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Dessert

Cranberry Sauce

A sauce made by cooking cranberries with water and sugar until thick, then cooling to set.

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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pick and wash the cranberries, then drain them.

  2. Put the cranberries in a saucepan with the water and bring to a boil.

Cook and sweeten

  1. Stew slowly, stirring often, for 1 to 2 hours until thick.

  2. Remove from heat and strain through a colander or sieve.

  3. Sweeten abundantly with white sugar.

Set and serve

  1. Wet a mold with cold water, pour in the sauce, and set aside in a cold place to firm up.

  2. Once firm, turn out onto a glass or china plate.

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 main body, tartness and pectin that thickens the sauce as it cooks.
White sugar
Sweetens and balances the sharp acidity of the cranberries.
Water
Creates the initial liquid that lets the cranberries soften and break down.

The step that matters

Stewing until thick. Cranberries need prolonged gentle cooking so their skins burst and pectin releases; stopping too early leaves a runny sauce that will not firm up in the mold.

“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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