Cranberry Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash and pick over the cranberries.
Place them in a pot and cover with cold water; add baking soda.
Use a porcelain or earthenware pot, never tin.
Skim off any impurities that rise to the surface.
Cook
Cook until the cranberries burst, then mash with a wooden spoon.
Add sugar and boil slowly for 1.5 hours.
Finish
Optionally strain and pour into a jelly mold.
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 base, and their natural pectin helps the sauce thicken and set.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the tart fruit and, as it dissolves and concentrates, helps the sauce thicken and set.
- Baking soda
- Slightly raises the pH, which softens the skins and mellows the tartness.
The step that matters
Use a porcelain or earthenware pot, never tin.. Cranberries are quite acidic, and acid reacts with tin and other metals, which can taint the flavor and discolor the sauce. Non-reactive porcelain or earthenware avoids this.
“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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