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The humble northern cranberry, or Vaccinium oxycoccus, has been associated with Thanksgiving and turkey since 1620. It is said that Native Americans first taught the hungry Pilgrims how to eat this acidic berry. Now cranberry sauce is a important part of Christmas in English-speaking countries everywhere, as well as a necessary part of Canadian and American Thanksgivings. Cranberries have been touted recently with having innumerable health benefits. To me, cranberries are a local industry and a delicious easy-to-make side dish.
I live in Massachusetts, not 20 miles from Plymouth Rock. All I heard about growing up were Pilgrims and Pocahantas, wild turkeys and how the English settlers learned to plant corn, beans and squash together. Once I grew up and had my own kitchen, I learned that cranberry sauce didn't just come out of a can and that there are tons of delicious ways to use cranberries in recipes.
Everyone knows how to string cranberries to make a garland for the Christmas tree. (If little ones are helping, use a darning needle and waxed dental floss or colored yarn. If speed is of the essence, use a long, sharp needle, like a beading needle, or thread straight onto narrow guage wire. In either case, you may intersperse with popcorn, cinnamon sticks, pine cones, acorns with a tiny hole drilled into them, or beads, or just use cranberries. Hang inside on the tree or outside for birds and critters to enjoy. Use shellac or varnish if you want them not to turn into dried cranberries, but not if you're planning for ANY living thing to eat them.) Cranberries can also be used in other crafty ways, particularly when fully red and ripe. For instance, if you're having a party, impress your guests by freezing a whole cranberry inside each ice cube. As each one melts it will release a tangy burst of flavor!
In my experience, however, color does not affect flavor. (White cranberry juice is made from cranberries that are not fully ripe, and hence, not as tart.) Since cranberries ripen for real sometime between September and November, by the time they're for sale around here as fresh berries, they usually don't all have the characteristic bright red color. They are paler, and don't look as robust as one might expect. (The ones in the picture above, courtesy of The Cranberry Institute, look cooked to me. The ones in my pot below are what they normally look like out of the package in November.) But they still taste just as good. Use cranberries fresh or frozen; no need to defrost them first. Unlike blueberries or apples, cranberries don't get mushy when you add them to muffins or breads. I'll give actual recipes later on. In fact, they're a little bit like that other New England specialty, lobster; cranberries turn bright red when they are cooked, just like lobster.
Important facts about cranberries:
Cranberries grow on vines in a bog - a marshy, acidic area, often near wetlands. The visual in the TV commercials of floating cranberries reflects the current method of harvesting cranberries - the bog is flooded so the floating berries can be harvested more easily. Interestingly, according to www.oceanspray.org, the cranberries we buy in the supermarket as fresh produce are harvested by hand.
Cranberries DO possess magic substances that somehow render even a glass test tube less hospitable to bacteria; the bacteria seem to have a hard time sticking. These anti-sticky compounds have been identified as proanthocyanidins, or PCAs. PCAs seem to prevent bacteria from sticking - or taking up residence and starting a family - on your teeth or in your stomach lining as well the lining of your bladder.
To clarify, cranberries help prevent Urinary Tract Infections! The reports are still just starting to come in about how they can help prevent cavities (which we know are caused by bacteria) or ulcers (which may be, as well). People who drank cranberry juice (sweetened or unsweetened) or took cranberry supplements (any type containing PCAs) had a signifigantly lower rate of urinary tract infection. If you've ever had a UTI, you know that they are to be avoided!
Even among berries, cranberries are the leading sorce of anti-oxidants, which we all know fight free radicals and help fight aging, maybe even hardening of the arteries and cancer! They're also extraordinarilarily high in vitamin C.
Growing up in Massachusetts, I thought I knew for sure that all cranberries came from the southeastern parts of my state, particularly the areas near Cape Cod. Imagine my surprise and chagrin to learn that in 1995 Wisconsin overtook Massachusetts in total cranberry production. And that's not likely to change - Cape Cod and Plymouth County are prime areas for real estate development. Why devote the necessary acreage to a cranberry bog when you can build houses? Cranberry growers have also learned to artificially create suitable conditions for cranberry growing - acidic, sandy, damp soil. While Wisconsin continues to lead in cranberry production, with Massachusetts (and New Jersey) still close behind, Canada and the Pacific Northwest are now in the mix as well.
