Cranberry Sauce from Cook's Illustrated

Cook's Illustrated published this in November 1999 and we've been making it since. It's intensely flavored and not too sweet; the orange zest and liquor is a good addition. It's so easy to make, I wonder why anyone buys the stuff in the cans... unless you're sentimental for the rings around the cylindrical gel.

Ocean Spray sells 12 ounce bags of cranberries, but we've recently found another brand that offers 2 pound (32 ounce) bags. Since we make a big batch to take over to friends' houses in plastic tubs for Thanksgiving, I've scaled up the recipe and offer both small and large quantities here.

Small   Large
3/4 2       Cup Water
1 2 3/4   Cup Sugar
1/4 3/4     tsp Salt
1 3       Tbs Orange Zest (optional)
12 32      ounce Cranberries, freshed, picked through

2 5       Tbs Triple Sec, Grand Marnier, etc (optional)

Bring Water, Sugar, Salt, Orange Zest to boil in medium pan over high heat,
stirring to dissolve sugar.
Stir in Cranberries; return to boil.
Reduce heat to medium,, simmer until saucy,
slightly thickened and two-thirds of berries have popped open,
about 5 minutes. Below, you can see the berries have swollen up and started to crack. Keep cooking: you need them to release their pectin to set the gel -- better to cook too long than too short. 

Remove from heat and let cool just a bit then add Triple Sec (if you add the booze while the sauce is hot, it can flash off).

Transfer to nonreactive bowl or tubs, cool to room temperature, serve. You could even put it into a used and cleaned out can, to get that old fashioned grocery-store look.