The sauce is able to transform any dish, if you choose it correctly. Today, on the shelves of shops you can find ketchup with different bouquets, specially selected to a particular type of meat, garlic, cheese and other sauces. However, they are unlikely to surprise the guests. But if you cook cranberry sauce for meat, then your guests and household will surely be delighted. This sweet and sour sauce with a slight bitterness is perfect for pork, beef and other meats. In this case, it is not difficult to cook it, even an aspiring cook will cope with this task.
Cooking Features
Starting cooking a new dish, every hostess, even highly experienced, is a little worried about whether the result will meet her expectations. However, taking advantage of the advice of experienced chefs, you should not worry about the result - cranberry sauce will surely turn out to be palatable and attractive in appearance.
- Do not take unripe cranberries for making cranberry sauce. In this case, the bitter taste will be so strongly pronounced that the sauce can be considered spoiled.
- The berry must be washed and sorted before use, and then dried, poured on a napkin.
- You can cook cranberry sauce in any container, except aluminum. The fact is that when this material comes into contact with acidic products, a reaction occurs, resulting in the formation of substances harmful to the human body.
- You can thicken the sauce with flour or starch, but the use of these products is optional. If you boil the sauce long enough for some of the liquid to evaporate, it will also turn out quite thick.
- Unusual notes of cranberry sauce help to give other berries and fruits, aromatic spices. Lingonberries, oranges, mangoes, garlic, ginger, lemon juice, dry wine, nutmeg, basil and parsley, as well as black ground pepper are most often added to it. It is better to add spices slightly, tasting the sauce. In this case, you definitely do not overdo it with spices, which should only shade the taste and aroma of cranberries, and not to interrupt him.
- For the sauce, you can use not only fresh cranberries, but also frozen ones. To do this, it must first be thawed at room temperature.
- The prepared sauce is usually ground through a sieve or crushed with a blender to give it a uniform consistency. If you are using starch or flour to thicken the sauce, you must grate the berry after adding this ingredient.
- Ready-made cranberry sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for several days, but for this it should be placed in clean glass containers and tightly closed. It will be even better if you are not too lazy to sterilize these containers.
Cranberry sauce is often served to meat as cold, but it is acceptable to use it hot as well - there are no strict rules to this effect.
Simple Cranberry Sauce Recipe
Composition:
- cranberries - 0, 25 kg;
- sugar - 0, 25 kg;
- water - 0, 5 l.
Method of preparation:
- Pick and wash the cranberries, let them drain.
- Pour sugar into a saucepan and cover with water. Put on the fire. While heating and stirring, wait until the sugar is completely dissolved.
- Pour the berries into the hot syrup and cook them, stirring for 10-15 minutes.
- Cool the sauce and place in the blender bowl. Beat, at the same time chopping up the berry.
This sauce recipe can be taken as a basis. You can add chopped greens or spices to your taste, add a little wine or lemon juice and boil again. This will make the taste of the sauce even brighter and more unusual.
Classic Cranberry Sauce Recipe
Composition:
- cranberries - 0.5 kg;
- onions - 150 g;
- sugar - 0, 25 kg;
- apple cider vinegar (6%) - 150 ml;
- ground cinnamon - 5 g;
- ground allspice - 5 g;
- celery seeds - 5 g;
- garlic - 2 cloves;
- water - 0, 2 l;
- salt, black pepper powder - to taste.
Method of preparation:
- Peel the onions, cut into small cubes.
- Go through the berry. Wash it and put it in a small saucepan. Put the onion there.
- Fill with water and set on fire. Bring to a boil, reduce the intensity of the flame and cook for 10 minutes under a lid.
- Grind cranberries with onion blender.
- Pour sugar and spices into the resulting mass, pour in vinegar, add garlic passed through the press.
- Cook the sauce over low heat for about half an hour, until it resembles the consistency of ketchup.
This sauce needs to be cooled. Only after that it is poured into a sauceboat and served with meat.
Cranberry-Orange Sauce
Composition:
- cranberries - 0, 3 kg;
- oranges - 1-2 pcs .;
- lemon - 1 pc .;
- sugar - 100 g;
- water - 125 ml;
- cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg - to taste.
Method of preparation:
- Wash the cranberries. Pour sugar, pour water. Bring to a boil and cook for 5 minutes until the berries start to burst.
- Wash and dry the citrus. Rub the zest with them. Squeeze the juice from the fruit.
- Measure out 100 ml of orange juice and 20 ml of lemon juice.
- Add grape, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg to the berries. Cook for 2-3 minutes.
- Pour citrus juice into the pan with cranberries. Continue cooking, stirring, for another 5 minutes.
- Crush the sauce with a blender.
- Return to the stove and cook, stirring, over low heat until it reaches the desired consistency.
Cranberry sauce prepared according to this recipe has a delicious aroma. Delicate spicy notes make it indispensable for Christmas meals. Besides, it is suitable not only for meat, but also for poultry. For example, with this sauce you can serve Christmas goose.
Spicy Cranberry Sauce
Composition:
- cranberries - 0, 35 kg;
- water - 0, 2 l;
- sugar - 0, 2 kg;
- cognac - 10 ml;
- hot peppers - 2 pcs .;
- salt - 5 g;
- badyan - 2 pcs .;
- lemon juice - 60 ml.
Method of preparation:
- Pour the washed berries with water, add the star anise, bring to a boil and cook for 5 minutes. Rub through a sieve, discard.
- Pepper wash and cut as small as possible. Whether to take the seeds depends on how hot the sauce you want to get. Seeds will give it a particularly burning taste.
- Pour sugar into cranberry puree, add salt, pepper and lemon juice.
- Put the saucepan over the fire and cook for 15-20 minutes.
- Pour in brandy, stir, hold over low heat for another minute and remove from heat. If it seems too liquid, dissolve a teaspoon of starch in a tablespoon of water, add to the sauce, stir and boil it for a couple of minutes.
The sauce is very spicy, therefore it is better to serve it to the meat that has cooled down.
Cranberry sauce is well suited to any kind of meat. You can make it from fresh or frozen berries, so you can serve it to meat dishes at any time of the year. The advantage of the sauce is the ease of preparation. The hostess, possessing at least a small culinary experience, will successfully cope with the creation of this masterpiece.
