17 Comments
Nov 21, 2023Liked by Peter Suderman

Peter! What about the (purple) elephant in the room? Using canned cranberry sauce!?!

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author

All I can tell you is: try it and report back!

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...I should’ve seen that coming!

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Nov 23, 2023Liked by Peter Suderman

Very nice! It is fun to make a special cocktail to share with family for the holiday. A note on measuring the cranberry jelly... I just converted the 1/4 oz to teaspoons and measured it with regular measuring spoons rather than a jigger. 1/4 oz = 1-1/2 teaspoons.

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Nov 23, 2023·edited Nov 23, 2023Liked by Peter Suderman

I used cheesecloth to strain the cranberry liquid, and after cooling, it's still in liquid form. I wonder if the cheesecloth strained out something that keeps it from solidifying, or something weird happened in my process. Anyway, I'm excited to try the drink!

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author

The cheesecloth shouldn’t in theory change the process too much. But there’s a bit of inherent imprecision in the straining process just because pushing through more or less of the total volume will change the texture. A somewhat more liquid outcome should still taste like sweetened cranberry, though, and might even be a bit easier to incorporate in the drink.

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Nov 23, 2023Liked by Peter Suderman

Made it. Like it. May skip the pumpkin pie topper next time 'round.

I'm eyeballin' my Cynar right now. . .

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Nov 23, 2023Liked by Peter Suderman

Just simply WOW!

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Nov 22, 2023Liked by Peter Suderman

nice! I love cranberry so this is right up my alley. Does this mean next year will be a stuffing/dressing flavored drink? (or [gulp] turkey??)

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author

Hope you make it and enjoy it.

As for next year...predictions are hard, especially about the future.

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Nov 22, 2023Liked by Peter Suderman

This seems like an opportune time to push my syrup by weight recommendation, for the jell that is.

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author

It’s such a small portion but yes that’s not a bad idea. At the same time: not everyone wants to weigh tiny ingredient portions for a single drink. I should probably do conversions for the meticulous.

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How many 1/4 oz portions of jelly did you end up with from this recipe? Trying to gauge how much might be needed to scale up for serving a large family. Thanks!

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I ended up with 7 oz of cranberry syrup.

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Additional experiment: 1/2 tsp of liquid pectic enzyme, stirred into the cool jelly, turned it overnight into a syrup; easy to measure.

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Is that something you get at the grocery?

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That’s fine, but my Thanksgiving cocktail has an apple-, not pumpkin-, pie theme.

2 oz apple brandy (80 proof), made from (not “flavored with”) apples, infused* with cinnamon

½ oz nocino

½ oz Amaro Nonino

⅜ oz caramel gomme syrup

⅛ oz St. Elizabeth’s Dram

Lemon peel

Tart apple slice

Stir with ice and serve up.

If batching, add 1 oz water per serving and place in freezer

*The cinnamon infusion is simply shoving cinnamon sticks into bottles of apple brandy for 2 days (or more, depending on how much one likes cinnamon).

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