Dinner Tonight: Cranberry Sauce With Champagne and Currants
Really good cranberry sauce isn’t such a secret. It’s basically just a simple concoction of fresh cranberries, sugar, a little salt, and water. Boil for it for a scant five minutes, let cool, and it’s ready to go. Certainly not as nostalgic as the jelly mold sold in cans but comforting in its own way. Although the method described above is tasty enough, by changing a few ingredients and popping the cork on a bottle of bubbly, a whole other dimension can be added.
It, unfortunately, does make the dish just a little un-American. I’m fairly sure the Puritans didn’t have Champagne, not to mention the Native Americans. So it seems a little tragic to add. But it’s such a perfect complement to the cranberries. If your conscience gets the better of you, then just do what we did and toss about a tablespoon of the cranberry sauce into a wine glass and top with Champagne. It’s not exactly a Thanksgiving tradition, but here's to trying to make it one.
Cranberry Sauce with Champagne and Currants
- serves 4 to 6 -
Adapted from Cooks Illustrated.
Ingredients
12 ounces fresh cranberries
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons dried currants
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup Champagne, or other sparkling wine
Procedure
1. Pour the champagne into a medium pot and add the sugar and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.
2. Dump in the cranberries and currents, bring back to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cook for 5 minutes.
3. Remove and let come to room temperature.
View other entries from Dinner Tonight.
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
8 Comments:
any idea how this is the next day? i'm making it now for tomorrow afternoon. . . . too many cooks at the stove where I'm going.
melissamccart at 8:53PM on 11/21/07
how did this turn out?
Eaterino at 1:51AM on 11/07/08
Yes definitely not as nostalgic. Probably not as disgusting also. I love cranberry juice, but have always had a tough time with cranberry sauce. Obviously this is why. Something from the can never tastes as good as something fresh. Can't wait to try this one, sounds so easy
arnie73071 at 11:48AM on 11/15/08
this is now officially on my menu, I cant wait to share it with the family!
doodle423 at 6:19AM on 11/18/08
I always make the same fresh cranberry relish that my mother used to make in the 50s, so it's become a family tradition. Oddly enough, I've never run into anyone else who makes this, though there must be others out there who do. If you want fresh, it's the only way to go - nothing but grinding together fresh cranberries, oranges, and a little sugar. I freeze some in small containers to use throughout the year - great added to yogurt or on chicken sandwiches (freezes very well). The Cranberry Sauce with Champagne and Currants sounds intriguing if you like cooked cranberry sauce, though I would leave out the currants - wouldn't want anything to interfere with the cranberry taste. Sounds very yuppie-ish :-)
JaneGF at 11:34AM on 11/18/08
If anybody is wondering how this turns out; its perfect. Granted, I did not use the currants. Just not my thing to mess with perfectly good cranberry! Also I used a healthy 3/4 of champagne and skimpy 1 cup of sugar. I like my cranberry sauce to have a healthy cranberry kick, so you might want to keep the full cup. I had to cook mine for about 7-8 minutes, and cooled it on the stove top while preparing other things. Enjoy!
mhurst826 at 5:52PM on 11/26/08
I always make my cranberry sauce from scratch so this recipe is getting a try-out this year.
corinne at 4:19PM on 11/15/09
I don't usually make any cranberry sauce, but this recipe sounds so good that I am going to try it this year.
nancilee at 8:30AM on 11/20/09