This beloved holiday side dish could not be easier to make. From The New England Economical Housewife, here’s a fail-proof method for delicious cranberry sauce.
Dear friends ~
Few side dishes are more truly American than beautiful, ruby-red cranberry sauce. This simple, no-nonsense recipe is pulled from the suggested Thanksgiving Dinner menu in one of my favorite cook books–The New England Economical Housekeeper (1845).
Made without fuss, it’s what folks today would call a “whole berry” style sauce. I find the level of sweetness just right, and this has become my go-to cranberry sauce recipe. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
~ Anna
The New England Economical Housekeeper, 1845
CRANBERRY SAUCE
Wash and stew your cranberries in water; add almost their weight in clean sugar, just before you take them from the fire.
Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:
(I’ve included the entire Thanksgiving Dinner menu page for your enjoyment. Cranberry Sauce is the next-to-last recipe on the page.)
A FEW COOKING NOTES:
It really doesn’t get easier than this! Choose firm, quality cranberries, and you truly can’t go wrong!
Choosing your cranberries
This is a time to splurge on really good cranberries if you have them available. This year, I’ve found the brand carried by my local grocery chain to be a horrible disappointment.
Not wanting to use the name-brand cranberries again, I went to my small town’s food co-op, and bought a few pounds of locally-grown organic cranberries. Wow, what a difference! I was blown away by the flavor.
Having made this recipe with both mass-market and locally-grown berries, I’d just encourage you to grab the best you can for this recipe, where the flavor of the berries really does shine through.
How much water
A good rule of thumb is to include just enough water that you can see it through the berries. If it comes to the top of the berries in your pan, that’s really more than you want, for a nice thick sauce.
Clean sugar
A good unbleached white sugar is perfect for this.
How much sugar to put in
“Almost their weight in clean sugar” is certainly open to interpretation, but for myself I find that 8 ounces of sugar to 10 ounces of cranberries is just about perfect. You can always add a bit more sugar if you find that it’s not quite sweet enough for your taste.
Once the berries are stewed nice and soft, go ahead and gently stir it in. Stew gently a little longer, just enough for the sugar to fully melt and incorporate into the sauce. Remove the sauce to a serving dish.
I love this simple, easy recipe, and find myself making it far more often than just Thanksgiving and Christmas. Cranberry sauce recipes are often found in the old cookbooks listed along with other sauces meant for accompanying meat, and it’s really a nice little touch along with any good roast.
Until next time, ~ Anna
📖 Recipe
Ingredients
- 10 ounces fresh cranberries
- 8 ounces white sugar
- 8 ounces water
Instructions
- "Wash and stew your cranberries in water;
- Add almost their weight in clean sugar, just before you take them from the fire."
Nutrition
If you liked this recipe, here are some others you may enjoy:
Christine says
We made this a day or two before Thanksgiving, and kept it in the fridge. Then we forgot to serve it with the meal on Thanksgiving day, but served it with turkey sandwiches the following day. It was delicious! Ours was just perfectly done, I felt. Because there were still quite a few of the berries that were entirely whole and would pop in your mouth. 🙂
We used a 12 ounce bag of fresh cranberries, 8 ounces of water, and 7.5 ounces of organic cane sugar.
Anna says
Oh, I’m glad you enjoyed it! And gosh, doesn’t that always seem the way? I can’t remember the last time I didn’t forget to serve something I’d prepped ahead for a holiday dinner!