Cranberry season again

While searching through my recipes for how long to process the cranberry sauce I was canning, I came across these interesting recipes from 1921. Since the food bank often has fruit toward the end of its season, I decided to go ahead and share them. Enjoy!

Cranberry Butter
three pints cranberries
1/2 cup water
2 cups sugar (or 2 cups white corn syrup)

Cook the cranberries and water until the skins of the fruit are broken, then press thru a sieve. Cook this pulp until it becomes quite thick, add the sugar (or syrup, if you use it) and cook for 1/2 hour over a very gentle fire, stirring constantly. When slightly cool, turn into jars and cover closely. This makes a delicious and healthful spread on hot biscuits, bread, buttered toast or cake.


Cranberry pie
Have ready a partly baked pastry shell. When cold, pour in filling made from cranberry sauce recipes; put strips of pastry over top and finish baking in a moderate oven.



Cranberry Mock Mince-Meat
2 lbs. chopped apples
3 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup chopped citron
1 1/2 cups cranberry sauce
1/2 cup vinegar
1 1/2 cups chopped raisins
1/4 teaspoon each of cloves and cinnamon
1/2 cup water
4 tablespoons lemon juice

Put all ingredients into a kettle and cook slowly until thick.

Cranberry Mince-Meat
To the above recipe [i.e. Cranberry Mock Mince-Meat] add:
1 1/2 cups cooked beef hearts put through a meat chopper
1/2 cup stock in which hearts were cooked

From: Cranberries : twenty-five ways of preparing for table / Leila W. Hunt. Extension Service, State College of Washington, Nov. 1921 (Bulletin No. 76).



Esperanta traduko: this post is also available in Esperanto, because Dana is a language geek.

Butternut squash and apple soup

2 Tbsp. butter
1 cup chopped yellow onion
1/2 cup sliced celery stalks and leaves
1 large butternut squash, peeled and cubed
1 small cooking apple (such as Jonagold or Granny Smith), peeled, cored, and cut into chunks
6 cups chicken stock or water
2 cinnamon sticks
6 whole cloves
6 allspice berries

garnish:
chopped fresh chives
sour cream

Cook onion and celery in butter over medium-high heat until softened, about 5 minutes. Place the squash and apple in a slow cooker; add onion mixture and stock. Cover and cook on low about 5 1/5 hours, until squash and apple are tender. Grind spices in a mortar or spice grinder; add to soup and cook another half hour. With an immersion blender or, working in batches, in a regular blender, puree the soup until smooth. Reheat if needed.

Adapted from: The gourmet slow cooker, vol. II : regional comfort-food classics / Lynn Alley. Ten Speed Press, 2006. 9781580087322

This is another of those posts I prepared for the Tumwater Farmers' Market blog before it switched editors. There are several of these, which will appear this winter when I'm feeling particularly cold and uninspired.

Esperanta traduko: this post is also available in Esperanto, because Dana is a language geek.