Like most fruits, cranberries are a perennial crop; the initial large investment does not begin to be returned for two or more years down the road. The return, if slow, is steady - there are cranberry bogs over 100 years old which are still producing. There are only eight weeks to harvest all the cranberries. When those eight weeks happen depends on local weather conditions.
Over the last 150 years, the prices for barrels of cranberries have been as volatile as prices for barrels of oil! (A barrel of cranberries is one hundred pounds.) Ocean Spray, which is actually a grower’s cooperative (not a company), weathered a cancer scare in 1959 when one of the pesticides some of their growers used caused cancer in laboratory rats, and they were unable to distinguish the potentially tainted cranberries from the ones that were just fine.In the early days all the retail cranberry sales were of fresh cranberries, but then methods of preserving cranberries were developed and the demand for first cranberry sauce and later, cranberry juice was created. Exuberant growers planted too many cranberries, resulting in a glut on the market. Enter even more cranberry products, like sweetened dried cranberries, new juice blends, reduced calorie juice blends, and even single serving packages of cranberry sauce. Now fresh cranberries, sold to nutty people like me, account for only a small percentage of total retail sales.
Once you have your fresh cranberries, you want to know what to do with them. My favorite recipe is whole berry sauce. Cranberries are very high in pectin, and if you do any other jam or jelly making, you know that pectin is that critical ingredient that makes jams, jellies, preserves, compotes, and conserves 'jell'. With cranberry sauce, which is really another name for cranberry jam or cranberry jelly, unless you use way too much sugar, it will be thick enough every time. I tend to use about half the recommended amount of sugar, so mine is rather tart and very solid! Ocean Spray recommends two cups of sugar and two of water for one 12 ounce package of cranberries.
I used only one cup of sugar this year and had a tangy, tart sauce in no time. I don't measure the water; I just add enough to cover the berries. I cook everything (the berries, sugar and water) over medium heat for maybe ten minutes. You'll hear a popping sound, almost like the sound of popcorn popping. This is normal! It means the berries are hot enough so that the insides are swelling and bursting the skins. I can't resist stirring it, so I do. Soon, the whole mess will get thicker and redder. Then it's probably done. You can taste it - carefully! Hot syrup is very hot! If it's not sweet enough for you, add more sugar a little at a time until you like it. If it gets too runny, cook it down more - evaporate more of the moisture. And finally, you can refrigerate it. That should help it jell. Some people add cinnamon or cloves while the sauce is cooking; some add chopped nuts after it's cooked.
I've never made jellied cranberry sauce but I'm sure it's just like any other jelly, except you probably don't care quite so much that it be sparklingly clear. After cooking your sugar, water and cranberries, strain them through cheesecloth, a ricer or a strainer. Ocean Spray recommends that you mash through every bit of cooked fruit that you possibly can.
Then there's un-cooked cranberry-orange relish, which I love! This is easy to make in a blender or food processor. The Joy of Cooking recommends that you let it age a day or two in your refrigerator, but I've also eaten it fresh and it's great. Chop a whole seedless orange (or take the seeds out of one that has seeds) into quarters or eighths, peel and all. Have ready two cups of sugar and the package of cranberries. Add the sections of orange alternating with the cranberries and sugar. I have a report from a friend in California that this is especially good when the oranges are from your own tree. I wouldn't know about that. I like to add chopped nuts to this, too, but then, I like to add chopped nuts to just about everything.
One of my favorite foods to make with fresh or frozen cranberries is orange-cranberry bread. This is nice to make in mini-loaves and give as holiday gifts. Use any muffin or quick-bread recipe, adding cranberries toward the end when you would add nuts (or, heh, heh, with nuts!). Or even add fresh cranberries to mixes, boosting their health value, their flavor, and their eye appeal. I, er, I always used to make cranberry-orange- walnut bread. The classic recipe for cranberry-walnut bread calls for orange juice and orange peel. One day, in love with my new food processor, I just added a whole orange and omitted the middleman. I don't have this recipe at hand because I no longer make this type of bread - my daughter was diagnosed with celiac disease early last year and we no longer cook with wheat flour. We still use nuts, though!!!
