To cook or not to cook? The cranberry question

November 10, 2021 by
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US Thanksgiving in less than three weeks away, and given the hype about possible supply shortages, many cooks are busy gathering the ingredients to grace the holiday table. One item that makes an appearance at this meal – the biggest food holiday in the USA – is cranberry sauce or relish. Some people insist on the canned, jellied version, with others turning to a traditional cooked sauce. However, there are renegades out there who shun the cooking process altogether and go with a relish made from raw cranberries.

According to Maggie Hoffman, leaving the cranberries in their natural state provides the perfect foil for the heavy foods that often appear on your Thanksgiving table such as turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, and stuffing. This fare “needs something fresh and tangy and even a tiny bit sharp to cut through the richness,” and the perfect seasonal condiment, in Hoffman’s opinion, is a raw cranberry relish.

While I respect Hoffman’s opinion on this issue, I have long been on Team Cooked Cranberries. I’ve tried a few recipes for raw cranberry relish, but none has wowed me. My dislike stems from the texture, which is crunchy but not in a good way, more like “someone forgot to cook this”. However, one of the recipes included in the article intrigues me: a decidedly savory take in the Cranberry date relish with ginger from Flavors of the Sun (one of my favorite cookbooks of 2021). Maybe it’s time for me to take another look at ditching the saucepan in favor of the food processor. What’s your stance on cranberry relish/sauce: cooked or raw?

Photo of Cranberry relish from EatingWell Magazine by Jonathan Perno

Category: Antipasto

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8 Comments

  • gamulholland  on  November 10, 2021

    Go on Twitter. Look up @JoeBriggsEsq and his tweet on this topic from 11/11/2020 (yes, I took a screenshot). It is BRILLIANT, and also hilarious, in its representation of the “straight from the can” cranberry contingency. 🙂 I’m a fan of my husband’s cranberry orange walnut relish, but I love this gentleman’s commitment and passion and poetic language in favor of the gelatinous cylinder of cranberry goodness. 🙂

  • lean1  on  November 11, 2021

    Raw made in a Cuisinart. I have been doing this for years with no complaints.

  • averythingcooks  on  November 11, 2021

    Baked in the oven with fresh orange juice & zest and some sugar followed by a little dry sherry stirred in when it comes out of oven. This version was cut from a magazine years ago – maybe Bon Appetite?? Rave reviews every time.

  • KatieK1  on  November 11, 2021

    Cooked! We always make Craig Claiborne’s recipe: https://www.eatyourbooks.com/library/recipes/719306/cooked-cranberry-orange-relish

  • sanfrannative  on  November 12, 2021

    Oranges and orange liqueur, and cooked! But I might snag an extra bag so I can try it raw…I’m curious to try new ideas. (Which is probably one reason why I’m addicted to cookbooks.)

  • AlaskaEll  on  November 14, 2021

    The only way I eat cranberries is my grandmother’s relish. Her recipe says to put it all through a food grinder, I just use a food processor. So you can make it as crunchy or as smooth as you prefer. Easy recipe, which makes it simple to give out when friends ask for it. 12 oz cranberries, 1 apple cored and peeled (I don’t peel mine), 1 orange, 1/2 orange peel (I just use it all), 2 small boxes of cherry Jell-o (I’ve used 1 large box or 1 small cherry + 1 small cranberry), 1/2 c nuts (my grandmother used walnuts, I prefer pecans). Her recipe says to put it all through the food grinder. I process the cranberries (if they are partially frozen they are more juicy) then put in a bowl with 1/2 the jello, without stirring. Then I process the apple, orange, and orange peel and stir it in with cranberries. I top with the remaining jello and then process the nuts. Then I stir it all together. If you want it a bit thinner, you can add water.

  • sayeater  on  November 15, 2021

    I make Mama Stamberg’s Cranberry relish from NPR. Uncooked, bright pink, with a great horseradish bite. It’s a classic. ( I also enjoy a nice cranberry/orange/pecan raw relish or cooked sauce).

  • CutCookEat  on  November 22, 2021

    For 200g of cranberries add 20g water and 50g sugar and the peel from an orange and leave for 30 minutes. Add to a sous vide bag. Hang the bag off the edge of the counter and vac seal. Cook sous vide at 190F/88C for 45 minutes. It is kind of wild to eat because first you get sweet of the syrup and then when you bite into a cranberry is explodes with sour.

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