Historical background: years ago (like in the late 70s-early 80s) I had a subscription to Sunset Magazine. One month there was an article about a lady who lived near the ocean in SoCal, and her love of canning all the wonderful produce available from the farmers’ markets. One of the recipes that was included was for the most yummy-sounding Cranberry Chutney – it was just mouth-watering thinking about it, seemed as if it would be better than any cranberry relish dish ever invented for Thanksgiving. So I cooked up a batch.
I WAS better than any relish dish ever. For the next umpty years I made at least one batch a year. Then somehow I lost the recipe, and for the last almost 10 years, I’ve been chutney-less. Since the advent of the ‘net and search engines, I’ve searched for it desultorily with no results; I even at one point called Sunset – but they couldn’t find it either.
Well, a couple of weeks back, I was doing my once or twice a year search for it – AND I FOUND IT! Bless Google…. so now I’m one happy camper – I made a batch of my chutney just the other day, and it tastes just as good as I remember.
I’d printed the recipe…. and it’s a good thing I did, because since then my boot drive crashed resoundingly, and anything in my documents newer than June is gone (because my last archive CD has disappeared as well, and I really can’t blame the cat….)
So without further ado, here’s the recipe for the best Cranberry ANYTHING you’ll ever have with turkey!
Recipe Source: Sunset Magazine (date unknown)
Prep/Cooking Time: about 1 hour, plus boiling water bath canning time at your altitude
Ingredients:
4 c fresh or frozen cranberries, picked over and stemmed
2 c sugar
1 c water
1 tsp whole cloves
2 3 inch pieces cinnamon stick
1 tsp whole allspice
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp salt
2 Granny Smith apples (about 6 oz each), cored, chopped
2 firm pears (any variety, about 6 oz each), cored, chopped
1 small red onion (about 5 oz), chopped
1 c golden raisins
1 c diced celery
1 c pecans, rough chopped
Directions:
In a large stockpot, combine cranberries, sugar, water, spices, and salt. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring frequently to dissolve the sugar. Cook until the cranberries begin to pop, about 10 to 12 minutes. Adjust the heat so the mixture simmers.
Stir in apples, pears, onion, raisins, and celery. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until thick, 15 to 20 minutes longer, remove from heat, and stir in pecans. Remove the cinnamon sticks and any of the cloves or allspice easily found.
Pack into sterilized half-pint jars, and follow your favorite directions to process in boiling water bath canner. Makes 11-12 half pints.
Enjoy!
