Athol Brose and Chutney for the Gracious Host

Interesting personalized gifts from the kitchen are a nice way to say thank-you to a host or hostess during the holiday season. These "housewarming "brews can be made ahead of time and given as gifts.

Athol brose is a concoction from an area in central Scotland noted for it's deer hunting, Brose is an Scottish word for broth to be served over the venison. Early recipes used things like water basted in oatmeal over night for thickening. This modern recipe calls for gelatin. Deer hunting season has just started in Indiana and this is a nice gift to give the deer hunter to flavor his meat.

1 ¾ Teaspoons of unflavored gelatin

½ cup water

1 ¼ cups honey

3 cups of heavy cream

3 Cups of Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey

In a small sauce pan left the gelatin soften for several minutes in the water. Cook over a low heat stirring until the gelatin is completely dissolved. Usually it takes no more than two minutes. Reserve the gelatin and water mixture.

In a large sauce pan heat your honey on a medium heat until it is slightly thinned out. Add your cream and heat on low medium heat for about 3 minutes. Add in your gelatin mixture and stir well. Remove the whole mixture from the heat and add your Jack Daniels.

This broth can be served warm or cold. This recipe makes about three pints. Put the broth in sterilized canning jars. You should heat the jar lids and rims about 10 minutes before you place the broth in the jars. When the jars are cooling they should seal. Decorate the jars with fabric or ribbon and place a recipe card on the jar as a tag.

If you are going to someone else's house for Thanksgiving consider giving the hostess traditional Chutney to go with her Turkey.

Apple Cranberry Chutney

1 twelve once bag of cranberries

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup of lemon juice

1 large apple peeled and sliced

½ cup of seedless dates

Two teaspoons of ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon of nutmeg

Bring all the ingredients to a low boil to dissolve the sugar. Be sure to use a non reactive sauce pan. Reduce the heat after the sugar dissolves and simmer for about twenty minutes. The cranberries should burst.

Place in 2 pint canning jars. You should heat the jar lids and rims about 10 minutes before you place the chutney in the jars. When the jars are cooling they should seal. Decorate the jars with fabric or ribbon and place a recipe card on the jar as a tag. Chutney will keep for two weeks.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-chutney.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atholl_brose