The best Cranberry Sauce: Spiced Cranberry-Red Onion Jam

This jam is tart, sweet, and savory all at once with undertones of rosemary and warm spices. The perfect accompaniment to turkey, pork and duck confit. Jarred up it is the perfect holiday gift to your friends and neighbors and Thanksgiving host.

Cranberry sauce is used to add balance to an otherwise rich meal. I usually find cranberry sauces to be either aggressively sweet or one-dimensionally tart. I prefer fruit sauces that I serve with meats to have savory elements to them: onions, garlic, stock, mushrooms, or herbs.

This is an easier, approachable version of a popular product I made at The Farm Table years ago, Cranberry-Red Onion Marmalade. Even in the commercial kitchen, this product was hazardous to make. First, we would cut 50lbs of red onions which is one of the all-time most dreaded kitchen jobs, and every time it would give me flashbacks to the days I spent as a kid on the North Shore of MA, cutting onion rings with swollen teary eyes for a little fried clam shack. A low point of my cooking career! Then we would cook this mixture in a 40 qt pot. As it thickened, we would have to stir all the way down to the bottom of the pot lest it burned. Even with the longest wooden spurtles available, our hands were still mighty close to the molten mixture. The mixture would splatter up as we stirred in slow lava-like explosions that would stick to the arm. Despite being one of the most delicious and versatile preserves we ever made at the restaurant, it was so dangerous to make in a batch size that was commercially viable that I had to discontinue the product to avoid workman’s comp claims and general injury to body and morale. Fortunately, much of the pain and suffering and risk of making this product disappear completely when you make a small batch at home. Plus I have modified and improved this recipe to make it foolproof, easy, and even tastier for you.

You’ll love this version of cranberry sauce for your Thanksgiving Turkey. It is also delicious with cream cheese and crackers, on toast, with pork, duck, and other poultry, and as an accouterment to cheese and charcuterie platters, especially with pâté, duck rillettes,smoked pork rillettes and creamy cheeses. It can be added to a pan with a little broth or water or booze and butter to make a glaze for pork chops or even butternut squash and root vegetables. You can mix it with some mayo for leftover turkey sandwiches or a delicious chicken salad.

Cranberry-Red Onion Jam Recipe

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• Author: Kara Taylor- Home Cooks Guide
• Prep Time: 5 minutes
• Cook Time: 30 minutes
• Total Time: 35 minutes
• Yield: About 3 cups 1x
• Category: Condiment
• Method: Boiling
• Cuisine: American
• Diet: Gluten Free

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Description

This Cranberry Sauce is seasoned with candied red onion, caramel, rosemary, cinnamon, and black pepper.  A well-balanced sauce perfect for your Holiday Table.

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Ingredients

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1 tablespoon oil

1 medium red onion

1 lb fresh cranberries

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

4 inch stick of cinnamon

1 teaspoon black peppercorns in a tea ball strainer

1 4 inch twig of fresh rosemary

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Instructions

Heat the oil over medium-high heat and sauté the red onion until completely soft and starting to brown on the edges.

Stir in the sugar and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until the sugar turns a caramel color.

Stir in the cranberries and then add the water, peppercorn tea ball, and cinnamon stick.

Boil until the cranberries burst and the sauce thickens, stirring down to the bottom frequently, about 10 minutes.

Add the rosemary.  Remove from the heat and let the rosemary steep for 10 minutes more.  Remove the rosemary, the cinnamon stick and the tea ball with peppercorns.

Refrigerate until ready to use or can it in a water bath for long-term storage/ gifting.

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First Published Nov. 20, 2021.