Cranberry Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the berries
Wash the cranberries and place them in a granite or porcelain pot.
Add 1 ½ cups of boiling water for each quart of cranberries and boil rapidly for 20 minutes, mashing the berries with a wooden spoon.
Transfer the mixture to a dish to cool slightly, then pass it through a coarse sieve back into the saucepan.
Sweeten and set
Bring it just to a boil, then add 2 cups of sugar for each quart of cranberries.
Stir the sugar in well and boil gently for 3 to 4 minutes.
Pour the sauce into molds or a glass dish.
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 flavour and the pectin that thickens the sauce as it cooks.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the sauce and balances the tartness of the cranberries.
The step that matters
Boil the cranberries rapidly and mash them. Cranberries are rich in pectin, which only sets properly once the berries have been fully softened and the liquid reduced. Rapid boiling breaks the skins so the pectin releases, giving the sauce its body.
“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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