Sherrie's Whole Cranberry Sauce

With Thanksgiving less than two weeks away so many plans are made to what will be on our families dinner table. I don't have a very large family these days with half in Las Vegas and the rest of us here in Santa Barbara. We decided with the price of gas and airlines this year we would pass on traveling back and forth for the holidays.

One of the treats that I have been in charge of for the last three years are the cranberries. Last year I did an amazing Cranberry Pecan Conserve and a Cranberry Apple Pear Relish that I bought to a very large gathering in Las Vegas. I was surprised to find that the conserve was gone before I got a spoonful and the relish was an empty jar before seconds were offered. 

I was very lucky tonight to stumble upon the photograph of this years first choice of cranberries that will make it to our Thanksgiving table. Sherrie did a beautiful job of  canning up the Whole Cranberry Sauce adapted from the Ball Complete Book.

Sherrie says: " Better than canned store bought", "Perfect amount of tartness and sweetness", "I did a double batch and got 9 pints. Recipe says 6 pints for a single batch. I had one spoon left to taste it!"

Thank you Sherrie for again taking a simple recipe and photographing it so that it looks so difficult to replicate. You are a true artist with food! SB!

Sherrie's Whole Cranberry Sauce

4 cups sugar
4 cups water
8 cups fresh cranberries

In a large stainless steel pot combine sugar and water. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Boil hard for 5 minutes and add cranberries. return to boil. Lower the heat and boil gently, stirring occasionally until the cranberries pop and liquid begins to slide off a metal spoon. This will take about 15 minutes.

Filling the jars:  On a dishtowel place your hot jars and using your funnel in each jar using a ladle then fill the jars leaving 1/4" headspace.   Remove air bubbles and refill to the proper headspace with the mixture if necessary. Taking a clean papertowel wet it with warm water and wipe the rims of the jars removing any food particles that would interfere with a good seal. Using your magic wand extract the lids from the hot water and place them on the now cleaned rims. Add your rings to the tops of each of the jars and turn to seal just "finger tight". 

Processing: Make sure your rack is on the bottom of the canner and place the jars in the water bath making sure that the water covers each of the jars by 1 to 2 inches. Add hot water to the canner if it doesn't measure up. Cover the pot and turn up the heat under the canner and wait for the water to start boiling. Once the water has come to a boil start your timer for 10 minutes. When complete turn off the heat and remove the cover and let the jars sit for another few minutes. Remove the jars and place them back on the dishtowel in a place that they will sit overnight to cool. Do not touch or move them till the next morning.

Sealing: Some time in the next hour your jars will be making a "pinging" or "popping" noise. That is the glass cooling and the reaction of the lids being sucked into the jar for proper sealing. Some recipes may take overnight to seal. Check your lids and reprocess any jars that did not seal.