It's time for cranberries to shine

Until I had been out on my own for a few years, my only experience with cranberries came during Thanksgiving, involving a tin can and a wobbly cylinder with ridges encircling it (all the easier to cut even portions). I didn't like it. However, once I tasted cranberry sauce made from fresh cranberries, I was instantly hooked on using the tart red fruit in every way possible.

Native to the northern portion of the United States from Maine to Wisconsin, and along the Appalachians to North Carolina, cranberries pair a bracing sourness with a splash of bold color. There is a lot more to these ruby gems than a dollop of cranberry sauce beside the holiday turkey. They can be used in both savory and sweet applications, and since they freeze extremely well, you can enjoy them year-round. The Washington Post offers six ways to use cranberries beyond the holiday meal, and the EYB Library contains loads of recipes for them as well.

Following is just a small sampling of the more than 2,100 cranberry recipes available online. What's your favorite way to showcase these crimson beauties?

Cranberry-orange streusel bread from The Yellow Table by Anna Watson Carl
Pork chops with cranberry-maple pan sauce from Fine Cooking Magazine by Tony Rosenfeld
Cranberry and vanilla bean sorbet from Bon Appétit Magazine by Jill Silverman Hough
White balsamic and rosemary cranberry sauce from Cooking Light Magazine
Cranberry crumb bars with mulling spices from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook by Deb Perelman
Drunken cranberries from Mix Shake Stir: Cocktails for the Home Bar by Danny Meyer
Cranberry buckle with vanilla crumb from from Rustic Fruit Desserts by Cory Schreiber and Julie Richardson
Goat cheese cake with wine-poached cranberries from Food & Wine Magazine by Claudia Fleming (pictured)
Cranberry pot roast from Feasting at Home

4 comments

JaneOctober 30, 2020

One of my standby holiday desserts for many years was the Cranberry-swirl cheesecake with cranberry compote from Bon Appétit. Maybe I should revive it! In recent years my daughter has always requested Bon Appétit's Cranberry-chocolate tart, which is a very attractive dessert and can mainly be prepped the day before.

westerOctober 31, 2020

Another nice and different way to serve cranberries is 101 cookbooks' Sparkling cranberries. It's basically fresh cranberries coated in sugar, and it's definitely more than the sum of its parts.

Jane, how do you make URLs in a comment?

JaneOctober 31, 2020

wester - links can only be added from Wordpress (where we create the blog posts) not within the comment. I do check the comments every so often and add in links when I can (as I have in yours). I think Wordpress has it set up like that to prevent spam - which we have experienced ourselves. Basically if spammers find anywhere on a site they can add links to their spamming sites they will exploit it.

hillsboroksNovember 1, 2020

Jane I used to make the Cranberry-swirl cheesecake with cranberry compote too and can attest to its absolute wonderfulness. Not only is it full of flavor but it is absolutely one of the prettiest desserts to grace a dessert table.