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Cranberry Sauce

A sweet sauce made from cranberries, water, and sugar, cooked until thick and chilled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and pick over the cranberries.

  2. Combine cranberries and water in a pot.

Cook and sweeten

  1. Cook slowly, stirring often, until thick like marmalade, about 1 hour.

  2. Remove from heat.

  3. Sweeten with sugar to taste.

Set and serve

  1. Strain through a coarse cloth into a mold that has been wet with cold water.

  2. Refrigerate overnight.

  3. Unmold into a glass dish before serving.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Cranberries
Provide the tart flavor and the pectin that thickens the sauce as it cooks.
White sugar
Sweetens the sauce and balances the cranberries' tartness.
Water
Creates steam and helps the cranberries soften so they break down while cooking.

The step that matters

Cook slowly, stirring often. Cranberries thicken as pectin and sugar concentrate during simmering. Cooking too fast or without stirring can scorch the bottom and leave the sauce uneven, so it should be stirred often over gentle heat.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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