Highbush cranberries - help please

[blissful]

HI, the last time I canned these, I made a 'cranberry ketchup', it was a highly spiced thick sauce, for meats, especially venison. It was good.

This year I am finally getting to my cranberries, and on my two bushes I have a bumper crop, close to 2 or 3 gallons. I'm thinking I'll make cranberry syrup to put over pancakes and add to smoothies (it gives them the tart flavor and pretty color.) They are very high in vitamin C and very acidic without the sugar.
Anyways, I'm open to suggestions, as I'm half way through cleaning and putting them through my new oxogoodgrips food mill, a handy device.

I have found a couple of recipes for the syrup BUT they are so different.
One proportion is 4 cups cranberries, 2 cups water and 2 cups sugar.
Another proportion is 5 cups cranberries, 6 cups water and 7 cups sugar.
Now those two recipes are really different, so I feel I have a lot of latitude in the recipe.
I'll be water bath canning most of it, and then freezing the leftovers.
I already have a quart to half gallon of JUST totally thick concentrated cranberry pulp/sauce/juice, and I'm not near 1/3 done putting it through the mill.
I also don't know what the volume of 2 cups and water and 2 of sugar would make, any idea? I'm trying to calculate the number of pints I'll be canning.

I hear that pemmican (sp?) is another possibility, but, I don't know how to make it.
They say (the internet people lol) that you can make anything you normally make with regular cranberries with the deseeded high bush cranberries.

Anyone have any suggestions before I finish with 'just' syrup? TIA ~bliss always glad to hear your suggestions. Thanks friends.

 

[mcnerd]

Unfortunately I've never done cranberries strictly as a pourable sauce, which might be a problem since it will gel when you boil it, so you will probably have to remove it from the heat moments before that occurs.

I have to laugh because so many people end up with syrup when trying to make jellies and you "want" to make a syrup.

The Ball Blue Book of Preserving recipe for Cranberry Sauce (jellied) is 4-1/4 cups cranberries, 2 cups sugar and 1-3/4 cups water. You want to increase the water to help keep it a syrup.

That's my thoughts.

 

[blissful]

I want sauce because I don't enjoy jams or jellies myself, but that's just my preference. (maybe for gifts though, not this year)
Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[blissful]

Since processing the cranberries (through the mill) took so long, I ended up freezing two 5 quart kettles partially full. Now I'm thinking the syrup, really dense, and some cranberry orange marmalade because I like marmalade if it is not too sweet. I love the tangy stuff, and the citris will be good.
I'm wondering about adapting the lemon bars recipe (with fresh lemon, so good) to a cranberry bars recipe because it has that tart flavor, and the intense color would make them even better.
My right hand nails are stained purple. I read that the indians used the berries to dye fabrics. I'd say that probably worked very well!
I have a gallon of highbush cranberries seeds too, if anyone is interested in barter, even if you only want a few or if you want a few cups. They can be planted in the summer and they will come up the next year. They like acidic soil, if I remember right. I've had no upkeep on them since planting them the first year. They are now 10-12 feet tall, easy to manage. They are natural to WI and the northern states, Canada and Alaska. ~Bliss