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Dessert

Cranberry Granita

A frozen dessert made from cranberry juice, sugar, lime juice, vodka, and garnished with fresh cranberries.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cranberry and lime match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 100 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Cranberry Granita

6 dessert glasses

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Whisk cranberry juice and sugar in a heavy medium saucepan over medium heat until sugar dissolves, then pour the mixture into a 13×9×2‑inch glass baking dish and cool completely.

  2. Whisk in the lime juice and vodka.

Freeze

  1. Freeze until the granita becomes slushy, about 2 hours.

  2. Using a fork, stir to blend. Continue freezing the granita until frozen, stirring every hour to form crystals, at least 5 hours or overnight.

Serve

  1. Divide the granita among 6 dessert glasses.

  2. Garnish with fresh cranberries, if desired, and serve.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

106Calories
1 gProtein
0 gFat
28 gCarbs

Counts 3 of 4 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Cranberry1 cup raw (100g)46
Limejuice of 1 lime (44ml)11
Vodkanot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cranberry + limetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together100 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Lime + vodkatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sugar + vodkatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together327 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Cranberry + vodkatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together125 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Cranberry + sugartop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cranberry juice
Provides the main liquid and tart fruit flavor that the granita is built on.
Sugar
Sweetens the base and lowers its freezing point, keeping the ice crystals soft.
Fresh lime juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness and balances the cranberry tartness.
Vodka
Alcohol stays unfrozen, so it keeps the granita softer and more scoopable.

The step that matters

Stirring while freezing. Stirring every hour breaks up forming ice into small, fine crystals. Leaving it still lets large, hard ice sheets form, giving a coarse, icy texture.

Swap the cranberry

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lime, vodka):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Cranberrythe original
  3. Blueberryfits about as well
  4. Orangefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lime, vodka. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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