2333. Cranberry sauce

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Ailsa was a reasonable cook. The thing was, when she cooked a turkey for some special occasion or other, what she was most secretly proud of was her cranberry sauce.

It may not seem much, said Ailsa, but it’s a recipe the early colonists to this country would have used. I got the recipe out of a really old recipe book that was being sold with other used books at the Farmers’ Market. It doesn’t put all this other nonsensical stuff in like oranges and lemons and the baby and the bathwater. It’s simply fresh cranberries and sugar.

This year there was no cranberries in the stores. Ailsa searched from store to store. In the end she bought a jar of commercially made cranberry sauce. I shall place it is a dish and serve it as if it’s mine, thought Ailsa. But everyone will know it’s not as good as the traditional recipe. I’ll simply say I branched out a little this year and attempted to make something more modern.

Oh Ailsa, gushed Candice almost bordering on the salacious. Your cranberry sauce! It’s wonderful! It’s so much better than all the other years you have been making it. Did you change the recipe?

47 thoughts on “2333. Cranberry sauce”

  2. John Looker

    Oh poor Ailsa! I guess you intended this as a profound warning to us all about the wickedness of lies, a sort of modern day Victorian improving tale, but I’m on Ailsa’s side here. (I know, I know … you’re disappointed in me Bruce!)

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    1. Bruce Goodman Post author

      I’m rarely – if ever – disappointed in you John! The story is modelled on my own Christmas experience. I ALWAYS make the cranberry sauce and this year there were no fresh or frozen cranberries. I was reduced to the bought stuff. However, I had so complained about the lack of cranberries that everyone who came by near Christmas kindly brought me a jar of commercial cranberry sauce!

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    1. Bruce Goodman Post author

      I use a recipe from a old cook book I found in Asheville NC. It had all of granny’s recipes – such as Vinegar Pie (which I love!). So the Vinegar Pie and the Cranberry Sauce are the two recipes I got from it. I don’t think I still have the book.

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        1. Bruce Goodman Post author

          Vinegar Pie was referred to in the “Trail of Tears” outdoor production by the old grandma – not sure if you’ve seen it or if it is still going but was a big time Carolina outdoor theatre. Then I found the recipe in the book! Basically – to cut to the chase – it is really just a Custard Pie with a tablespoon of white vinegar thrown in when making the custard. It tastes a lot better if eaten the following day!

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  10. Sarah Angleton

    I could take or leave the cranberry sauce most of the time, but my husband’s family doesn’t believe it is a holiday without can-shaped gelatinous cranberry sauce. No one actually eats it, but if it’s not on the table, it will be missed.

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