Cranberries weren't always called cranberries, of course. Indigenous populations each had different names for this sour berry growing on long vines that seemed to help with so many illnesses. Dutch and German settlers called it "crane-berry" because the flowers looked like a crane, say some. Others say it's because the cranes gobbled up the berries so quickly. Whatever the reason, the name stuck. I don't say "I'll bring the sassamanesh sauce this year" because nobody would know what I was talking about. I mean, I am the nutty one in the family, but not that nutty!
Cranberries, apples and Concord grapes are the three fruits that are native to our continent. From the earliest recorded use of Native Americans pounding cranberries with dried venison and other ingredients to make pemmicana, or pemmican, a dried survival food, to Cape Cod resident and Revolutionary War veteran Henry Hall, who fed cranberries to his sailors to prevent scurvy, to Wisconsin overtaking Massachusetts as the #1 cranberry growing state, cranberries are right up there with baseball, hot dogs and apple pie in my book. Around here, you can even go to visit the Ocean Spray bogs. (It's kind of like visiting Hershey Park when you're in Hershey, Pennsylvania, but without the rides.) And there you have it, the cranberry: beautiful, delicious, and probably even healthier than you knew.
references
http://www.cranberryinstitute.org A non-profit institute devoted to studying, of course, the cranberry, this institute-sponsored site concentrates on health benefits.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cranberry Wikipedia is perhaps the davesgarden of online reference works.Their article on cranberries is comprehensive but not conclusive.
Wisc.EDU [PDF]This scholarly work examines pricing and management practices at Ocean Spray from 1930s through to the present day complete with many, many graphs.
http://www.oceanspray.org Ocean Spray would like you to think they tell you everything you need to know about cranberries at this site.They tell you a lot – but not everything, and of course everything they say is pro-Ocean Spray.
The Joy of Cooking, Rombauer, Irma, and Marion Rombauer Becker, c. 1975, Bobbs-Merrill, NY. A classic cookbook, first published in 1931, with plenty of vintage cranberry recipes.
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About Carrie Lamont
Carrie has two teenage daughters, which is exhausting all by itself. She has been married for seven delightful years to her husband, who works for an airline, facilitating Carrie's frequent need to travel. She is forever coming up with crazy and irreverent schemes and trying to get others to do it her way, but is learning to be humble as she ages. Carrie has a masters degree in Music, and sings as she gardens a small urban plot from her wheelchair.
Posted by Aunt_A (from Tulsa, OK) on March 22, 2008 at 8:56 PM:
Carrie,
Wonderful article!
When I was just a teenager, more years ago than I can believe, I created a "family recipe". I call it Aunt April's Cranberry Medley. Anyway, my family always expects the family recipe for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I throw a number of fresh ingredients, including Cranberries and Oranges in my VitaMix and in a matter of minutes, I have the most tasty side dish around...after I throw in some Walnuts, too.
My niece married Valentines Day a year ago in a beautiful informal wedding, complete with a Pot Bless lunch (same as a Pot Luck). Her request from me? Aunt April's Cranberry Medley.
My VitaMix broke so it isn't as easy for me to make anymore...but we all still love Cranberries.
May you always have Cranberries in your freezer!
April
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Posted by carrielamont (from Milton, MA) on March 23, 2008 at 10:46 AM:
Thank you, April! I wish I had a bigger freezer. . . .
I have to ask - what's a Vita-Mix? Like a Cuisinart? A blender? At first I thought it was a brand of vitamin mix, but that didn't sound good enough for a wedding!
xx, Carrie
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Posted by Aunt_A (from Tulsa, OK) on March 23, 2008 at 2:52 PM:
Carrie,
It is a Mega Blender. We love it: I've made everything from Peanut Butter to Boiling Hot Fresh Soup to Salsa to Juice to Bean Dip to Ice Cream in it. It beats everything up into itty bitty pieces. I think it is VitaMix dot com, not sure.
Blessings!
...
Posted by carrielamont (from Milton, MA) on March 23, 2008 at 3:59 PM:
Ahhhh. OK, all is clear now, thanks!
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Subject: Cranberry relish - year around
Posted by birder17 (from Jackson, MO) on December 17, 2007 at 11:29 PM:
My friend buys enough fresh cranberries and puts up about 24 quarts for the rest of the year. I make cranberry relish and put it up also. A very fast way to make this cranberry relish is with a food processor. I love the relish and want to make up enough for the entire year. Yummm! I also use dried craberries in biscotti, nut bread, scones, yeast breads, cookies, and cereal. They taste like cherries in baked products.
