Cranberry sauce

Cranberry sauce

Alternative names	Cranberry jelly
Place of origin	United States
Main ingredients	sugar, water, cranberry
Cookbook: Cranberry sauce  Media: Cranberry sauce

Cranberry sauce or cranberry jelly is a sauce or relish made out of cranberries, commonly associated with Thanksgiving dinner in North America and Christmas dinner in the United Kingdom. There are differences in flavor depending on the geography of where the sauce is made: in Europe it is generally slightly sour-tasting, while in North America it is sweetened.

History

Elizabeth Lee was one of the only cranberry growers in southern New Jersey. She usually threw out any damaged berries she harvested. One day she decided to cook the berries, and she created a tasty sauce. Elizabeth started selling it as “Bog Sweet Cranberry Sauce.” In the beginning people didn’t want to buy it, but she continued making the sauce. Elizabeth merged her company with another one and formed Ocean Spray, which is still around today.

Preparation

The most basic cranberry sauce consists of cranberries boiled in sugar water until the berries pop and the mixture thickens. Some recipes include other ingredients such as slivered almonds, orange juice, zest, ginger, maple syrup, port, or cinnamon.

Commercial cranberry sauce may be loose and uncondensed, or condensed or jellied and sweetened with various ingredients. The jellied form may be slipped out of a can onto a dish, and served sliced or intact for slicing at the table.

Cranberry sauce is often eaten in conjunction with turkey for Christmas in the United Kingdom or Thanksgiving in the United States and Canada, and it is only rarely eaten or served in other contexts there.

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  Cranberries popping

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  A jar of cranberry sauce

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  Cranberry jelly from a can, sliced

See also

• Lingonberry jam

• Ocean Spray (cooperative)
• Redcurrant sauce