I have a slow cooker recipe (for meat) that calls for 4 cups fresh or frozen cranberries. Fresh are out of season, and frozen out of stock at my usual stores. All that's available are dried cranberries.
I'm wondering about the advisability of getting the dried cranberries and re-hydrating them in the other fluid ingredients of the recipe (e.g. apple juice) over the stove, and using them in the slow cooker as usual.
Is this a reasonable thing to do? If so, what measure of dried cranberries will substitute for 4 cups frozen? And how much fluid will that amount of dried cranberries require to re-hydrate to 4 cups?
Best Answer
I wouldn't.
I'm guessing that a recipe which requires 4 cups of fresh cranberries has them as either the majority ingredient, or the #2 ingredient by weight. With that assumption in mind, I'm recommending against this.
Fresh cranberries are very high in ascorbic acid (Vitamin C). This makes them extremely tart, which is a big part of their flavor. In dried ones, all of this acid and about half their tartness is destroyed by the drying process. Dried cranberries are often sweetened as well. As a result, a rehydrated dried cranberry won't taste a lot like a fresh one ... compare fresh table grapes and raisins for a similar difference.