Cranberries, Not Just Another Side Dish

Canned or cooked cranberries? That's a good opening question on Thanksgiving when seated next to your cousin twice removed. Go ahead and ask while the dish is being passed. Hopefully you both like each others answer. 

What version did you grow up with? Maybe you turned up your nose or shook your head with the "no way" universal food language of "please remove that red concoction from the house." 

I think we all agree that cranberries look pretty, they're red, shiny, just the right size to pop in your mouth (give it a try and see what happens). As a kid when you saw the bags of Ocean Spray cranberries show up in the grocery store you knew Thanksgiving was getting close and Christmas was close behind! 

Internet Photo - Pinterest

Let's talk about the finer points of cranberries, after all Thanksgiving side dish blogs probably aren't on the top of everyone's reading list. Skip ahead and read the last line to know my preparation preference or spend eleven seconds and learn more about this North American native fruit. 

Internet Photo - Pinterest

First, the name. The internet says cranberry was originally called craneberry in 1647. Named after the German word kraanebere by John Eliot, a Native American missionary from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Seeing cranberries for the first time in their new country, John and perhaps other colonists saw the resemblance of blooming cranberry flowers, petals and the stem growing on the shrub to the head, neck and bill of a crane. That works.

Back in the day Native Americans picked lots of cranberries. Algonquins called them sassamenesh which translates to sour berries. They pounded cranberries into the first ever energy bar made up of dried deer meat and fat and stored them in small animal skin sacks to last several months.

Cranberries have excellent antibacterial properties and historically used by Native Americans to make poultices for wounds, to treat stomach issues and fevers. Dyes from the red skin of the fruit were used for clothing and jewelry.

Later when European colonists arrived they figured out quickly that cranberries and all their vitamin C helped keep away scurvy. Today cranberry juice and tablets are taken to prevent urinary tract infections. Cranberries are full of chemical proanthocyanidins (repeat that ten times quickly) which keeps bad bacteria from sticking to the surface of the inner tract. 

You're looking for the passed dish of cranberries right about now, aren't you?

The cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon) is native to the swamps of the northeast. It belongs to the heather family (Ericaceae) which also include huckleberries, blueberries and rhododendrons. The latter two and cranberries don't grow well in Colorado because of our alkaline soils. Cranberry shrubs are low growing, woody perennials with small oval leaves on their vine-like shoots. They form dense mats from their runners or horizontal stems that grow and root along the soil surface. They flower dark pink from May to June which then form berries in late September to October. The shrubs don't grow in a lake of water like the television commercials. Rather, fields are flooded for ease of harvest. Read more information about the natural history, growing and harvesting American cranberries at this link.

Today, five states grow the most cranberries - Wisconsin, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon and Washington. 

Now for the decision. 

Do you prefer molded jellied cranberry? Directly out of the can this wiggly gelatinous tube once sliced moves with simple, sliding ease onto any plate no matter how highly piled with Thanksgiving Day "good eats."

Or, do you prefer the stove top cooked version of whole cranberries with cups (the number is up to you) of added sugar. The end result looks more like pie filling.

Internet Photo from chowhound.com

Drum roll please...I'll take either - whatever you're serving on Thanksgiving!