. A year or two later I got fancy, you know, substitute orange juice for the water and maybe add a splash of triple sec just for good measure. How gourmet can you get? Let the rave reviews begin.

But with such an incredible ingredient as cranberries I just knew there had to be the ultimate cranberry sauce recipe lurking out there somewhere. I branched out for the past few years - always making one batch of "regular" cranberry sauce (the bag recipe plus some orange liqueur of some sort) and a batch of whatever variation caught my eye that particular year. Seems like almost every cooking magazine we take will have a "best cranberry sauce ever" recipe every fall. I sometimes wonder what happens to all the past "best ever" recipes. Perhaps it would be better to name them "best so far" but that's just me.

This year I found a truly good recipe from my friends at allrecipes.com - Cranberry Sauce Extraordinaire - and it really is about the best cranberry sauce we've ever had, certainly the best so far, and very possibly the best ever as I can't really imagine feeling the need to experiment any further.

Here's the lineup - fresh cranberries, an apple, a pear, an orange, chopped pecans, mixed dried fruit and a bit of both cinnamon and nutmeg (and still that splash of either triple sec or some other orange liqueur). Depending on what time of day you're making this - feel free to have a snifter of that liqueur yourself, it clears the pipes and allows you to sing along with the Christmas carols!. It's oddly reminiscent of those fruit-flavored cough syrups that you had as a kid.

I always start with a bag of Ocean Spray cranberries - really, are there any other brands? I suppose there are but I'll always be loyal to Ocean Spray for stepping in and keeping the cranberry bog industry alive on the southwest Washington coast.

Peel, core, and dice both an apple and a pear. It needs to be a fairly small dice, somewhere between a quarter inch and a half inch.

Peel one navel orange and puree in either a blender or a food processor.

Chop (somewhere between course and diced) one cup of mixed dried fruit - whatever your fancy is. I use a mixture of apples, pears, plums, peaches and apricots. Use whatever you have - raisins would work just fine.

Now you'll need a cup of chopped pecans - I prefer an almost fine-chop and if you're so inclined toast the pecans for a minute or two in a saute pan over medium-high heat. Don't feel like doing that step? That's completely okay too. Don't feel like adding pecans at all? That too is okay.

Okay, now it's really easy. This bad boy starts out just like the basic recipe on the cranberry bag: bring one cup water and one cup sugar to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add all other ingredients and toss in a teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg and a half-teaspoon of salt (and don't forget that splash of orange liqueur - today I'm using orange Curacao).

Cover and let simmer (and remember that simmer does mean simmer!) for 30 minutes. Remove from heat. Let cool for a few minutes and then pour into a serving dish. I've been searching for a really cool vintage jello mold for my cranberry sauce, just haven't found it yet! Don't tell my sister-in-law, I decided to use the "sanitary cheese preserver" that she gave us - it's meant to store blue cheese but I'm thinking it will be just fine as a cranberry serving dish.

Make up to three days in advance - time certainly helps meld the flavors.

This stuff is the shit! (I've been led to believe that "being the shit" is a compliment). In old-speak; this cranberry sauce is nothing short of spectacular. I need look no further - it really is the "best ever" for us.

The complete recipe (less of course that tasty orange liqueur!) can be found here:  http://allrecipes.com/recipe/cranberry-sauce-extraordinaire/