PlumFairy's Basic Cranberry Sauce

Fresh Cranberries
Sugar
Salt
Water
Apples

Go through cranberries and discard any which aren't good.

Then put the amount of cranberries, water and sugar in a large pot that you need. (1 cup of sugar, and 1 cup of water, per bag of cranberries.) Add a small pinch of salt per bag of cranberries, too, but be careful, not too much.

There is more than one way to do the apples. My grandmother cut them in half, removed any seeds which were showing, but left the core and skin.

Then she dropped the halves into the pot, and cooked the cranberries as usual. When the apples were cooked, she removed them, took off the skins, removed the core, and kept the edible part of the fruit, which she added back to the pot.

I did it that way for years.

Then one day I said, "This is a lot of work!"

Now I peel my apples, putting the peel in some cheese cloth. Then quarter them and slice out the core. I add the core, minus any loose seeds, to the cheesecloth, too.

Now I tie the cheesecloth in a bundle, and cut the 1/4'd apples smaller, adding the cheesecloth ball, and the apples to the pot.

When all is ready I mash the apples a little, but you can leave the pieces bite sized, or even shred them before cooking, if you don't want to bite into them, I imagine.

Then I pull out the cheese cloth, squeeze it out into the pot to get all the liquid, then discard.

I use 1 - 2 apples per bag of cranberries.

Baking apples will cook faster/better, but something with a heavenly scent/taste will really add to the cranberry sauce. I usually use the blushing darlings off our trees. The closest thing you can buy might be a pink lady. Maybe make it with baking apples the first time?

Whatever you use, it will make a very nice cranberry sauce. I have been asked to bring this version to many, many potluck meals around Christmastime, and I never have any left to bring home, however much I make.