Hello everyone! Hope you are doing well at the beginning of this holiday season!
I know it is a bit cliche but I couldn’t let Thanksgiving pass without doing at least one beloved side or main course from this holiday smorgasbord! And, as it happens, I’m also catching up on my Historical Food Fortnightly challenges and this particular one is about sauces. So what better than good ol’ cranberry sauce!
Now I know there is a great debate on whether the sauce should be homemade or from a can. Like Facebook wars debatable.
For me personally … the canned stuff!
I know, I know. I can hear the groans now. But honestly I’ve always been partial to it and, in my household, it is a common necessity. I remember once making a chicken dinner for my newly wed husband with no cranberry sauce. There is a reason it was only once.
I’m also lucky enough to live in an area that is full of cranberry bogs!
From early September right through to the beginning of November you see the flooding of the bogs and the harvesting of the cranberries. And you learn to keep well back from the cranberry trucks when driving down the road for any stray cranberries that will fly out and hit your windshield. (It’s interesting because the side of the road has a red tint to it because of all the squashed cranberries.) Harvest time always warrants a stop and some pictures, especially when the sun is just right and the water is very blue and it just looks beautiful with the contrast… The day pictured above was cloudy, but still not any less beautiful.
So I was very happy to pick up some local cranberries from a farm stand rather than pick them myself. Not only does it support local farmers but also the scrub brush that cranberries grow in is very thorny and not so pleasant to move around in. So I decided to leave it to the professionals.
Cranberry Sauce
2lbs fresh cranberries (washed and picked over)
2 cups cold water, approximately
2 pounds sugar
Place the cranberries in a large saucepan and add enough cold water to not quite cover the berries when they are pressed down. Add the sugar. Bring to a simmer and skim off the foam occasionally. Cook the cranberries until their juice jells when it is dropped on a cold plate. Pour into a mold and chill overnight.
To remove the sauce from the mold, gently run a paring knife around the edge, dip the mold in hot water for a moment, and then invert it onto a platter to serve.
Yields 1 ½ quarts.
Tudor, Tasha The Tasha Tudor Cookbook (1993) pg. 66
I’ve been longing to do a recipe from Tasha Tudor’s cookbook for quite some time. I just love her gardens and cooking and lifestyle (yes 19th century clothes and all)! And I love how she’s a feisty Yankee lady!
I also love that in her description of this recipe she talks about how this was an old receipt passed down from her father’s English Cape Cod ancestors. I just love that bit of information, to know a bit of the background of this simple dish.
So here’s the cranberries, washed and picked! I love how they look like little jewels!
I ended up just using a pound because, once I picked through them, I found I didn’t have enough to equal two pounds.
So to compensate for the change in ingredients I used 1 pound (16 oz) of cranberries, 1 cup cold water (approximately) and 2 cups of granulated sugar (of which there are 4 cups to a pound).
I poured the cranberries in the pot and added the water and pressed down to see where the water level was. You can see the water just peeking through, which is just how Tasha described it. I guess that measurement really is approximate.
Then I poured in the sugar…
… and stirred everything together till the sugar dissolved (or at least disappeared to the bottom).
Then I set it on a medium heat to start to simmer. I wanted to start slow in case there was sugar settled at the bottom. And it was a good thing I did because once it started simmering it bubbled up pretty quickly. So make sure to stay close and have a wooden spoon handy!
Shortly after it started to simmer (I’d say about 4-5 minutes) I saw the foam rise and move its way to the sides (as you see above). So I started to “scum” it. Now Tasha was known for her collection of old utensils (among many other things) and I’m sure she had a proper scimmer/scummer. I, on the other hand, am lacking one and had to use the wooden spoon. This worked fine except that there was no way I could properly skim/scum the sauce without picking up some cranberries in the process. So, for the necessity of a properly skimmed/scummed sauce, some cranberries had to be sacrificed.
Once fully skimmed/scummed and cooked down for about 10 minutes more, here was the final product.
It looks so pretty and I have to say the kitchen smelled DIVINE! Certainly put me in the holiday spirit!
So first I did the plate test. It came out good.
For those who don’t know how the plate test works, you put a dollop of the sauce/jelly on the cold plate and let it set for a second. Then, with your finger, run it through the center of the sauce so that it makes a channel. (Careful, it will be hot!) If the sauce stays put on each side of the channel then it is ready. If it starts to run back to the center then it needs more time.
You can also do this on the wooden spoon if you don’t want to dirty a plate.
Then I spooned it into a mold. Tasha talks about using her great-grandmother’s pottery mold that is in the shape of an ear of corn for this recipe, which I find lovely. But lacking one myself I stuck with several small ramekins…
… which the mixture I had filled three of them nicely.
At this point the kitchen smelled wonderful and I three small jewel-like portions of homemade cranberry sauce!
But they still needed to set. So I let them sit and cool on the counter before wrapping them up with cling wrap and then putting them in the fridge overnight.
A Little Bit Longer Than One Night Later…
Tada!
I actually had them in the fridge a day longer than necessary. You might say life happened and I didn’t get to them. But I’m glad to see that they handled the situation well which shows me that this would be a great dish to make ahead of time. Especially with how crazy it can get Thanksgiving day.
So I ran a knife around the edge (not a paring knife, but it still worked) and dipped the bottom of the ramekin in some warm water to help loosen it a bit, then turned it over, holding my breath…
… and it stayed!!! My biggest fear was that it would fall apart and be a big mess of cranberries and jelly.
As you can see, lacking a decorative mold, the focus is mainly on the round cranberries still visible in the jelly. I honestly think I should have boiled it a few minutes more to really get rid of the excess liquid and have it be even firmer. As it sat there the juice started to pool underneath. So add 5 more minutes in the future.
So how did it taste?
It tasted great! Like cranberry sauce, yet I feel like this would make and excellent filling for a tart. Mainly because the texture reminded me of a cranberry tart.
Do I love it enough to convert me?
Not really. I honestly prefer the smooth jelly consistency over the more chunky consistency of this particular recipe. But, maybe, I’ll try straining it next time and see if I like it any better.
Either way I highly recommend it for your upcoming Thanksgiving festivities!
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!