Partway through cooking a batch of bacon this weekend, we realized we didn't have any empty cans to catch the grease. In desperation, we scoured our cupboards and finally found a forgotten can of cranberry sauce from last fall. The can saved the day, but what to do with all this cranberry sauce?
It's not exactly the time of year for stuffing and turkey, is it? Even if I roast a chicken or make a panade and serve the cranberry sauce on the side, my husband and I aren't likely to eat it all on our own.
This is also the commercial, totally processed, jelly variety of cranberry sauce. This is a must on our Thanksgiving table, but it doesn't exactly lend itself to being reused in baking or other recipes.
I'm thinking of eating it like jam on my toast or swirling it into my morning yogurt. With a little wedge of brie and some crackers, I could also make a quick appetizer. I'm also thinking of whizzing it in the food processor with a another fruit juice and some sugar and using this to make popsicles.
Any other ideas?
Related: Tip: Save Your Bacon Fat
(Image: Emma Christensen)
10 Low-Budget Pantry Items Everyone Should Have
Recipe: Spring Fruit and Nut Tabouli
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Monterey Pitcher fr...
The Ultimate Used Furniture Cleaning Kit
Ana Creates a Community at Home
Cranberry Chicken
Brown 2-4 pieces of chicken on both sides in skillet. Pour 1/2 can of cranberry sauce and 1/2 of a jar of Heinz Chili Sauce in skillet. Cook over medium heat for about 20 minutes or until chicken is done.
Very simple and yummy recipe.
You can do a similar recipe to kyudizky's with pork loin.
I use cranberry sauce when making meatballs. A can of cranberry sauce, and a similar amount of tomato sauce (canned is ok, homemade better), with some spices, and hot sauce.
Let it heat up on the stovetop, and cook meatballs (beef or turkey work well) in the sauce. It's rich and sweet, but tastes nothing like cranberry. Just make sure not to use a sauce with whole cranberries in it, they often burn or become bitter.
You have just made me realize how delicious this would be in brie en croute.
I've made these before - for something different
http://www.grouprecipes.com/78477/cranberry-cream-cheese-pinwheels.html
My left over sauce (canned or homemade) always makes its last appearance in the center of a coffe cake instead of a cinnamon swirl. So good!
I usually just grab a spoon and shovel it down. Maybe if you want to be fancy, slap some whipped cream on there but jellied cranberry sauce is a big treat in our house, just on it's own. ;)
I once ate a whole jar of cranberry jelly on toast before I realised it was meant to be for the Thanksgiving dinner coming up soon. I just love it as a condiment!
Yeah I was going to suggest maybe thinning it out into a glaze for pork...but looks like some of the earlier responders are all over that.
Cranberry sauce always gets leftover. I bet dollars to donuts my mom has a half used can in her fridge right now. It's just not something you eat more than a serving of, right?
Use it as the jelly in any jelly muffin recipe.
Cranberry Lime Margaritas. So, so delicious. Mix is with some cranberry juice (we also like cran-raspberry) and lime juice and have a margarita party!
There was a recipe a while back for cookie bars, oatmealy type bottom and the c sauce on top with some oats sprinkled on top. Googling 'cranberry bars' ought to do it.
Cut peaches in half. Remove the pits. Grill them cut side down. Fill the cavities with cranberry sauce. Serve as an accompaniment to roast meat or poultry.
This is even good with canned peach halves: Arrange peach halves in baking dish cut side up. Fill cavities with cranberry sauce. Bake until heated through.
Cranberry mayo! 10 oz of cranberry sauce to 1 oz of mayo. Spread on a turkey sandwich with cheese and avocado. So yummy!
I ran into this same pantry challenge this year when I sent my hubby to store to get some cranberries. I meant real, actual cranberries and he came home with a couple cans of that stuff. (Can you tell I'm not a fan?)
Anyway, I ended up using them: I browned pork chops and poured it over them with some red wine vinegar- yum yum.
I don't understand why you opened a can just to use the can. Why didn't you just save the fat in a small bowl, then when it cooled, either toss it or transfer it to something for storage?
*pulls up chair and sits down*
My family is one of the family farm suppliers for Ocean Spray, so boy howdy do I know cranberries (and cranberry products).
Some thoughts.
* use half of the can as a dressing for a fruit salad. Just mix it with yogurt, or even just enough water to thin it out a bit.
* Mix it with plain whipped cream, or a combination of whipped cream and raspberry jello, and use as the filling for a pie. (I've made a fantastic chocolate-cranberry tart that simply involves dumping some whole-berry sauce into a baked tart shell, and then drizzling melted chocolate on top of that.) Or, skip the pie part and eat it plain as a mousse or a fool.
* Add some to a barbecue sauce.
* Cranberry mayo was suggested above; similarly, cranberry mustard is another idea (use a ratio of about 3 parts mustard to 1 part cranberry sauce).
* Add a little cranberry sauce to the liquids when you're making pulled pork. Or, thin it out a bit and use it as a glaze if you're roasting pork or ham.
