Cranberry Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
Place the cranberries in a saucepan with ½ cup of water to prevent scorching.
Stew gently over medium heat for about 20 minutes, stirring frequently and mashing the fruit.
Once the berries are smooth, remove from heat and stir in sugar to taste until dissolved. Do not boil again.
Mold and set
Rinse a mold with cold water and pour in the fruit mixture to harden.
Alternatively, press the fruit through a coarse sieve to remove skins.
Pour the smooth sauce into a 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 flavour and the pectin that lets the sauce thicken and set.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the tart fruit and balances its acidity.
- Water
- Starts the cooking so the berries soften without scorching in the pan.
The step that matters
Do not boil again. Once the sugar has dissolved, boiling further breaks down the fruit's pectin and fresh flavour, so the sauce can turn thin and dull. Keeping it gentle preserves its set and brightness.
“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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