Tag: cranberry

Old-Fashioned Pink Chiffon Pie (Cranberry Chiffon Pie)

Many fruits are available year round, but some fruits are available only for a few weeks each year. Cranberries are one of those fruits. I crave them for months, and am excited when they finally begin to appear in the produce aisle at the store. This fall, I saw them for the first time last week. I immediately began searching through my hundred-year-old cookbooks for cranberry recipes.

I found a recipe for Pink Chiffon Pie which is made using cranberries, and decided to give it a try.

The Pink Chiffon Pie was smooth and silky with the sweetness of the sugar in the filling nicely balancing the tart cranberries. It was tasty and looked lovely; however, if you decide to make this pie, be sure to set aside sufficient time. It is a relatively complicated recipe.

Here’s the original recipe:

Recipe for Pink Chiffon Pie (Cranberry Chiffon Pie)
Source: Diamond Jubilee Recipes (1925) compiled by the Sisters of Saint Joseph, St. Paul, MN

When I selected this recipe, it looked easy – not very many ingredients and directions that, based on a quick scan, sounded straight forward. Then I started making the recipe and discovered that it was more challenging than I anticipated.

I had lots of questions. How large is the pie shell/pan? The amounts called for in the recipe seemed fairly small – so it probably was for a 7 or 8-inch pie. I decided to make a 9-inch pie, so I doubled all ingredients. The recipe called for a baked pie shell – so I needed to make and pre-bake a pie shell prior to beginning this recipe.

I was also was not sure whether the recipe called for 1 cup of raw cranberries or for 1 cup of cranberries that had previously been cooked. I decided to assume that it meant raw cranberries. That decision led to my next question.  How much water should be added to the cranberries prior to cooking? I decided to go with 1/3 cup of water.

Once the cranberries were cooked, I tried to strain them, I was able to press relatively little liquid through the strainer, so I used a Foley mill to more thoroughly strain and mash the cooked cranberries. A food processor could also be used to puree the cranberries.

It was tricky cooking the egg-rich chiffon so that the pie filling was smooth, and the egg did not separate out while cooking. It is important to cook the filling until it barely begins to bubble. And, it is vital to not rush cooking the filling, and to stir it vigorously and constantly to prevent the filling on the bottom of the pan from scorching.

I skipped garnishing the pie with confectioners’ sugar, and instead served it with whipped cream.

Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:

Pink Chiffon Pie (Cranberry Chiffon Pie)

  • Servings: 6 - 8
  • Difficulty: somewhat challenging
  • Print

1 baked 9-inch pie shell

2 cups cranberries

1/3 cup water

8 egg yolks  + 4 egg whites

4 tablespoons butter

1 cup sugar + 1 cup sugar

confections’ sugar, if desired

whipped cream, if desired

Wash cranberries, then put them in a saucepan and add the water. Bring to a boil using medium heat, then reduce heat and simmer until all of the cranberries have softened and burst (about 8-10 minutes). Remove from the heat and press through a strainer. (I used a Foley mill.)

Put the egg yolks in a mixing bowl and beat until smooth, then add 1 cup of sugar and beat. Add the pureed cranberries and continue beating. Put mixture in a saucepan; add butter. Heat, using medium heat, until the cranberry mixture gets very thick; stir constantly. Remove from heat when the mixture is barely beginning to bubble.

In a mixing bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Then add a small amount of the hot cranberry mixture, while beating continuously. (Be sure to add only a small amount of the cranberry mixture and beat it in immediately to prevent the egg whites from cooking.) Continue adding small amounts of the cranberry mixture while continuing to beat.

After all the cranberry mixture has been incorporated into the egg whites, return the mixture to the saucepan. Using medium heat, cook until the mixture barely begins to boil; stir constantly and vigorously. (This mixture will easily scorch on the bottom of the pan. It is vital to stir continuously and vigorously with the spoon while regularly scraping the bottom of the pan. A double boiler could be used to reduce the possibility of scorching the mixture.) Remove from heat and spoon the cranberry chiffon filling into the previously baked pie shell.

