I remember so vividly being in my Grandmother’s kitchen, seeing raisins soaking in a saucepan on the back burner; she was making her usual accompaniment to ham: raisin sauce. This unique sweet sauce countered the saltiness of our annual Easter ham; I could never seem to get enough of it. Inasmuch as I love to cook—and for as much as I love this sauce—you would think I would make this stuff all the time, but for some reason I never did. I always left it up to my Grandma and later, my mom.
As I was preparing a batch for our COVID Easter meal for three, I questioned why this was only the second time ever that I had made it myself? One reason is that my mother typically hosts Easter: the sauce is always simmering away on the stove by the time we arrive. The other reason is that for many years I was a vegetarian and the only thing I/we ever paired this sauce with was ham: no ham = no raisin sauce. I was determined to find out what else goes well with the sauce that I could—and do—eat by the spoonful.