Thanksgiving in Canada is said to have been inspired by Fist Nations people giving thanks to The Mother for crops, game and all the Earth provides. Modern Canadian Thanksgiving was first celebrated 43 years before American Thanksgiving according to historian Alison Nagy. In the late 1500’s and early 1600s, French settlers and Mi’kmaq held feasts of thanksgiving which is where the Mi’kmaq introduced the French to cranberries as “les petites rouges”. Since then, cranberries have played a central role in our holiday traditions.
Cranberry sauce and jelly have been around for decades, first being canned by Mr. Urann in 1912 under his company name “Ocean Spray Preserving Company”. Today Ocean Spray sells 70 million cans of cranberry sauce! Pretty amazing given how easy it is to make!
Last year I profiled a wonderful cranberry sauce recipe from Canadian Living which uses apple juice to help with the sweetness reducing the sugar. I love this recipe and will make again this year. Having cranberry sauce in the pantry is handy year-round. It’s great with turkey, chicken, vegetable casseroles, pot pies, sandwiches, and even mixed with mustard for a fondue dip. But what’s trending this year?
In the recent edition of Cook’s Illustrated magazine, they focused on cranberry relish as an alternative to traditional cranberry sauce. Their recipe used raw cranberries with oranges or clementines. For long-term storage, I found this flavourful recipe by Topp & Howard for cranberry, apple, and pear relish with a hint of orange. It is excellent.
Cranberry Apple Pear Relish
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Loading...This relish is a lovely compliment to turkey, but it is also good for glazing oven roasted carrots or parsnips. I’ve used it to top baked sweet potato rounds as an appetizer. Get trending this holiday and try cranberry relish instead of, or in addition to cranberry sauce!
Ingredients
- 3 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
- 3 apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
- 2 pears, peeled, cored, and chopped
- 1.5 cups golden raisins
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup orange juice
- 2 TBSP grated orange rind
- 2 tsp cinnamon & ¼ tsp nutmeg
- ½ orange liqueur (optional)
Instructions
In a Dutch oven, combine fruits, raisins, sugar, orange juice & rind, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
Bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and boil gently for about 25 – 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the mixture thickens.
Remove from heat and stir in liqueur if using.
Ladle into hot 250ml jars leaving a ½ headspace.
Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace.
Apply lids and rings to clean rims and tighten to “finger-tip” tight.
Process in a boiling water bath or atmospheric steam canner for 10 for 250ml jars and 15 minutes for 500ml jars, adjusting for altitude.
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