Traditional Cranberry
Sauce
Yields 3 cups
2 cups of cranberries
(1/2 lb.)
½ cup of sugar or 1/3 cup honey
2/3 cup of apple or orange
juice
1 teaspoon orange zest
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon
ground cloves
Place cranberries in a colander and rinse
fresh berries and remove stems. Place all ingredients in a heavy bottom saucepan
and heat over low flame. Bring to a simmer and cook until all berries pop open.?Pour
into a serving bowl and cool to set. This recipe may be prepared up to one week
ahead of time.
Raw Cranberry Sauce
Yields 3 cups
2 cups cranberries, rinsed
1 orange with peel cut into
pieces
½ cup raw walnuts, chopped
½ cup golden raisins
¾
cup raw orange blossom honey
½ teaspoon cinnamon
Place
cranberries and orange pieces in a food processor. Mix in the honey,walnuts and
golden raisins and allow to rest in refrigerate for a minimum 12 hours. This recipe
may be prepared up to one week ahead of time.
Pumpkin
Cranberry Muffins
2 cups fresh cranberries, chopped?
2 cups all purpose
flour, sifted
¾ cup brown sugar
1 tablespoons Baking Powder
1
teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon allspice
1//3
cup sweet butter,melted + 1 tablespoon melted butter
2 whole eggs
1 cup
fresh pumpkin puree, fresh or canned
Preheat oven to 400
degrees.
Sift all dry ingredients together, set aside?In a separate bowl, whisk
together sweet butter, eggs and pumpkin puree until well blended. Combine all
ingredients and gently fold together. Stir just until moistened, fold in cranberries.
Spoon into paper lined muffin or pre-oiled muffin cups and bake for 25-30 min.
Remove from oven and brush with 1 tablespoon melted butter. Enjoy!
The first
cultivated cranberries were selected from the wild and given names that either
described the berry - like Early Blacks and Early Reds - which are named for their
color and their habit of early maturation making them easily available for Thanksgiving
or like Howes - grown and selected by Elias Howe of East Dennis, Ma. in 1843 and
planted by many other growers from cuttings purchased from Mr. Howe's bog. An
early native selection in Nova Scotia is called Beaver and New Jersey had Jerseys
and Late Jerseys. Since the 1920's there has been an ongoing breeding program
designed to develop new cultivars with objectives such as increased productivity,
larger size, better color, resistance to disease and tolerance of storage to name
only a few.
Years later there are well over a hundred different cultivars,
either selected from the wild or results of experimental production of hybrids.
They have evocative names such as Aviator, Bugle, Black Vail and Metallic Bell.
Some have been named by the place of origin e.g Middleboro, Middlesex, and Rhode
Island. Many more have been named for their discoverers or growers. After years
of experience only a few cultivars have remained popular The older east coast
nati ves: Early Blacks, Howes, McFarlands and Early Reds and the newer hybrids,
which have developed a more prolific vine and a larger hardier berry, these are
mainly Ben Lears, Pilgrims, Stevens and Bergmans.
Those new large berries
are often used for juice and other cranberry products so they are not visible
to the consumer. Most of the cranberries we buy fresh in the store to cook with
the Thanksgiving turkey are the native east coast berries, Early Blacks and Howes.
They are small, pretty and very tasty. We grow them because we think they make
the best cranberry sauce and because they have always grown here. This is their
native habitat and they are hardy survivors both on the bog and in the package.
Varieties
of Cranberries
The first cultivated cranberries were selected
from the wild and given names that either described the berry - like Early Blacks
and Early Reds - which are named for their color and their habit of early maturation
making them easily available for Thanksgiving or like Howes - grown and selected
by Elias Howe of East Dennis, Ma. in 1843 and planted by many other growers from
cuttings purchased from Mr. Howe's bog. An early native selection in Nova Scotia
is called Beaver and New Jersey had Jerseys and Late Jerseys. Since the 1920's
there has been an ongoing breeding program designed to develop new cultivars with
objectives such as increased productivity, larger size, better color, resistance
to disease and tolerance of storage to name only a few.
Years later there
are well over a hundred different cultivars, either selected from the wild or
results of experimental production of hybrids. They have evocative names such
as Aviator, Bugle, Black Vail and Metallic Bell. Some have been named by the place
of origin e.g Middleboro, Middlesex, and Rhode Island. Many more have been named
for their discoverers or growers. After years of experience only a few cultivars
have remained popular The older east coast nati ves: Early Blacks, Howes, McFarlands
and Early Reds and the newer hybrids, which have developed a more prolific vine
and a larger hardier berry, these are mainly Ben Lears, Pilgrims, Stevens and
Bergmans.
Those new large berries are often used for juice and other cranberry
products so they are not visible to the consumer. Most of the cranberries we buy
fresh in the store to cook with the Thanksgiving turkey are the native east coast
berries, Early Blacks and Howes. They are small, pretty and very tasty. We grow
them because we think they make the best cranberry sauce and because they have
always grown here. This is their native habitat and they are hardy survivors both
on the bog and in the package.
Health Benefits
Until
recently, the well known health benefits of cranberries were thought to be due
to the high vitamin C content of the fruit. But now scientists have isolated other
compounds present in cranberries which have the special effect of preventing bacteria
from adhering to the urinary tract. These compounds, condensed tannis or proanthocyanidins,
may be effective in preventing or easing urinary tract infections by preventing
Escherichia coli (E. coli bacteria) from adhering to the kidney or bladder cells.
(The New England Journal of Medicine, October 8th, 1998.)
In related research
at Tel Aviv University it was determined that the same properties of cranberries
reduce the amount or oral bacteria, thus reducing the formation of dental plaque
and the resultant gum disease.
At the University of Wisconsin ongoing research
is investigating the effect of the antioxidants contained in cranberry extracts
on reducing the oxydation that leads to heart disease. It may be that the consumption
of cranberries can significantly reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.