* The Ocean Spray web site has a recipe search where you can search by recipes that call for the specific product; their site suggests using the whole sauce as a filling for muffins (fill muffin cups halfway, add a teaspoon or so of the sauce into each cup, then finish filling them with batter and bake).
There are copious other recipes on the Ocean Spray site (as it probably behooves me to point out). In fact, I had to cheat a bit and check their site; I haven't bought the canned stuff ever, since Mom always saves a couple pounds' worth of the whole berries for me every year (she saves HERSELF a couple bushels of the really good berries before they ship the rest to Ocean Spray).
...it didn't occur to you to catch the grease in something else instead?
But, on a more serious note, blue cheese and cranberry sauce scones.
it does seem odd to open a can just to use the can when any container would have done.
Pork loin with a sauce made of rosemary, shallot, balsamic, and cranberry sauce (find on Epicurious if you want exact amounts).
Similar to the first poster - I have a tried-and-true recipe for Cranberry Chicken that you won't believe is good until you actually make it.
2 chicken breasts
1 can cranberries
1/2 bottle French/Russian dressing (the orange stuff)
Mix ingredients together and cover chicken, baking at 350 until cooked through. The sauce is delicious over mashed potatoes.
I accidentally ate a cranberry sauce and peanut butter sandwich when I was a kid (my mom put jelly in tupperware for me because I couldn't open the jar, and leftover cranberry sauce looks about the same as grape jelly when you're 6). It wasn't terrible - but these ideas seem a lot tastier!
one of my favorite crock pot recipes involve cranberry sauce. mix the cranberry sauce with 1 cup of french dressing. put some chicken breast in the bottom of the crock pot. pour the sauce/dressing mixture over it. cook on high for 6-8 hours. it's sweet and delicious and wonderful.
it's so easy. just throw it in there in the morning and when you come home from work you have dinner ready to go!
puree and add to pancakes?
Cranberry bellinis!
There is this great breakfast casserole that is meant to be made with leftovers after Thanksgiving that I have made a few times with a mix of fruit. I tried Googling it and can't seem to find the recipe, but I imagine those canned cranberries with a mix of other dried fruit would make for a delicious breakfast casserole!
Take the cranberries mix with spicy hot mango chutney and use it on a turkey sandwich.
there are these really delicious oatmeal cheesecake cranberry bars i make that sound similar to what Pipsqueak mentioned. the recipe is here
Add to heated maple/pancake syrup.
Blend into cream cheese, schmear.
At the bottom of a cocktail for added flavor. Add to some vinegar, mustard, chilies, thyme to turn into mostarda for sandwiches and roasts.
This isn't a summery dish but it always goes over well, and we like the leftovers for breakfast.
Cranapple Dish
Layer the following in a buttered 2 quart casserole dish:
4 peeled and sliced apples
1 T lemon juice
1 large can pineapple tidbits, drained
Spread 1 can whole cranberry sauce over the pineapple.
Combine topping ingredients and sprinkle on top.
½ cup flour
½ cup brown sugar
1/3 cup melted butter
1 cup instant oatmeal
½ tsp cinnamon
Bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees.
Am I the only one who was thinking ice cream? Puree with a little water or milk and add to the base... would probably be really good with brown sugar too!
LOL Been there! We've been known to fill a coffee cup with grease when we don't have a can to spare! After an hour in the fridge, it's solid and we can add it to the garbage can then pour the liquid leftover down the drain with a hot water chaser.
Just don't also have a coffe cup of whipped cream in the fridge at the same time. The two are NOT interchangeable. Ask me how I know...beef grease is not good in cocoa.
I have to admit, most of the time with me around, it just gets eaten straight, but other than that? Add a bit of jalapeno, call it jelly, and eat with cream cheese/crackers. Num!!!
Also good in place of cranberry juice in a cosmo, though you'd have to drink a LOT of those to get through an entire can..... That's usually what I do with leftover jellied cranberry sauce like that. heh.
Make hand pies (or another small pastry) with the jelly and some kind of cheese. I've done it with cream cheese and guava paste, which wasn't bad.
If the only option was to empty an unopened container of something to pour the grease into, I probably would have chosen a bottle of wine.
But, next time I'm vexed with what to do with leftover cranberry sauce, these are great suggestions.
I made scones last December with the leftover cranberry sauce from Xmas dinner and they were fantastic--just mash up the cranberry sauce and use it instead of the milk or whatever liquid the recipe calls for. You can also substitute cranberry sauce for about half of the fat in a scone recipe with little change in texture.
I would likely just eat the stuff with a spoon.
I don't know about the canned cranberry stuff, but home-made cranberry sauce is really, really good mixed into yogurt.
To tell the truth I love the canned stuff as a condiment on turkey sandwiches (even when its deli meat and not the real stuff). Cranberry on one side and mayo on the other, i think its the sweet and savory mixed together that I like.
<B>jessiann16</B>, that sounds delicious, but did you mean to say cook on high for 6-8 hours? I want to be sure you didnt mean low for that long.
When I lived in Edinburgh, I became fond of a sandwich I found in a cafe. It was simple: brie, cranberry sauce, and sliced cucumbers on a baguette. Delicious!