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Posted by carrielamont (from Milton, MA) on December 18, 2007 at 10:16 AM:
how does she put it up? with a canner? or does she freeze or refrigerate it? be careful - dried cranberries can contain a LOT of added sugar! what type do you use? xx, Carrie
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Posted by birder17 (from Jackson, MO) on December 20, 2007 at 10:33 PM:
She puts them in zip lock baggies. Yes, we both use Splenda. She uses all spenda as her husb. is a diabetic. What kind? hmm. just the kind I buy in a bag from the grocer. "Ocean Spray fresh premium"?? She freezes them.
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Posted by carrielamont (from Milton, MA) on December 20, 2007 at 11:03 PM:
So she uses fresh cranberries, makes fresh relish w/ Splenda then freezes them in ziploc bags. I was eating my (very tart) whole berry sauce for a month on toast with my eggs!
But I was just warning YOU about using sweetened versus unsweetened dried cranberries. I can't quite imagine the unsweetened ones tasting like cherries to me, currants or raisins maybe but not cherries! Then again I usually just eat cherries fresh straight raw uncooked whatever, so I guess i wouldn't know. xx, Carrie
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Posted by birder17 (from Jackson, MO) on December 20, 2007 at 11:11 PM:
Here's the recipe: 1 bag cranberries, 1 orange, sugar to taste. Calls for 1 cup.
Cut up orange, (peel and all) into chunks. Put in food processor, add cranberries and sugar and process. Can add nuts to the food processor as well. yummm---on eggs and toast!
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Subject: Hey
Posted by phicks (from Lakeland, FL) on December 15, 2007 at 5:53 PM:
Carrie where in Mass did you grow up? I grew up in Hanson Mass the Home of Ocean Spray for the first 50 Years of its Operations I picked Cranberrys as a Kid with a Hand Scoop For Extra Money Paul
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Posted by carrielamont (from Milton, MA) on December 15, 2007 at 6:01 PM:
Oh, I grew up in Brookline, now I live in Milton, but my former SIL used to be bookkeeper for Ocean Spray; they lived in Pembroke. Was that before they invented those machines or for fresh sales? It's definitely one of those family-run, keep-the-kids-out-of-school-when-the-berries-need-picking type of crops. Hanson (except the AFB) is all malls and stuff now. :>( Avon is Ikea. Progress. xx, Carrie
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Posted by phicks (from Lakeland, FL) on December 15, 2007 at 6:56 PM:
before they used that machine pembroke is next to hanson i also know brookline
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Posted by carrielamont (from Milton, MA) on December 15, 2007 at 7:33 PM:
I know :>) So how is Florida treating you? Milton is not the place we the thought it would be when we moved here but it's just too much trouble to move and besides, there's our whole garden! x, C
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Posted by ceeadsalaskazone3 (from Seward, AK) on December 15, 2007 at 8:13 PM:
Carrie, what a great article. When I got to the part about making nut bread with cranberries, I am reminded that we have a wild cranberry here in Alaska (vaccinium oxyoccos), which is also called "crane berry" for the flower which looks like a crane's bill. We harvest them with "comb rakes", a metal flat can with comb teeth which we comb lightly over the low growing ground cover, which conveniently has its berry just a little higher than the leaves. They grow along side the mossberry (empetrum nigrum),which we also collect with the berry rakes and use both in the nut breads.
Carol
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Posted by carrielamont (from Milton, MA) on December 15, 2007 at 8:43 PM:
Great - another North American native fruit! They didn't mention mossberries when they talked about native fruits. Carol, there are also all kinds of cranberry equivalents in Scandinavian countries, but I couldn't talk about them all, so I concentrated on the Pilgrim type of cranberries. Do you need to wash your berries? Are they in PlantFiles? Do you ever a] eat them raw or b] use them for decorations? x, C
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Posted by phicks (from Lakeland, FL) on December 15, 2007 at 9:25 PM:
floridas ok to hot tho
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Posted by carrielamont (from Milton, MA) on December 15, 2007 at 10:08 PM:
And no seasons. x, C
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Posted by ceeadsalaskazone3 (from Seward, AK) on December 16, 2007 at 2:42 AM:
The mossberries and cranberries are firm enough to wash, yes. Not like blueberry, where you lose too much juice. I make jelly out of both of them, but are too tart for me raw. I have made cranberry sauce like you get in cans, but it's too labor intensive for more than personal family use.
