Tart Cranberry Dipping Sauce

Instant holiday classics.  Best made ahead.  Serve tomorrow of turkey samichez.

Makes enough for 2 dinners. Love the tart taste but did add extra brown sugar and maple syrup to sweeten a bit more. I made it ahead, yay and didn’t put it in the blender (didn’t want the cleanup). Will use it for turkey this time and pork loin dinner next time. Love the idea of keeping it thin and pureed for cranberry martinis! Keeper for sure;)

To the reviewer who suggested to blend and strain, then simmer to thicken!!!Kudos! and thanks made this stuff literally fantastic. I threw what was left on top of a plain cheesecake. WOW is all I can say.

I made this recipe for Thanksgiving and Wow! Thank you Alton! Even my husband who doesn’t like cranberry sauce at all had some and seemed to like it. It makes quite a bit so I am hoping to find another use for the leftovers. I took part of the batch and simmered it with dried jalepenos to make some with a kick. It was fabulous too! I used fresh berries instead of frozen, but otherwise was true to the recipe. I made it the day before and warmed it up for dinner. I didn’t think the consistency was watery at all. Food Network on TV, online and in print played a big role in my feast this year. Thanks!

Huge fan of Alton’s recipes. First time poster. This is the 3rd year I’ve made this. I highly suggest cooking down the liquid after blending. The sauce comes out just a bit too tart and really thin. Keep simmering/reducing until you get the consistency you want. I prefer this much thicker than the recipe calls for.

Thanks Alton!

An update…the sauce was great with the turkey and everybody loved it. OK, there is alot left over and this is what is killer with this sauce; PINK MAYONNAISE. I decided to mix some of this sauce with the mayo for the turkey sands…..OMG. This is better than the real thing.

This is absolutely delicious!!! The only problem is that it is VERY LIQUIDY which kept many of my guest from trying it at first. But, once they did it was a treat. This makes for ALOT of sauce so you may want to make it with back up recipes in mind to use in other recipes.

I made this sauce and the Winter Fruit Chutney in advance for Thanksgiving Day. Here are my alterations to the dipping sauce:

1. Doubled the sugar & maple syrup qty
2. Added 2-3 oz dark rum
3. Added 1 tablespoons vanilla
4. Added 1/2 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
5. Added 1 tablespoons honey
6. Used 2 cups fresh squeezed OJ, about 1/2 a cup was pulp which thickened the sauce nicely
7. Used 1 pound of fresh cranberries
8. Pureed in blended

The sauce tasted deliciously tart, sweet (not sugury, and slightly spicy. I hope it taste even better on Thanksgiving Day. I plan to serve in ramekins decorated with lemon zest.

Note: I made my dipping sauce yesterday for Thanksgiving in 2 days. I would want to see how it taste on Thanksgiving Day before giving the sauce 5 stars.

I trust Brown’s receipts. I used his recipe/method to cook my turkey last year. The turkey was moist & flavorful taking much less time to cook.

I hope this helps! Happy Feasting all!

I have been making this for Thanksgiving for the past 4 years. It’s a HUGE hit, and now we can’t have Thanksgiving without it. I tweak it a little though sometimes….sometimes I use canned gel, sometimes I use frozen berries. This year I bought fresh berries and was wondering if that will be ok to use?