SC - cranberries

[Stefan li Rous]

Stefan wrote:
>>Sounds like that canned cranberry stuff that you get in the can here,
>>that you slide out of the can and then slice for holiday meals. Blech.

Hey, i actually like that stuff and i'm a food snob ;-P Looks like 
jelly but jelly don't shake that way...

and Mari wrote:
>Sorry - really can't picture this as *My* experience of cranberries 
>is soully limited to "Cranberry & ...." juice.  Are the actually 
>berries like cherries; and gooseberries; and blackberries?? (and 
>*what* is the facination with them - they taste really, really good 
>OR are a cultural icon associated with your Thanksgiving??)

Cranberries are Vaccinum sp. and thus are closely related to 
blueberries and lingonberries, which are also vaccinum. They are 
native to the northeast US (and southeast Canada) and i think that's 
part of their appeal to us, and why we use it at such an American 
holiday as Thanksgiving (yes, other countries and cultures have 
Harvest festivals, but there's something very American about our 
Thanksgiving), you know, that connection with that mythical first 
Thanksgiving the grumpy dour Pilgrims ate here.

Cranberries are bright dark bluish red, oval, smaller than a 
gooseberry, smooth skinned, with many tiny seeds inside that are 
quite easy to eat, are very tart and best eaten slightly cooked, 
although they can be eaten raw. They grow in bogs, mostly in the 
northeast of the US, IIRC, although i believe they grow commercially 
now in Oregon, out here on the west coast, too. And they are, or at 
least were, common in southeastern Canada, a traditional food of the 
Algonquian tribes there - so, like, what to our Canadian cousins do 
with cranberries?

Although the cranberry is much larger than its European relative, the 
lingonberry, they are both colored similarly and taste a lot alike. I 
prefer plain cranberry juice that is sweetened with a little fruit 
juice rather than the kind that has so much high fructose corn syrup 
added that they have to put citric acid into it to make it tart again.

Me, i think cranberries and cranberry food products taste really 
good, especially when they are more tart and less sweet. I like them 
any time of the year.

Most people (hell, most corporations) cook them with waaay too much 
sugar, in my opinion (but then, in my opinion, most people eat way 
too many things that are way too sweet - but then, i don't have a 
sweet tooth). They have a tart, lively flavor that is a nice contrast 
with certain meats. Because of their pectin content, if cooked with a 
fair bit of sugar in a fair bit of water for a fair bit of time, 
cranberries jelly nicely and easily, one such product being that 
"sauce" that Stefan doesn't like. Me, i like chunky, lumpy, variously 
textured food, so i get the kind with berries in it.

There's a bakery near me (Just Desserts) that makes a tart between 
Thanksgiving and Christmas, that has a lovely buttery pie crust, a 
nice thick layer of pecans (another USAmerican food product) with 
only as much gooey sugary stuff as necessary just barely to hold them 
together - not your usual so-called pecan pie that is all sugary uck 
and a few little bits of pecan here and there - anyway, and on top of 
this roasted nutty goodness is a layer of  fresh cranberries barely 
cooked with a little sugar, so that they pop in your mouth when you 
bite them - mmm-mmm-mmm - i wish they had this all year.

>  {very, very glad that Mr Paul Hogan did not mention "Pie Floaters" :-p}

Ah, but you have. So, uh, what are "pie floaters"? Or do i really 
want to know...

Anahita