Carol
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Posted by carrielamont (from Milton, MA) on December 16, 2007 at 11:08 AM:
How about the whole-berry kind I made? It didn't take two minutes! Well, it took longer than that, but it only took one pot, and no sterilizing - somewhere, Irma Bombeck says 'cranberries are so acidic that they are naturally preserved,' but I couldn't find it when i went back! I gotta taste these mossberries.
xx, Carrie
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Posted by phicks (from Lakeland, FL) on December 16, 2007 at 11:24 AM:
back when the white man first came to mass the Wampanog indians called the cranbeerys Marshpeas thats where the name for the town of Mashpee came from my counsins are wampanog am half Mic Mac
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Posted by ceeadsalaskazone3 (from Seward, AK) on December 16, 2007 at 12:01 PM:
Carrie, always been a sauce girl, no whole berry sauce for me. Just different tastes for different people,
Carol
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Posted by carrielamont (from Milton, MA) on December 16, 2007 at 12:04 PM:
REALLY! I should have interviewed you. Thanks for the factoid! xx, Carrie
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Posted by carrielamont (from Milton, MA) on December 16, 2007 at 12:06 PM:
Yup, Carol, Chacun a son gout that means everyone has his taste, it's all I can remember from 6th grade French! x, C
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Posted by phicks (from Lakeland, FL) on December 16, 2007 at 12:07 PM:
Milton is next to Quinacey Right?
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Posted by carrielamont (from Milton, MA) on December 16, 2007 at 12:19 PM:
Yup - Quincy on one side, Hyde Park, Mattapan and Canton. 128 is the bottom edge with Canton across it. The perfect suburb. Not. We picked it because it was near my mother and my ex-husband's mother. And it used to have good schools, until we moved in, lol. xx, C
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Posted by ceeadsalaskazone3 (from Seward, AK) on December 16, 2007 at 12:22 PM:
Carrie, what berries we use mainly for decoration and bird feeding are Mountain Ash clusters. They make such a statement in all white winter that we are even now collecting clusters for freezing whole to feed the birds when they've stripped the trees about Jan/Feb and draw back birds not usually seen. We also put blueberries and cranberries out in the feeders.
Carol
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Posted by carrielamont (from Milton, MA) on December 16, 2007 at 12:36 PM:
Wow, cool! So different. I mean in days gone past, birds were an enemy; they ate the berries people wanted to eat, so we shooed them away. Now, we try to lure them closer. Do you have to store them inside frozen (we have a really small freezer) or do you just cover them up and put them outside in a shed or something? xx, Carrie
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Posted by ceeadsalaskazone3 (from Seward, AK) on December 16, 2007 at 1:07 PM:
Most Alaskans have large freezers for all the fish, game, berries and general stocking up on butter, bacon, you know what you would need if all the power went out. Freezer kept on porch will stay frozen in power outages. So, most have large freezers, which leaves room to cater to bird watchers, taxidermists (wrap those critters really well!) and large hail and snowball collectors. LOL hehehehehe So, yeah, we have to freeze them or they will mold in the 'between rainy damp' before the freeze.
Carol
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Posted by carrielamont (from Milton, MA) on December 16, 2007 at 1:18 PM:
Aha, I was thinking you probably had freezers bigger than mine, which just needs to hold the occasional gluten-free muffin. Do they sell my Ocean Spray fresh cranberries there? Probably $10 a bag! xx, Carrie
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Posted by ceeadsalaskazone3 (from Seward, AK) on December 16, 2007 at 1:38 PM:
Yes, Ocean Spray canned. Only on holidays fresh frozen and we stock up, maybe 4 bags to last the winter for the birds. No fresh cranberries, but the fresh frozen are about $8 to $10 a large bag.
