The encyclopædia of practical cookery

small shrub (see Fig. 548) : the former is commonly known as the High Cranberry (Viburnum Opulus), and the latter as Low, or Marsh Cranberry ( Oxycoccus palustris) They are so exceedingly prolific that it has been computed a piece of ground about 18ft. square planted with either kind will produce enough fruit to make one hundred or more large pies. Cranberries grow abundantly in America, France and England, the smaller kind nourishing best in fenny districts and running water. There is a kind of Cranberry grown in Northern Russia which, notwithstanding its extreme acidity, is much used for making soups and sauces. According to Dr. Prior, they derive the name from the crane, which returns to the marshlands in spring when the Cranberries are ripe, and ready for it to feed upon. For making tarts, marmalade, jelly, and certain sauces, they are higlily esteemed by epicures. Bottled Cranberries.— Gather the fruit in dry weather, and carefully remove the stalks. Put the berries into bottles, packed closely together but without bruising them, fill up the bottles with 26deg. syrup, cork up tightly, and tie them down. Cranberry Compote. — Pick the stalks off about 1 qt. of Cranberries. Put ½ lb. of crushed loaf sugar in a saucepan with li pints of water and the thinly-pared rind of half a lemon, place the saucepan over a slow fire, and boil the contents until reduced to a thick syrup. Put in the Cranberries, and stir them constantly over the fire with a wooden spoon for ten minutes. At the end of that time take the Cranberries off the fire, leave until cold, then turn them into a compotedish, or any kind of fancy dish, dust caster sugar over them, and serve. dec., r^'erred to, see under their special heads. Cranberries — continued. Cranberry Jam. — Take some berries, wash them well, weigh them, and allow an equal weight of sugar. Put the sugar with some water — say ½ pint to 1 lb. of berries — into a preserving-pan, place it on the fire, and boil for ten minutes, continually skimming. Add the berries, and finish boiling until they are quite soft and of a nice colour. When done, warm some glasses or jars, put in the preserve, and tie down with pieces of paper steeped in brandy laid on the top of each. The jars should be opened only when wanted, and be covered up again if all is not required at once, as exposure to the air spoils the jam. Cranberry Jelly. — (1) Take some Cranberries, wash them well, and pick them over. Measure them, and to every quart add 1 lb. of sugar and 1 breakfast-cupful of water. Place this in a preserving-pan, and set it on the side of the fire to simmer for thirty minutes. Then pass the jelly through a strainer, and when quite cool put into pots ready for use.