Louisville Restaurants Forum

I am required by both sides of my family and by friends to bring this every year. Make sure to bring the recipe with you- you will get requests.

12 servings

2 cups sugar
2 cups water
1 lb fresh cranberries ( note- more than 1 bag)
1 envelope Knox gelatin ( add 1/3 extra if you want firmer sauce)
3 Tbl Grand Marnier ( do not substitute- they sell a trial size bottle which is exactly 3T)
Grated peel of 1 orange
Juice of 1/2 lemon

In a large saucepan, combine sugar and water. Boil 5 minutes. Add cranberries and boil 5 minutes longer until skins pop. Soften gelatin in Grand Marnier, add to hot cranberries. Stir until gelatin is thoroughly dissolved. Cool, then stir in peel and juice. Pour into a glass bowl and chill well.

Note: this recipe freezes perfectly. I always make extra and freeze in small portions for use throughout the year.

Thanks, Deb. I've got it printed out!

Both of those recipies sound divine, and I do love Gramma. I gotta confess though, I can not do without the stuff straight out of the can. It has got to be because that is what I grew up with. That was what mom served. Her bird was spectacular!! Complete with white bread dressing and koller gravy. She would always add yellow food coloring to her gravy to give it a nice mellow color! I do it to this day. Who else has to have it the way you grew up with?

Tim,
I know what you mean about "things needing to be the way you grew up". I'm that way about stuffing so we have two- one pepperidge farms and one cornbread. Cornbread stuffing just won't do it for me for T-day.
The funny part is that I grew up with both canned and a relish like AM describes. Then my sister found the above recipe and ALL of us in the family now make it instead, and the in-laws are doing it too... Guess you can adapt some things....
Deb

i am making this sauce and forgot to buy a lemon.... ugh. can i substitute lime juice for it? (i have plenty of fresh limes) or will that change the the flavor too much?

Becky,
Sorry for the delay. We are relaxing and cooking in Lake Cumberland so I haven't checked email.
I'm guessing you've already made with limes which should be fine. In the future, I'd buy a lemon or plastic lemon if necessary. Lime shouldn't be bad but the lemon acidic brings out the flavor of the sauce- otherwise it may be too sweet.
Deb

I served the Grand Marnier sauce yesterday. It was a hit!! And I became a fan of cranberry sauce, for before I really didn't care for it.

Deb Hall wrote:Becky,
Sorry for the delay. We are relaxing and cooking in Lake Cumberland so I haven't checked email.
I'm guessing you've already made with limes which should be fine. In the future, I'd buy a lemon or plastic lemon if necessary. Lime shouldn't be bad but the lemon acidic brings out the flavor of the sauce- otherwise it may be too sweet.
Deb

so you know what you're talking about huh? i used the juice of one medium sized lime and yeah too sweet. But it was still very, very good. I also added the orange that i used the zest from.... i chopped it up and added it as i was cooking the cranberries. It was a bit too orangey.... next time i will not deviate from the original recipe. i will probably make it at Christmas time with no changes.

I made it and it was wonderful! My momma requested that my sister have a can of cran-jelly at the table (she's a bonafide foodie, but this is one of her vices). While I was preparing my "Deb's" version, she asked if it had orange in it because she doesn't like her sister's version that contains orange. I told her it did and she would probably hate it, but that was okay because she had the back up and other delicious things to try from my sister and I. SHE LOVED IT! She went back for seconds. I'm making it again for X-mas.

Glad you all liked it!
Remember that the leftovers freeze extremely well. I put them in small containers to pull out throughout the winter with roast pork, chicken and turkey.

This seemed popular with the Forum last year, so I'm shamlessly bumping this up .

Thanks Deb cause I missed it last year and I was looking for something similar my mom used to make. This will be very close if not better!

Hope you like it Carla! It's dead-easy and really good; all parts of my extended family rave, and made it a mandatory part of our T-day.

Deb

I failed to post earlier how WONDERFUL this recipe was. I enjoyed it during Thanksgiving days and Christmas week. (I did add some walnuts however.)
Thanks again Deb!

You're welcome, Carla. Glad you liked it!

deb