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Posted by carrielamont (from Milton, MA) on December 16, 2007 at 1:42 PM:
Well, same here, except it's fresh fresh, not fresh frozen, but they're only available a few weeks a year. xxx, Carrie
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Posted by phicks (from Lakeland, FL) on December 16, 2007 at 2:13 PM:
i use to fish walston beach
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Posted by carrielamont (from Milton, MA) on December 16, 2007 at 2:26 PM:
Wolliston? Yuck, nothing clean enough to eat there any more, although people still fish there "recreationally". My ex-husband grew up in Squantum. Do you fish in FL? Small world! x, C
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Posted by phicks (from Lakeland, FL) on December 16, 2007 at 4:17 PM:
yes i fish i also know Squantum to use to live in wareham
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Posted by cathy4 (from St. Louis County, MO) on December 16, 2007 at 6:27 PM:
Carrie, LOVED the cranberry information!
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Posted by ceeadsalaskazone3 (from Seward, AK) on December 16, 2007 at 7:28 PM:
Carrie, when is your next article? You would be good at any theme. Great writing skills.
Carol
This message was edited Dec 16, 2007 10:19 PM
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Subject: No more round slices ...
Posted by GreenAtHeart (from Franklin Grove, IL) on December 15, 2007 at 6:42 AM:
Sitting here sleepless with ears listening to Old Time Radio Christmas stories on satellite radio and eyes reading about cranberries - a staple at every Holiday dinner as far back as I remember. In the "olden" times, the only cranberries on the table were perfectly round slices with lines on the edges (from the ridges in the can). Now we go back and forth between cooked and fresh - usually with oranges or tangerines - never thought of nuts but sure will now. Thank you Carrie L. for such a great article!
Louise
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Posted by carrielamont (from Milton, MA) on December 15, 2007 at 10:28 AM:
Louise,
My daughter's middle name is Louise! Yep, those "olden" times didn't start until Ocean Spray had convinced US eaters that they needed to eat cranberries even if they didn't live near a bog. Which, as far as I'm concerned, is a good thing. As for the nuts, you might make stuffing that didn't come out of a bag, just to be fancy, right? Anyway, mix it up a little, hmmm?
x,Carrie
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Posted by gessiegail (from Taft, TX) on December 15, 2007 at 12:07 PM:
Cranberries are among my very favorite foods and can't imagine living a life without them. I cook them as you pointed out for holidays, but the rest of the year, I pull them out of the deep freeze.
Someone had told me to freeze cranberries to lay them individually (or sliced) on a cookie sheet and put in the freezer until they are frozen. Then, put them in zip lock bags to use whenever one wishes. I love to freeze sliced ones to add to cereal all year around.
Thanks so much for a wonderful and fun article.
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Posted by Tammy (from Barto, PA) on December 15, 2007 at 1:27 PM:
What surprisesd me in your article is that the less ripe (white) ones are sweeter
than the ripe (red) ones. Did I read that correctly?
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Posted by Sharran (from Calvert City, KY) on December 15, 2007 at 2:42 PM:
Great article, Carrie.
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Posted by carrielamont (from Milton, MA) on December 15, 2007 at 2:50 PM:
That's what I read from the Ocean Spray site. When they are unripe, they are only sweet. When they are ripe, they are sweet and tart. Try here.
[HYPERLINK@oceanspray.org]
I just love them. x, C
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Posted by Tammy (from Barto, PA) on December 15, 2007 at 3:31 PM:
So interesting! I enjoyed your article Carrie.
Tam
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Posted by carrielamont (from Milton, MA) on December 15, 2007 at 4:33 PM:
Thanks, Tam. x, C
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Posted by soapwort243 (from South Milwaukee, WI) on December 15, 2007 at 11:13 PM:
My very favorite way to eat cranberries is finely chopped, with grated orange and peeling and some sugar !! So delicious !!! (To think I used to eat the cooked ones)
-Thanks for the interesting article.
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Posted by gessiegail (from Taft, TX) on December 15, 2007 at 11:32 PM:
oh! good idea with chopped cranberries with grated orange, peeling and lots of splenda!
I like sugar better *lol*
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Posted by carrielamont (from Milton, MA) on December 15, 2007 at 11:33 PM:
Yum yum. I like them all ways, and if I have to stoop to eating the quivering molded kind, then I do. Cranberries in the stuffing? Yes! Cranberry apple pie? Go for it. xx, Carrie
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Posted by gessiegail (from Taft, TX) on December 15, 2007 at 11:34 PM:
I am getting the best ideas! How could anything be bad with cranberries!