If desired, lightly sprinkle confections’ sugar on the pie to garnish. Refrigerate until the pie is cold (at least 2 hours).

If desired, serve pie with whipped cream.

http://www.ahundredyearsago.com

Cranberry-Raisin Roll

cranberry raisin roll

Cranberries are a Fall favorite, so when I saw a recipe for Cranberry-Raisin Roll in a hundred-year-old cookbook I decided to give it a try.

Chopped cranberries and raisins were rolled into a baking powder dough and then steamed, which results in the roll having a different texture than if it had been baked. It is served with lemon sauce. The Cranberry-Raisin Roll was delightful and almost seemed elegant. It was soft, but slightly chewy, with the lovely tartness of cranberries that were slighted moderated by the sweetness of the raisins.

Slice of Cranberry-Raisin Roll

Cranberry-Raisin Roll in Steamer

Here’s the original recipe:

Recipe for Cranberry-Raisin Roll
Source: Modern Priscilla Cook Book (1924)

The dough seemed too thick when I rolled it to a thickness of 1/2 inch, so I rolled it a little more until it was about 1/4-inch thick.

And, here is the recipe for Lemon Sauce:

Recipe for Lemon Sauce
Source: Modern Priscilla Cook Book (1924)

I didn’t stir in boiling water when I made the Lemon Sauce. It didn’t seem necessary since the mixture was heated on the stove. I just used room temperature water.

Cranberry Raisin Roll in Steamer

Here are the recipes updated for modern cooks:

Cranberry Raisin Roll

  • Servings: 6 - 8
  • Difficulty: moderate
  • Print

1 cup cranberries

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups flour

2 tablespoons butter

3/4 – 1 cup milk

Chop cranberries and raisins. (A blender or food processor works well to chop them.) Then put in a bowl and stir in the sugar. Set aside.

Put baking powder, sugar, salt, flour, and butter in a bowl. Add 3/4 cup milk, and mix using a fork until dough starts to cling together. If it is too dry, add additional milk. Turn onto a flour-prepared surface, and roll dough into an approximate 11-inch X 18-inch rectangle that is 1/4 inch thick. Evenly spread  the cranberry and raisin mixture on the rolled dough to within 1/2 inch of the edges. Start at one of the narrower sides and roll, then put in a steamer over quickly boiling water and cover. Steam for 1 1/2 hours. Remove from steamer and serve with Lemon Sauce.

Lemon Sauce

1/2 cup sugar

1 tablespoon corn starch

dash salt

1 cup water

2 tablespoons butter

1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon grated lemon rind

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

Mix the sugar, cornstarch, and salt together in a saucepan. Stir in the water, and heat using medium heat until the mixture boils. Reduce heat and simmer until the mixture thickens.  Stir in the butter, lemon juice, grated lemon rind, and nutmeg. Serve hot.

http://www.ahundredyearsago.com

Old-fashioned Cranberry Pudding with Vanilla Sauce

 

Here’s the original recipe: Cranberry Pudding with Vanilla Sauce

‘Tis the season for cranberries, so when I saw a recipe in a hundred-year-old cookbook for Cranberry Pudding I decided to give it a try. The Cranberry Pudding was delightful. The old-fashioned cake-style pudding was embedded with tart cranberries, and smothered in a lovely vanilla sauce. This recipe is a keeper.

Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:

Recipe for Cranberry Pudding
Source: Larkin Housewives’ Cook Book (1923)

The recipe says to serve with either hard or sweet sauce. Hard sauce of more of a spread than a sauce. I prefer an actual sauce, so decided to go with the sweet sauce. The cookbook that contained the Cranberry Pudding recipe did not have any recipes for Sweet Sauce. However, it did have a recipe for Vanilla Sauce, so I decided to go with that.

