Cranberry Sauce with Zing

Or Black Pepper Cranberry Sauce

I think I’ll stay with my preparing for the holidays theme in my recipe for this week. Over the years I’ve pretty much settled into a standard menu for Thanksgiving. Several years ago I stumbled across the recipe that this recipe is based on in Food and Wine magazine and it immediately became part of our standard Thanksgiving roster. This relish is good with all kinds of meats but particularly good with your Thanksgiving turkey.

Cranberry Sauce with Zing

Or Black Pepper Cranberry Sauce

1 cup bourbon
¼ cup chopped shallots
Grated peel of one lemon
½ cup sugar
12 oz. (1 package) fresh cranberries
1 Tbsp. freshly ground black pepper

Yes, you read it correctly. That’s one cup of bourbon. And I did say one tablespoon of pepper. And just the yellow part of the peel, please—not the white pulp.

1. Place the bourbon in a 3 qt. saucepan, add the shallots and lemon peel, and reduce over high heat to ¼ cup.
2. Stir in the cranberries and sugar and cook until the cranberries begin to burst.
3. Remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool for 15 minutes.
4. Stir in the black pepper.

When the sauce has cooled it may be placed in the refrigerator until needed. Caution! The better your pepper and the longer you let it season before serving the more zing it’s likely to have. Depending on how tart you like it (and the flavor of your cranberries) you might want to add up to ¼ cup more sugar.