Cranberry Sauce

Cranberries

buoys
in a red sea
soon sauced


Early recipes are few and far between. Although the Wampanoag Indians on Martha's Vineyard traditionally used cranberries to make a hearty cornbread, one of the first recorded recipes is from a book penned in 1672 by John Josselyn. He writes: "The Indians and English use them much, boyling them with sugar for Sauce to eat with meat; and it is a delicate Sauce, especially with Roasted Mutton.

John Josselyn is an ancestor on my dad's side.

"Novel uses for this red berry have been around for a long time. The North American Indians used cranberries in a hardy dish called pemmican. They combined dried deer meat, cranberries and melted fat to make a cake-like convenience food. Indian women also used cranberry juice to dye rugs and blankets. Because it was believed that the cranberry had medicinal properties, cranberry poultices were used to draw poison away from arrow wounds. As cranberries are naturally high in vitamin C, early American sailors carried barrels of them on board their ships to prevent scurvy.

Some sources state that the Indians presented the Pilgrims with gifts of cranberries and that they were on the first Thanksgiving table in 1621, but there is controversy about whether or not this is true. Some historians argue that the earliest Pilgrims could not have eaten the sour berries because they did not have sugar. But they could have used maple sugar, or dehydrated maple syrup, an article of food that was widely used by the Indians.

It is generally agreed that the Pilgrims gave the berry the name we use today. The nodding pink flowers with their long pistils reminded them of the heads of cranes, so they called the plant the "craneberry"-which was later abbreviated. The name gained favor over "bearberry," a name that referred to the fact that bears like to feed on them". motherlindas.com


For the Record,
This day came in warmer with November sun. Thanksgiving shopping done early before the grocery stores go completely mad with frantic cart packing maniacs.