New Bern, NC ­ ­- “It bears repeating,” so said my darling husband … often.

This truly merits a repeat! The keystone ingredient to holiday meals – in my humble opinion – rests with the cranberry sauce. Not the golden, moist turkey or the succulent ham.

No, my friends, give me a quality cranberry sauce that will sparkle next to the aforementioned meats, but will also redeem less-than-stellar attempts at the perfect protein.

Many eschew any form of cranberry sauce. Poor devils. They’ve never tasted mine.

When you grab a sack of cranberries to make the standard issue recipe – grab TWO bags!

It’s that good.

You’ll want to make a vat of this stuff now – and one for later. Some to share, (Oops, it’s gone!), and some to, (greedily), keep for yourself.

You will also want to throw a large navel orange, a small container of raspberries, and a pear into your cart.

Okay. I know this is getting weird but hang with me.

Here’s the recipe:

ULTIMATE CRANBERRY SAUCE

Ingredients:

2 bags of fresh cranberries, rinsed and sorted through for the elusive “bad ones”

1 large navel orange, washed and cut into halves lengthwise

1 pear, washed, peeled, cut into quarters, and cored

1 cinnamon stick

About 15 whole cloves

Nutmeg to taste – I had only powdered Nutmeg and used maybe a ¼ tsp or so; fresh grated would be great

1 ½- 1 ¾ cups sugar (save the last quarter cup to zero in on the sweetness later on during cooking)

1 ½ cups water

Directions:

Rinse raspberries and place into a small sauce pan with just enough water to cover the bottom of the pan. Cook on medium heat until all bubbly.

Place a sieve over a bowl. Pour raspberries and their juices into sieve. Using a spoon or rubber spatula, press the berries through the sieve until only seeds remain.

Scrape all the raspberry goodness off into the bowl.

Put cleaned and sorted cranberries into a large soup pot and add raspberry mash, water, sugar, and cinnamon stick. Set heat on stove to medium and start cooking the berry mixture.

While the berries slowly heat up, peel half of the orange and cut flesh up into small pieces; add to the cooking berries. Cut the other half orange with rind into thirds lengthwise and then make very thin slices; add to berries as well.

Dice up the peeled pear. I usually make a small dice by slicing through the thick part of each pear quarter, make lengthwise slices of both layers, then cut horizontally to make small pieces. Add pear to the cooking berries.

Stir the cooking berry mixture every few minutes.

Once everything is in the pot, add the remaining spices. Take the round head off each clove stem and rub between your first two fingers over the berries. Discard all clove stems. Add nutmeg to taste. Stir.

At some point when the berries start to pop, I will put a lid on the pot. From here on out, every time you stir, use the back of the wooden stirring spoon to smush the whole cranberries on the side of the pot. Lower the temperature a bit to allow for longer, slower cooking.

Ladle out a sample to test for sweetness – but remember to let it cool off first! Ouch!

Add that last ¼ cup or less of sugar to make the sauce “just right” for you.

When you deem the sauce is finished cooking by noting the consistency and the popped state of the berries, turn off the heat and allow to cool a bit. Remove the cinnamon stick.

Pour sauce into a couple bowls (this is a double recipe) and allow to cool on the counter, then cover and refrigerate if not eating immediately. This is a great make-ahead recipe and it lasts for a week or more in the refrigerator.

All you have to do now is wait for the raves!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Deidre