Cranberry Sauce 101

When I was a little girl, I looked forward to Thanksgiving every year. Of course, I loved the family part, but there was one thing about the meal that was always the fondest item (at least to me!). Funny enough, my favorite part of the meal was never the super sweet stuff. It wasn’t the turkey, either. It was getting to eat off of the fine china and…wait for it…the cranberry sauce. Not the jelly stuff from the can, but the real, homemade, tart and tangy, gorgeously bright red cranberry sauce. Yep! My grandmother caught onto this when I was young, so she sometimes had me come over a few days before Thanksgiving to help her make it. We stood there in her kitchen, and she would say to me, “I’m not sure what makes the cranberry sauce so special; it’s such a simple recipe!” But it was just that: special. And it still is. I have been making it just the way she taught me to for so many years now. Now that she is watching her first Thanksgiving from Heaven’s windows, making it just right this year is even more important. Right down to the smallest detail.

I started teaching the kids how to make Grandma’s cranberry sauce when they were just in preschool. We would make a fun morning of it, and it easily became one of our beloved school traditions. We would first sort the berries to find the inferior ones. Each child had his/her own empty pie tin to put the good ones into, and there was a discard pile in between them.  (Now that we have chickens, we give the discards to them) Once the sorting was done, we would pour water into the pie tins to wash the berries. Of course, swishing them around with their hands was their favorite part. They also really enjoyed the part where they got to pour them out into a strainer to remove the water again.

When they were in kindergarten and first grade, we would then count the berries by ones, twos, fives, and tens. We would make grouping piles, piles by size, even piles by color variation. This “Cranberry Day” was always something they loved. They would start asking for it as soon as the calendar flipped to November. I loved those days, too. Part of our tradition was to read the book Cranberry Thanksgiving. It’s part of a cute little series about a town called Cranberry.

When they got older, we would read more scientific books about cranberries, string cranberries with needle and thread, and read the book Cranberry Christmas on the day after Thanksgiving to welcome the new season. We really got into it…what fun was had on those “Cranberry Days!”

If you’d like to make your own cranberry sauce this year, you have just enough time! Run to the store and grab a bag of fresh cranberries (more if you’re going to do other projects with them), and some white sugar. My Grandma was right…it truly is a very simple recipe. Yes, there’s a ton of sugar in it, but I promise that this recipe doesn’t taste like you’re eating jelly…it allows for the tartness and spirited tanginess of the cranberries to shine through. Sooooo good!

Here’s a breakdown of the simple steps to take to make this wonderful pop of color and taste:

1. Sort and wash the berries.
2. Measure how many you have using a measuring cup. Pour them into a stockpot.
3. Measure the exact same amount of white sugar (1:1 ratio) and pour that in, too.
4. Use half that amount of water. Add it into the pot.
5. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
6. Cranberries will soften as they cook. Grandma taught me to use a wooden spoon to smash them against the side of the pot as they cooked to make sure the sauce gels with the sugar correctly. (Hey-it’s Grandma science; I don’t question it, haha!)
7. Let the sauce cook down, reducing by about half. KEEP STIRRING! Don’t forget to scrape the sides and bottom of the pan!
8. When the sauce sticks to the back of a metal spoon, it’s just about done. NOTE: this is also a good way to taste-test as you go, just use a clean spoon each time.
9. Remove from heat, still stirring continuously.
10. After a few minutes, stop stirring and allow to cool for about 5 minutes.
11. Pour into containers to store in the fridge and/or freezer. (I do one of each….we use one container at Thanksgiving, and the other one goes into the freezer to be thawed for use at Christmas!)

That’s it! Serve chilled, and enjoy the simple pleasure of the sweet, yet tangy goodness. This year, the kids stood in the kitchen, one of them now taller than I am, going through the sorting and washing traditions. Even as teenagers, they are still partial to the making of the cranberry sauce…and the memories it holds. This dish brings so much joy to our household, for so many reasons, and I hope it does for your house, too! Blessings of joy and love to you today!