Cranberry Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Pick over and wash the cranberries.
Make the sauce
Add water to prevent burning and cook until they begin to burst, stirring occasionally.
Once done, stir in the sugar and remove from heat as soon as it dissolves.
Mold and chill
Strain through a fine mesh into a wet mold.
Refrigerate until firm.
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 fruit body and pectin that thickens the sauce as it cooks.
- White sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the tartness and helps the sauce set firm when chilled.
- Water
- Adds moisture at the start so the cranberries do not scorch before they burst.
The step that matters
Removing from heat as soon as the sugar dissolves. Cranberry pectin and sugar set into a gel as the sauce cools, but prolonged boiling breaks down pectin and over-thickens or darkens the sauce, so stopping once the sugar dissolves protects texture and flavor.
“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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