For the James Beard–nominated chef Sara Bradley, who owns Freight House in her hometown of Paducah, Kentucky, Thanksgiving happens in three rounds. First, there’s a morning Bloody Mary bar. At noon comes a warm-up round of charcuterie, shrimp cocktails, and smoked oysters. Then, around five, she serves the big, classic meal—including heaps of her homemade cranberry sauce, made with brown sugar, red wine vinegar, and walnuts.
“I always make way too much of it,” Bradley says. “It’s one of the last things we’ll put away because sugar, vinegar, and pectin are all essentially preservatives, and I like snacking on it.” But the chef and whiskey fan—Bradley keeps the Freight House bar stocked with about five hundred bottles—also hit upon a perfect way to give any leftover sauce a second life: her cranberry old-fashioned.
Store-bought cranberry sauce works fine in this recipe, too. Bradley prefers the chunky kind. Either way, you’ll want to strain it well (she strains hers twice.) If you’ve got a crowd, the drink can also be batched, and dropping in a few whole cloves adds another layer of flavor. “This cocktail is very whiskey forward,” Bradley says. “It has a tartness to it, and the bitters balance the sweetness of the cranberry sauce. It’s our little late-night treat after the cleanup is done.”
