Wild Game – Partridgeberry Cumberland Sauce |

Ok now you’ve got some game meat that is tender and juicy but you want to heighten the palate to a new level as I do. You want to serve it to your finest guests and to family and make the meal memorable without question. That is how I feel when I am cooking, if it is worth doing for your guests it is worth doing it so it is memorable.

I found such a sauce. It is entitled Cumberland Sauce, named after the Duke of Cumberland in the late 1800’s also known as Crown Prince of Hanover. It’s derivation however is not English, it is of German origin. It has a puckering wine-citrus sweet-sour fruit bouquet that enhances any wild game to a whole new level by tingling your taste buds. Great with wild boar, venison, duck, goose or wild turkey.

Cumberland Sauce traditionally uses red currant preserve (not easy to find) as its fruit base but here I am going to substitute lingonberry or partridgeberry Preserve with Blueberries as the Newfoundlanders do. Partridgeberry is a low bush cranberry found in the maritime provinces of Canada and Newfoundland and identical to the Lingonberry of Denmark and Sweden. My wife and I love the partridgeberries of Newfoundland where her family originated. Accordingly we will call it Partridgeberry Cumberland Sauce

Image result for partridge berry of newfoundland

Partridgeberry Cumberland Sauce

Ingredients:

Rind from 1 orange zested or sliced and julienned

Rind from 1 lemon zested or sliced and Julienned

1/2 jar (6 oz) of Lingonberry or Partridgeberry Preserve.

Or 6 oz cranberry sauce

2 TBSP of Blueberries (fresh or frozen) Wild Newfoundland blueberries are better

1/2 cup of Port Wine

The juice of 1 large orange (approx. 1/4 cup)

The juice of 1 lemon (about 1/8 cup)

1/2 TBSP Dijon Mustard

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger.

Directions:

Cook the rind, boil the orange and lemon zest or julienned rind over high heat in 1.5 cups water and boil/blanch for 2 minutes for zest and 5 minutes for the rind. (Save a pinch of zest or boiled rind for a garnish at the end.) Strain and toss out the water. The resultant rind and residue will retain citric kick but tender.

To an empty pan add port wine, blueberries, Lingonberry/Partridgeberry Preserve, orange juice, lemon juice ( I used a hand operated squeezer to make the juice) mustard and ginger and brought to a boil. Once the blueberries burst they added the bright red color I desired (about 3 to 5 minutes). Strain through a fine sieve or cheese cloth.

Simmer with cooked orange and lemon rind until thickening appears on a spoon.

Serve in its own dipping cup with garnish. It can be served hot or cold. I like mine warm for dipping.

Makes just over a cup for a meal for 4 as a dip. The recipe can be doubled if desired. Refrigerate any remaining…you wont want to lose a drop.

Variants of berries can be substituted to create your very own Cumberland Sauce.

Have some fun! A cookbook may be in the works….

Wow!