Trail Cranberry Sauce
Dried cranberries, orange, and maple rehydrated into sauce in the pot you already dirtied.
- calories
- 190
- weight
- 2 oz
- cal / oz
- 95
- protein
- 1 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 10 min
- total time
- 15 min
- water
- 200 ml boiled
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Canister stove
- Campfire coals
- Liquid fuel
- Car camping
- Backpacking
- Basecamp
- Winter / snow
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Dried cranberries | 1 1/2 cups | unsweetened if you can find them, they set up tarter |
|---|---|---|
| Orange drink powder or crystallized orange juice | 3 tbsp | stands in for the half cup of fresh juice |
| Dried orange peel | 1 tsp | zest dried at home, or the jarred kind |
| Maple syrup | 1/4 cup | in a leakproof bottle; maple sugar works and weighs less |
| Salt | 1/4 tsp | |
| Ground cinnamon | 1/4 tsp | optional |
| Ground ginger | 1/8 tsp | optional |
| Vanilla extract | 1/4 tsp | optional, carried in a dropper |
Method
- Put the cranberries, orange powder, dried peel, salt, and spices in the pot with 200 ml of water.
- Bring it to a boil, then drop to the lowest flame you can hold. Stir often; sugar on a camp stove scorches fast.
- Simmer about eight minutes. The berries swell, split, and start giving up pectin. Mash them against the side of the pot with your spoon.
- Pull it off the heat and stir in the maple syrup and vanilla. Adding the syrup last keeps it from burning.
- Let it sit ten minutes. It thickens as it cools, so stop while it still looks loose.
The original is a slow cooker dish built on fresh cranberries and squeezed oranges, which is four hours and a refrigerator you do not have. Dried cranberries do the same job in ten minutes because you are only putting back the water that was taken out. They arrive already sweetened, so the maple drops from the usual pile of sugar to a quarter cup.
Orange drink powder is the honest substitute for half a cup of juice, and the dried peel is what actually carries the orange flavor. The syrup goes in after the heat is off. It scorches on a stove burner in a way it never does in a crockpot, and once it scorches the whole pot tastes like it.
Packing
Everything dry goes in one small bag at home. Maple syrup and vanilla ride in bottles, and both leak if you let them, so bag them together.
Variations
- Diced dried apple or pear, added with the cranberries, stretches it and softens the tartness.
- A splash of bourbon off the heat if you are carrying any.
- Cook it down harder and it becomes a spread for tortillas the next morning.
https://dontwastethecrumbs.com/slow-cooker-cranberry-sauce-recipe