Cranberry Sauce

I made some sugar-free cranberry sauce today.  I've been doing it for a few years.  Originally, I didn't can it and only made it as needed, storing it in the refrigerator.  I also used aspartame as the sweetener, which worked in terms of sweetness, but changed the consistency.  At the end of the season, I'd buy bags of berries, put them in the freezer, then try to use them in ensuing months.

Whey Low works much better as a non-sugar sweetener.  And when I started canning it, my experience with cranberry sauce in the off season improved.  Warehouse clubs often get three-pound bags of berries, which is too much if you just want a side dish at Thanksgiving, but works out well if you're doing a canner load of sauce for use in the next year.

I use this recipe, adapted from the Ball Blue Book (BBB):

About 21 1/3 cups of cranberries
10 2/3 cups each of water and sugar (or Whey Low)

The berries have to be picked over carefully.  I always find a lot of bad ones.  They're often off-color and squishy; they may be translucent pink, or turning black.  If you don't get all (or most of them) out, the cranberry sauce will have an off-odor and flavor, somewhat reminiscent of PineSol.  Tonight I started off with nine pounds and culled out about 26 ounces, or 18%.  It took about an hour to do so.  I used the above amounts of water and sugar, but didn't measure out the berries.  From past experience, I know that nine pounds will net out to about 8-9 quarts.  Tonight I got about 8.5.  They can be canned in the boiling water bath canner.  I do them for 25 minutes.

 To make the sauce itself, I just boil the water and sugar, then add the berries.  They'll start to rupture immediately.  I stir them and eventually mash the few remaining stragglers against the side with the slotted spoon I use to stir.  Everything fits into a 16 qt. stock pot, though it is tight at first.  Until the berries break down, it will be nearly full.

You can see a couple of things in the picture.  One is that foaming becomes a problem as it continues to cook (and boil).  Another is that the berries (even once they burst) float at the top of the mixture, leaving a more syrupy consistency below.  I try to balance out what goes into each jar, but obviously miss the mark sometimes.  Still, it all works out and they're good.

The Whey Low does admittedly make this an expensive indulgence.  The three bags of berries cost about $14, and the amount of Whey Low (a little over four pounds) costs probably $30 or so (without any discounts, which are easy to get if you're willing to go on their e-mail list).  I could use sugar, which would cut the price dramatically. For preserves I use sugar; Whey Low would be prohibitive.  But for cranberry sauce, I figure it's worth it to lighten the load calorically.