Thanksgiving Dessert Recipe :: Cranberry Ice Cream - WonkyWonderful (2024)

FAQs

How do you serve cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving? ›

The traditional way of serving jellied cranberry sauce is sliced into rounds. With the column set on its side, slice into ¼-inch thick rounds and then arrange the slices on a serving platter. Serve the slices plain, garnished as desired, or read on for easy upgrades.

(You can use regular tap water but the ice will be cloudy rather than clear.) Place cranberries in an ice cube tray, fill each compartment halfway with water, and place in the freezer. When frozen, top off with more water and return to the freezer.

Cranberry sauce can be served either as a gooey liquid or as a solid jelly. The jellied version is solid enough to retain the shape of the container in which it's placed whereas the sauce version is much more fluid. The difference between the fluid sauce and the jelly versions comes down to pectin.

According to Wick, the tart fruit became popularly used to create cranberry sauce for turkey and other types of meat in the late 17th century. Within a hundred more years, cranberry sauce became a staple dish in the U.S., with its popularity taking off even more throughout the 19th century.

Cranberries freeze well when properly stored. They retain their color, good flavor and quality for eight to 12 months. Maintaining a temperature of zero degrees Fahrenheit or below is recommended by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

If you absolutely need to thaw the frozen cranberries, place them in a strainer and run cool water over them until thawed. Do cranberries get mushy after freezing? If you thaw the frozen cranberries, they will be pretty mushy.

Even though cranberries are harvested in water (yep, the bogs are dry during growing and get filled with water for harvests!) it's still important to properly clean your cranberries before freezing them to remove any remaining field debris and to rinse off any processing residue.

Cranberry sauce is best served at room temperature or slightly chilled. (You've got enough things on the menu to warm up! Don't make the list longer!) I tend to make cranberry sauce a few days before Thanksgiving and then set it on the table about an hour or two before we plan to eat.

The traditional way to serve canned cranberry sauce is to slice the cylinder into rounds and arrange them on a platter. Go a step further by adding a garnish like sugared rosemary or candied ginger. Or, cook the canned sauce with orange juice and zest for a citrusy take on a holiday standby.

Cranberry sauce can be used with a variety of meats, including turkey, pork, chicken, and ham. Cranberry sauce is often eaten in conjunction with turkey for Christmas in the United Kingdom and Canada or Thanksgiving in the United States and Canada, and it is only rarely eaten or served in other contexts there.

What is the tradition of cranberries at Thanksgiving? ›

When someone mentions Thanksgiving dinner, the image that traditionally comes to mind includes turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. As one of the very few commercially grown fruits native to the United States, the cranberry symbolically represents an American harvest on our holiday tables.