Recipe for Vanilla Sauce
Source: Larkin Housewives’ Cook Book (1923)

I didn’t boil the water that I stirred into the mixture because it didn’t seem necessary, since the mixture is heated to make the sauce.

Cranberry Pudding with Vanilla Sauce

  • Servings: 9 - 12
  • Difficulty: moderate
  • Print

1/3 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1 cup raw cranberries

1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

Preheat oven to 350° F.  Put the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder, eggs, milk and lemon extract in a mixing bowl. Beat until smooth. Stir in the cranberries. Put in a greased and floured 8″ X 8″ baking pan.  Bake 35 – 45 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.  Serve warm with Vanilla Sauce.

Vanilla Sauce

1/2 cup sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 cup water

2 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon butter

Mix the sugar and cornstarch in a saucepan; add the water gradually while stirring constantly. Bring to a boil using medium heat while continuing to stir, then reduce heat and continue to stir and simmer for 10 minutes (or less if desired thickness is reached sooner). Remove from heat and stir in the butter and vanilla. Serve warm.

http://www.ahundredyearsag0.com

Old-fashioned Cranberry Applesauce

Cranberry Applesauce in bowl

Fresh cranberries are only available for a short time each year, and each Fall I look forward their arrival on the produce aisle. I was pleased to see them this week. I then looked through my hundred-year-old cookbooks and found a simple but very tasty recipe for Cranberry Applesauce. The recipe turned out well. The Cranberry Applesauce wasn’t as tart as Cranberry Sauce, but it wasn’t as sweet as Applesauce. In other words, it was just right.

Here’s the original recipe:

Recipe for Cranberry Applesauce
Source: Good Housekeeping’s Book of Menus, Recipes, and Household Discoveries (1922)

Even though the old recipe spelled “applesauce” as two words, I think that it is usually spelled as one word today, so that’s the way I spelled it. Apparently, it was at least sometimes spelled as two words a hundred years ago.

‘Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:

Cranberry Applesauce

  • Servings: 6-8
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

1 1/2 cups apples, sliced (peel and core before slicing) (use Gala, Honeycrisp, or other apple that makes a good sauce)

1 1/2 cups cranberries

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

Put all ingredients in a large saucepan, then using medium heat bring to a boil. Reduce heat and continue cooking until the apples are soft are tender and the cranberries have burst. Periodically stir. Remove from heat. May be served hot or cold.

http://www.ahundredyearsago.com

Jellied Cranberry Sauce with Celery and Walnuts

cranberry-saladRemember the  old-fashioned gelatin salads with embedded mystery fruits and vegetables that great-aunts inevitably  brought to Thanksgiving dinners? Well, I’ve found one of those old recipes. The hundred-year-old  Cranberry Salad recipe called for gelatin — and celery and walnuts.

When I made this salad I didn’t want to like it, but I was pleasantly surprised. It tasted similar to jellied cranberry sauce. The colorful, tart jellied sauce was perfectly punctuated with the crunch of the celery and walnuts.

The original recipe was for Cranberry Salad, but when I updated the recipe I renamed it, Jellied Cranberry Sauce with Celery and Walnuts, to more accurately describe the dish. Here’s the original recipe:

Source: Good Housekeeping (December, 1916)
Source: Good Housekeeping (December, 1916)

I bought a 12-ounce bag of cranberries to make this recipe. When I measured how many cranberries were in the bag, I realized that I only had 3 cups of cranberries, not the 4 cups (1 quart) called for in the old recipe. I reduced all of the other ingredients proportionately and made three-fourths of the original recipe.

