Recipe Box: Cranberry Sauce

Cranberry sauce.

No matter how you slice or spoon it, the dish is merely berries boiled in sugar-water, right? Plot twist: nope!

In many homes, it’s a hastily prepped fruit jelly, a patch of vibrant red in the sea of beige, sage and cream that commonly comprises the Thanksgiving table-scape. As much a treat for the eyes as the palate. Many home cooks, determined to keep at least one dish on the notoriously tricky T-day menu simple, indulge in a canned version of the dish (invented by lawyer-turned-cranberry-bog-owner Marcus L. Urann in 1912).

Americans consume 5,062,500 gallons of jellied cranberry sauce, and only 26% of Americans make it themselves, according to Ocean Spray.

They’re missing out. With a pinch of effort and a dash of unexpected add-ins, the sauce’s B-list billing is ready for a star turn. (And yes, it can be prepared ahead of time and chilled, covered in the fridge until opening night.) So at the risk of adding yet another layer of culinary intrigue to a cooking plot already thick with drama this holiday season, we offer you two inventive and delightful new recipes for the underappreciated sauce from two of the Capital District’s leading culinary lights, executive chef and owner Marla Ortega of Illium Café & Bistro and executive chef Larry Schepici of Jack’s Oyster House.