The Origins of Cranberry Sauce

My favorite holiday is Christmas. We have traditions outside of food and with food. One thing we do is always open 1 present on Christmas eve.  It's usually pajamas but either way that's what we do. The food that my grandmother always makes sure to bring is cranberry sauce.

Cranberry sauce did originate from the U.S, but they were not served originally as sauce is what many believe. It actually was what early pilgrims would put in their stuffing. Cranberry sauce wasn’t offered until 1912. The side dish wasn’t even sold in markets until 1941. It is able to be served year round now in stores. The pilgrims found the wild cranberries growing in the Massachusetts bay area. The first thought wasn’t to make them a sauce, of course, due to the sugar scarcity. 

Cranberry sauce, as previously stated, originated in America . These berries were involved in stuffings and poultry recipes before the sauce was created. The sauce itself usually stays an American food because since the berry is native to the U.S it is only in American cooking really.  Cranberry sauce also is made in different ways. The most common is the Jellied type but there is also the original way which is more chunky with whole cranberries mixed in with it.

Cranberry sauce isn’t a tradition that my family can live without. Personally, I’m not the biggest fan of it. Though I do also have a heavy bias towards the jellied version just because it’s sweeter and easier to eat. Although the one time we didn’t have cranberry sauce it felt weird.  It’s more of a placeholder for our plate. I don’t always get it on mine but when it’s not at the table it always makes me wonder why.

Wikipedia Contributors. “Cranberry Sauce.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 29 Sep. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cranberry_sauce. Accessed 1 Dec. 2021.