Maybe you've heard the old joke about the new bride who tries recipe after recipe for homemade cranberry relish, only to have her husband say with disappointment, "It's just not like my mother's."

The exasperated young wife opens a can of commercial cranberry sauce — the kind that retains the shape of the can, right down to the indentations on the lid — and slides it onto a dish.

"At last," her husband rejoices. "Just like Mom used to make."

Of course, I've been curious about homemade cranberry sauce. Is it worth the extra effort? Would the newsroom taste-testers try it way before the holiday, without a slab of turkey?

Armed with a recipe for cranberry compote — thank you, Emeril and www.foodnetwork .com — I brought fresh cranberries, oranges and a lemon to the (Wilkes-Barr, Penn.) Times Leader test kitchen and found ... a closed door. Someone was holding an all-day training session in the conference room, blocking access to our charming 1950s-era kitchenette.

"Let's go to your house," the photographer said.

Half an hour later, as the berries and other ingredients began to bubble merrily on my stove, I realized I'd made the inevitable mistake. I had added the cornstarch right off the bat. It wasn't supposed to go into the saucepan until the cranberries, citrus juices and zest had boiled for eight minutes. The photographer suggested it would create a problem — too much sauce thickening before the berries had a chance to soften and explode.

I decided we'd better start over. That meant I needed another lemon. Luckily, the nearest grocery store is just a seven-minute sprint away.

In my absence, the photographer had taken care of most of the ingredients — primarily squeezing orange juice and grating orange rind. But just how much orange rind did he add? "Maybe twice as much as the recipe called for," he admitted later.

That could be why, after the compote chilled overnight in the newsroom fridge, three out of four taste-testers said the citrus flavor overpowered the cranberry. Aside from that, the results were remarkably varied.

Taste-tester Jessica said she liked it because it was so sweet.

Taste-tester Bonnie said it needed more sugar.

Taste-tester Todd wished more cranberry flavor had shown through. "I'm missing that tang," he said. Taste-tester Kevin, not a cranberry fan, liked being bombarded with citrus.

Taste-tester Ron said there wasn't nearly enough orange flavor in this batch.

If our zany little test kitchen adventure has inspired you, here's the recipe.

CRANBERRY COMPOTE

1/2 pound fresh cranberries

1 tablespoon grated orange zest

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

1/4 cup fresh orange juice

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 cups water

3 tablespoons cornstarch

Put the cranberries, zests, juices, sugar, vanilla and 1 1/2 cups of the water in a medium-size non-reactive saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and cook for 8 minutes.

Dissolve the cornstarch in the remaining 1/2 cup of water and add to the pan. Reduce the heat to medium, then stir constantly until the mixture thickens, about 2 minutes. Let cool completely.

Per 1 tablespoon: 31 calories, no fat, no protein, 8 g carbohydrates (from sugar), 5 mg sodium