Traditional Cranberry Sauce
A bowl of fresh cranberries.
Cranberry sauce is one of the essential dishes in the traditional American Thanksgiving dinner. Cranberries grow in northern bogs. They are harvested commercially in New England, the American mid-West, parts of Canada, and in the state of Washington. Whole fresh cranberries are widely available in American and Canadian markets in the fall.
The following recipe for cranberry sauce is from Miss Leslie’s Direction for Cookery, by Eliza Leslie, originally published in Philadelphia in 1851. Miss Leslie cooks the cranberries in water. When the cranberries have cooked to the point the are “like marmalade” — the point when the berries have popped and the cooked berries have become a dense mass — she takes the cranberries off heat and adds sugar. Miss Leslie advises no further cooking. This method of making cranberry sauce preserves the cranberries fresh taste. Miss Leslie’s recipe calls for brown sugar. Do not use modern “brown sugar.” The flavor will overpower the cranberries. Either use white sugar or a less refined sugar, such as turbinado sugar.
CRANBERRY SAUCE.—Wash a quart of ripe cranberries, and put them into a pan with about a wine-glass of water. Stew them slowly, and stir them frequently, particularly after they begin to burst They require a great deal of stewing, and should be like marmalade when done.
After you take them from the fire, stir in a pound of brown sugar.
When they are thoroughly done, put them into a deep dish, and set them away to get cold.
You may strain the pulp through a cullendar or sieve into a mould, and when it is in a firm shape send it to table on a glass dish. Taste it when cold, and if not sweet enough, add more sugar. Cranberries require more sugar than any other fruit, except plums.
Cranberry sauce is eaten with roast turkey, roast fowls, and roast ducks.
From Miss Leslie’s Directions for Cookery, 1851
by Eliza Leslie
My redaction of Eliza Leslie’s Cranberry Sauce
1 pound fresh cranberries (approximate weight of a quart)
1 cup water (approximate size of a wine glass)
1 pound sugar, white or turbinado
Stove top Method
Place the berries and water in a saucepan. Cook over high heat until the berries begin to pop, then lower the heat to medium. Stir as needed to keep the berries from sticking. When the berries form a dense mass, remove from the stove and add the sugar. Stir until the sugar is fully incorporated. If you are concerned that the sugar may not be fully dissolved, then return to the heat and cook for an additional minute.
Transfer to a serving bowl and let cool before serving. Miss Leslie advises tasting the cranberry sauce once it is cool to adjust for sweetness. I personally don’t think that is necessary, but if you want to be sure the berries are not too tart, then taste for sugar. I would taste for sugar before the sauce is at room temperature since it will be easier to incorporate additional sugar into the sauce when it is warm.
Hearth Method
Place the berries and water in a saucepan and cover. Place the saucepan on the hearth over a hearthside tripod about 4 to 6 inches back from a moderate fire. Shovel a thick layer of embers underneath so begin the cranberries cooking over high heat. Once the berries begin to pop let the heat drop.Stir as necessary to keep the berries from sticking. Cook until the berries form a dense mass, remove from the heat and add the sugar. Stir until the sugar is fully incorporated. If you are concerned that the sugar may not be fully dissolved, then return to the heat and cook for an additional minute. As soon as you are finished cooking, shovel the embers back into the fireplace.
Transfer to a serving bowl and let cool before serving. Miss Leslie advises tasting the cranberry sauce once it is cool to adjust for sweetness. I personally don’t think that is necessary, but if you want to be sure the berries are not too tart, then taste for sugar. I would taste for sugar before the sauce is at room temperature since it will be easier to incorporate additional sugar into the sauce when it is warm.
The Molding and Sieving Option
Eliza Leslie suggests a couple other stylistic options for serving the cranberry sauce. At its simplest, she suggests the possibility of producing a smooth rather than whole-berry sauce. “You may strain the pulp through a cullendar or sieve…” She then goes on to suggest that this strained sauce could be put “into a mould, and when it is in a firm shape send it to table on a glass dish.”
Miss Leslie’s minimal cooking method produces a gorgeous glowing red sauce — particularly if you use white sugar. If you strain the sauce through a sieve, retaining only the juice you will get the most glorious red. Either serve this in a glass bowl or — as she advises — let the sauce cool in a mold and when cool turn it it out onto a glass plate. There is quite a lot of pectin in cranberries and so it should hold a shape even given the recipe’s minimal cooking. If you you are only using the juice — if you are making a sauce that is close to a cranberry jelly — then you will want to increase the quantity you make.
If you are using a metal mold, then briefly dip the mold in hot water and the cranberry sauce will then be easy to turn out.