Grandma's Famous Cranberry Salad Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is cranberry salad made of? ›

Dried cherries and raisins are the most common substitutes for dried cranberries. They offer a similar chewy texture, making them suitable for baked goods and salads where a bit of chewiness is desirable.

Cranberry sauce or cranberry jam is a sauce or relish made out of cranberries, commonly served as a condiment or a side dish with Thanksgiving dinner in North America and Christmas dinner in the United Kingdom and Canada.

Cranberries provide a good source of various vitamins and antioxidants. Historically, Native Americans used cranberries as a treatment for bladder and kidney diseases, while early settlers from England used them to treat poor appetite, stomach complaints, blood disorders, and scurvy.

Ambrosia Fruit Salad

The best Ambrosia Salad recipe is made with pineapple, mandarin oranges, yogurt, mini marshmallows, coconut and whipped cream. This easy side dish has a delicious tropical sweetness and is always a crowd favorite!

Dried cranberries may be marketed as craisins due to the similarity in appearance with raisins, although the word "Craisin" is a registered trademark of Ocean Spray. Craisins were introduced as part of a packaged cereal produced by Ralston Purina in 1989.

Another main difference between the two, pointed out by the website, is that Craisins have added sugar, while raisins are “naturally sweet.” NuVal ranks raisins an 87 on its nutrition rating scale, out of 100 points, and rates Craisins a 4.

Raw cranberries (fresh or frozen) are high in nutritional value and fiber while being low in carbohydrates and calories. Dried cranberries (often known as "Craisins," a brand name), however, can be quite different. Since cranberries are so tart, most dried versions have added sugar.

The major variation you're likely to come across is "whole berry" versus "jellied." The only difference between them is that the jellied sauce is cooked until the berries have completely broken down. They both slide out of the can as a wobbly red cylinder.

An account from the American colonies in 1672 mentions the ways that both Native Americans and European settlers used cranberries, "boyling them with sugar for a sauce to eat with their meat." And one of cranberry's earliest documented appearances with turkey can be found in the 1796 cookbook American Cookery, where ...

What are the two types of cranberry sauce? ›

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.

Both types of cranberries, the large and small, contain many phenolic compounds, such as phenolic acids, flavonoids (anthocyanins and flavonols), and tannins. The large cranberry has been recognized as an important food and healing agent because of these compounds.

Cranberries are primarily composed of carbs and fiber ( 1 ). These are mainly simple sugars, such as sucrose, glucose, and fructose ( 2 ). The rest is made up of insoluble fiber — such as pectin, cellulose, and hemicellulose — which pass through your gut almost intact. Cranberries also contain soluble fiber.

Cranberries are a native North American fruit and a Thanksgiving staple for many families. Cranberries are potent sources of antioxidants, specifically from a subclass of flavonoids called proanthocyanidins, which are unique to and abundant in cranberries.

You can add them to smoothies or salads, or eat them whole. Eating raw cranberries is safe and easy, though their sharp, bitter flavor isn't for everyone. Be sure to clean and sort them thoroughly.