Cranberry Sauce with an Attitude

ade Cranberry Jam/Sauce with Red Pears, Dried Sour Cherries, Lime Juice and Pulp, Water, Sugar . . . and Datil Peppers.

One motivation for buying a small, non-selfdefrosting chest freezer was the desire to freeze Turkeys and Cranberries purchased at their lowest prices in the Holiday Season. Turkeys so we can have a Thanksgiving type meal when sibling visits and because I need to practice my Frogging Technique. Cranberries because we made a batch of straight no high octane Cranberry Sauce for an annual end of November gathering along the Suwanee River then discovered intentionally with the later, personal consumption batch that Capsaicin (8-methyl-N-vanillyl-6-nonenamide) and Sugar enhance each other nicely . . . in our opinions.

Sooo . . . we generally have several bags of properly frozen Cranberries ready to be put to popping in a broad, shallow skillet. Usually, we use Satsuma Juice from the tree out back, but it is not interested in producing much anymore. Added a Cup of Filtered Water instead. A Lime and a half on hand produced 1/3 Cup Juice and Pulp.

For substance, texture, we use Red Pears because they’re firm enough to handle high heat and Dried Sour Cherries because why not? One or the other can be eliminated, but the result will not be nearly as interesting.

Four of our Datil Pepper Plants were acquired in St. Augustine where they were kept as a local secret for decades. Plants are available in local plant places and seeds can be gotten online. Does it matter? The Plants from St. Augustine have produced very large Pods and that means “Is 3 enough or 6 too many?”

Cranberries are pectin rich so the process is mostly one of bringing the mass of stuff to a boil that doesn’t “stir down”. After the Cranberries pop with medium heat adding their juice it’s time to added the Pears and Cherries to join the high simmer. Pepper slices, too.

There are people who will not appreciate the tartness. Some will not like the heat. We gave slightly different first taste reviews; One,” I like it. Could be hotter.” and the other, “Initially almost sweet then very tart followed by cheek and tongue heat. Mid-range heat.” Datils last awhile. Gets to the pleasant reminder stage and hangs on.