When I was growing up every Christmas my dad and I made Cranberry Orange Relish. It became our ritual and our tradition. It was the only thing we ever used our meat grinder for and it gave it the best texture. I wish I still had that meat grinder. While it works fine in other kitchen essentials such as this one or this , that old meat grinder was the best!A funny story about this dish- I took it to the first holiday gathering when Mr. Persnickety and I were newly married. Like I said this is my favorite holiday dish and such a family tradition that I wanted to share it with my new family. They took one look at it and asked me -what is it-and what do we do with it?! I didn’t realize that not everyone ate it! It is a family joke now, and honestly they don’t love it as much as I do, but that’s okay. I think it is the memories of making cranberry orange relish with my dad more than the dish itself that makes me love it so. Cranberry orange relish is actually a pretty good alternative to the canned stuff .
There are a couple of tricks to this dish:
1)Slightly freeze the cranberries so they don’t turn to mush in the food processor.
2)Use thin skinned oranges, not Navel variety.
3)It really needs to sit overnight in the fridge to let flavors mellow and to gauge how much sugar is needed.
I hope your family enjoys this recipe as much as mine has. It is a great recipe to make with kids too. They love to help!
Ingredients
- 1 bag fresh cranberries
- 1 orange, washed and sliced
- 1 apple, washed, cored, and sliced
- organic sugar to taste, I start with 1/2 cup
Instructions
- Place fruits in food processor or food grinder and process. Relish should be a little chunky. Stir in sugar and refrigerate overnight. Test for sweetness the next morning. Add sugar if needed and let sit until ready to serve. It is okay to even make this dish 2-3 days ahead of time to get the perfect blend of sweet/tart flavor. I have read where some people like to add pecans to this dish, but I like it just plain.
Do you have a favorite holiday traditional dish that you make whether it is a favorite or not? Please share and tell me about it in the comments below 🙂
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