Whole Cranberry Sauce

This is going to sound weird, but I’m not sure mom had a go-to cranberry sauce recipe. She knew the basic principles so well that she’d just follow her instincts. She’d often add orange or a cinnamon stick, both of which make a great sauce. In her big green book is a basic cranberry sauce attributed to Olive McKay. The recipe describes a technique of leaving the sauce out overnight to let the flavors develop – which mom did, too-- so maybe this is the base of mom’s later brainstorms? As written, here it is:

DIRECTIONS Boil 2 cups of sugar and 1 ½ c water for a few minutes. When water is boiling hard, add 4 cups of cranberries. Cook until berries stop popping. Do not remove cover at any time until berries are cold or better overnight. The berries will be whole. Delicious.

I usually make mine at night. Remove cover in AM. Add a pinch of salt with the cranberries.