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Posted by dellrose (from Conway, MO) on December 16, 2007 at 12:34 AM:
I enjoyed your article Carrie. I had forgotten about cranberries and oranges. I used to make it all the time and will again this coming holiday!
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Posted by carrielamont (from Milton, MA) on December 16, 2007 at 11:15 AM:
I wonder why cranberries - from New England (and other northern places she admits grudgingly) should go so well with oranges, which are from Florida, California, and other NON-northern places? Because they definitely DO go together, perfectly. Like poultry and sage. Like Hepburn and Tracy. If anyone knows the answer to this riddle, please post here! xx, Carrie
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Posted by gessiegail (from Taft, TX) on December 16, 2007 at 6:11 PM:
I'm waiting to hear like everyone else*lol*
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Posted by carrielamont (from Milton, MA) on December 16, 2007 at 6:48 PM:
me too! (tapping foot.)
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Posted by CapeCodGardener (from Mid-Cape, MA) on December 16, 2007 at 11:51 PM:
Quoted:
I wonder why cranberries - from New England (and other northern places she admits grudgingly) should go so well with oranges, which are from Florida, California, and other NON-northern places? Because they definitely DO go together, perfectly. Like poultry and sage. Like Hepburn and Tracy. If anyone knows the answer to this riddle, please post here! xx, Carrie
Well, remember that opposites attract!
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Posted by carrielamont (from Milton, MA) on December 17, 2007 at 9:30 AM:
Excellent point! x, Carrie
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Subject: Adding Cranberries to my grocery list!
Posted by rcn48 (from Lexington, VA) on December 15, 2007 at 5:50 AM:
Fun and interesting article! Used to do a lot of cooking with cranberries but it's been awhile. After reading your article I think I might have to make a few of those mini loaves of cranberry bread and give them as gifts for Christmas. Thanks for the idea :)
Debbie
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Posted by carrielamont (from Milton, MA) on December 15, 2007 at 10:18 AM:
Good luck, Debbie! You can wrap them in colored cellophane and tie them with a ribbon - they'll be gorgeous! x, Carrie
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Posted by judycooksey (from Pocahontas, TN) on December 15, 2007 at 2:29 PM:
Wonderful informative article!!
Judy
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Posted by Islandshari (from Kwajalein
(Marshall Islands)) on December 16, 2007 at 1:07 AM:
Carrie, I really enjoyed your article. My family has been eating fresh cranberry sauce for years and years...its always the first thing I make for Thanksgiving dinner, so that it has time to cool to room temperature. My girls grew up watching the cranberries "pop", and now my granddaughter gets to share in that part of the Thanksgiving tradition. Also love them in lots of baking recipes and a wonderful Cranberry/cream cheese pull-apart for Christmas morning. Yummy and pretty - just the thing for opening presents with!
Thanks for sharing the joys of a wonderful berry!
Yokwe,
Shari
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Posted by carrielamont (from Milton, MA) on December 16, 2007 at 11:21 AM:
Shari, I was just this minute wondering about you, deprived of cranberries in the South Pacific! And do tell us about your cranberry cream cheese pull-apart, please. When I used to make cran-orange-walnut bread constantly (with my new food processor and NO children) I would always serve it with cream cheese. Isn't it funny how flavors get soldered together in our brains? x, C
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Posted by Islandshari (from Kwajalein
(Marshall Islands)) on December 16, 2007 at 8:59 PM:
Not deprived...we get them frozen in the same plastic bags that grocery stores back home get them. Cranberry pull aparts: Use the Rhodes (or other brand) of little frozen bread rolls. let them thaw and poke a hole in the middle of each, push some dried cranberries into the hole, then layer them in a bundt pan with cinnamon sugar between the layers. Let rise. Meanwhile mix dried cranberries, a bit of orange juice and cranberry juice with cream cheese to make a glaze consistancy. When the rolls have doubled in size bake for about 15 minutes or until golden at 300°. When they are done glaze the whole shebang with the cream cheese mixture, and set some aside for dipping. Yummyy and messy!
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Posted by carrielamont (from Milton, MA) on December 16, 2007 at 9:24 PM:
