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The Holiday Berry
| Article
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20569 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
Date : |
11 / 1992 |
1,570 Words |
| Author
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Linda Joyce Forristal
Linda Joyce Forristal, Life editor for The World & I, is a
member of Les Dames d'Escoffier and is on the board of the
Weston A. Price Foundation. |
What's more American than apple pie? How about cranberry pie? Now, before you accuse me of disloyalty, consider these facts. Apples are native to the Caucasus Mountain region of Russia, but cranberries are one of three fruits native to American soil (the others: blueberries and Concord grapes).
Perhaps a pie composed entirely of cranberries would pucker the lips, but how about a cranberry pie sweetened with raisins? The point is, if you have restricted your cranberry consumption to canned cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving and Christmas, with an occasional loaf of homemade cranberry nut bread thrown in, you've been missing out on a cornucopia of cranberry tastes. But we'll get back to that.
Novel uses for this red berry have been around for a long time. The North American Indians used cranberries in a hardy dish called pemmican not that I would recommend it for everyday eating. They combined dried deer meat, cranberries, and melted fat to make a cake like convenience food. The need for such a creation is obvious. Indian women also used cranberry juice to dye rugs and blankets. Because it was believed that the cranberry had medicinal properties, cranberry poultices were used to draw poison away from arrow wounds. As cranberries are naturally high in vitamin C, early American sailors carried barrels of them on boards their ships to prevent scurvy.
Some sources state that the Indians presented the Pilgrims with gifts of cranberries and that they were on the first Thanksgiving table in 1621, but there is controversy about whether this is true or not. Uncertainty might have been stimulated by the fact that the earliest Pilgrims did not have sugar, which would be an obvious plus when using these sour berries.
However, it is generally agreed that the Pilgrims gave the berry the name we use today. The nodding pink flowers with their long pistils reminded them of the heads of cranes, so they called the plant the "cranberry"--which was later abbreviated. The name gained favor over "bearberry," a name that referred to the fact that bears like to feed on them.
Early recipes are few and far between. Although the Wampanoag Indians on Martha's Vineyard traditionally used cranberries to make a hearty cornbread, one of the first recorded recipes is from a book penned in 1672 by John Josselyn. He writes: "The Indians and English use them much, boyling them with sugar for Sauce to eat with meat; and it is a delicate Sauce, especially with Roasted
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