Traditional Cranberry Sauce
Most cranberry sauce is too sweet, but that's traditional, and it has this advantage: The sauce will gel upon cooling. If you want to make a less-sweet sauce, by all means do, but expect it to be runnier. If you want a very firm sauce, make the variation.
4 cups (about 1 pound) fresh cranberries, picked over and washed, or frozen cranberries
1½ cups sugar
2 cups water
Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan and turn the heat to medium-low.
Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the berries are broken, 10 to 15 minutes.
Transfer to a bowl; cool, then chill until ready to serve. This keeps well, refrigerated, for up to a week.
Shopping Tip: Cranberries should be firm and whole; you can freeze them almost indefinitely, or store them in the refrigerator for weeks. Incredibly, it doesn't make much difference.
Firm Cranberry Sauce or Cranberry Jelly [MA]: Increase sugar to 2 cups. For Firm Cranberry Sauce, proceed as above. For jelly, cook 5 minutes longer, stirring frequently. Pass through a sieve into a mold, bowl, or jelly jars and cool, then chill until firm. Slice to serve.
From the book
