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Cranberry Sauce
Stew two quarts cranberries; putting only water enough to keep from sticking to the bottom of kettle. Keep covered until nearly done, then stir in one quart white sugar, and boil until thick. The color is finer when the sugar is added just before the sauce is done.--Mrs. S.T.
A dry-measure recipe from a period when berries and sugar were both scooped by the quart. The proportions work, but the sugar is high and the timing needs watching.
- Translating the quartsCranberries were sold by dry measure: a quart of whole berries runs roughly a pound, so two quarts is about 2 to 2 1/2 lb, or a little under three of the modern 12-ounce supermarket bags. A quart of sugar is 4 cups, about 1 lb 12 oz.
- The sugar is optional in partNearly a pound of sugar per pound of fruit gives a very sweet, jam-like sauce. Two to three cups is closer to modern taste and the sauce will still set.
- Why sugar goes in lateThe instruction that matters. Let the skins burst in plain water before the sugar arrives; sugar added early draws water out of the fruit and tends to firm the skins, and a long boil in syrup dulls the red. Mrs. S.T. is right about the color.
- Water"Only water enough to keep from sticking" means about half a cup for this quantity. The berries release plenty of their own liquid once they heat through.
- Cover, then uncoverKeep the lid on for the first stage so the berries steam and pop — five to eight minutes and you will hear them. Take the lid off once the sugar is in so the syrup can reduce.
- How thick is thickCranberries are high in pectin and set firmly as they cool, so stop while the sauce still looks slightly loose in the pan — a few minutes at a full boil after the sugar dissolves. Overcooked, it turns stiff and slightly bitter.
- Pan and utensilsUse a nonreactive pan, stainless or enameled. Bare cast iron or unlined copper will turn the sauce a muddy color.
- Yield and keepingAbout 6 cups, enough for a large holiday table. It keeps two weeks covered in the refrigerator and freezes well.
Cranberries are native to North American bogs and were harvested wild long before commercial cultivation took hold in Massachusetts and New Jersey in the nineteenth century; by the 1870s, when Marion Cabell Tyree gathered the contributions that make up Housekeeping in Old Virginia, they were a seasonal luxury rather than a staple. The book is built from named contributors' receipts — "Mrs. S.T." is one of dozens of Virginia housewives credited by initials — and a cranberry sauce sits among them. The observation about adding sugar late is sound preserving practice of the era, understood empirically by cooks who had no need of a chemical explanation.