When serving the Jellied Cranberry Sauce with Celery and Walnuts, I didn’t cut it into squares, and I skipped the lettuce and mayonnaise. I  just put it in a pretty dish and let people serve themselves.  Here’s my updated recipe:

Jellied Cranberry Sauce with Celery and Walnuts

  • Servings: 5 - 7
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

3 cups cranberries (1 12-ounce bag)

1 1/2 cups water

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 packets unflavored gelatin

3/4 cup celery, chopped

3/4 cup walnuts, chopped

Put cranberries and  1 1/2 cups water in a medium saucepan, bring to a boil using medium heat, then reduce heat and gently simmer for 20 minutes while stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and cool slightly, then press the cooked cranberries through a sieve or strainer. (I used a Foley mill. A food processor could also be used to puree the berries).  Return the cranberry sauce to the sauce pan and sprinkle the gelatin over the puree. Let sit for one minute, then add the sugar and stir. Put on the stove and bring to a boil using medium heat while stirring constantly, then reduce heat and cook for an additional minute. Remove from the heat.

Put half of the cranberry sauce into a serving dish or bowl; refrigerate until just set (about 1 1/2 hours). (Keep the remainder of the cranberry sauce at room temperature.) Remove the set cranberry sauce from the refrigerator and sprinkle with the chopped celery and walnuts. Pour the remaining half of the cranberry sauce over this , and return to the refrigerator until set.

I used a Foley Mill to make the Cranberry Sauce. It worked well, but a sieve, strainer, or food processor could also be used to make the sauce.
I used a Foley Mill to make the Cranberry Sauce. It worked well, but a sieve, strainer, or food processor could also be used to make the sauce.

Hundred-Year-Old Cranberry Slush (Yuletide Punch) Recipe

cranberry slush

When browsing through a hundred-year-old National Food Magazine, I was amazed to see a recipe for Yuletide Punch that looked like a cranberry slush recipe to me.

Of course, I had to try it. The slush contained freshly made cranberry juice (not the over-filtered store-bought stuff) and orange juice as well as a little maraschino cherry juice. The icy, dusky pink slush was refreshing and had just the right amount of tartness.

This recipe is a keeper. The slush was easy to make, beautiful, and tasted awesome. I’ll definitely make it again.

Here’s my adaptation of the original recipe:

Cranberry Slush (Yuletide Punch)

  • Servings: 4 servings
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

3 cups fresh cranberries (1 12-ounce bag)

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

2 medium oranges

1 tablespoon liquid from maraschino cherries

Combine the cranberries, sugar, and water in a large sauce pan. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until the cranberries burst and are soft. Remove from heat. Use a strainer to separate the juice from the berries.* Squeeze the oranges, and strain the orange juice. Combine cranberry juice, orange juice, and maraschino cherry liquid. Put the juice mixture in a freezer container and freeze.

To serve: Remove container from freezer 1/2 – 1 hr. prior to serving and allow the mixture to soften for easy serving. Spoon the slush into glasses, and serve immediately.

*Note: The cooked cranberries are not used in this recipe, but can be cooled and served separately.

Adapted from recipe in National Food Magazine (December, 1914)

Here is the original recipe.

Source: National Food Recipe (December, 1914)
Source: National Food Recipe (December, 1914)

Something doesn’t seem quite right with the old photo. The slush in the picture looks white. My slush was a dark pink.

Old-fashioned Cranberry Conserve

18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today: 

Tuesday, November 25, 1913:  Nothing to write.

DSCN1146

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Since Grandma didn’t write much a hundred years ago today, I’m going to share a great hundred year old recipe for Cranberry Conserve.

Cranberry Conserve

1 quart cranberries

1/3 cup water

Juice and pulp of 2 oranges

Grated rind of half an orange

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup chopped raisins

1 cup walnuts, chopped

Wash the cranberries and put into a medium saucepan.  Add the water, oranges, sugar and raisins. Cook until the cranberries burst and are soft. Remove from heat, and stir in nut meats. Put into a bowl and  chill.

Adapted from recipe in Ladies Home Journal (November, 1913)

This dish is excellent. The orange and raisins nicely balance the tartness of the cranberries, and the nuts add a nice texture. This recipe is a keeper and I plan to make it for Thanksgiving.