This Thanksgiving, many people will either open a can of jellied cranberry sauce or make their own on the stove. What does food science writer Harold McGee reach for?
Harold McGee: For me, one of the things I look forward to when it comes to Thanksgiving is not opening the can but actually buying a bag of cranberries and putting them in a pot and watching them pop. It's so much fun and you don't really need to do any work except put a little water in, cook them until they pop, add some sugar to taste, and they have this spicy flavor all by themselves. I'm sure Arielle can make the connection between the phenolic compounds that kind of protect the cranberries in the bog and these wonderful aromas that come out. But for me, that's one of the easiest and most fun aspects of cooking at Thanksgiving.
I'm so glad you brought it up, because it is so pleasurable to watch them pop.
Harold McGee: Yeah, and to listen to them.
It's a very sensory experience. Then watch how they thicken when they cool, it's very satisfying.
Arielle Johnson: The sort of alchemy of how, because they feel like a very dry berry when they're raw, not like dried out, but they don't feel particularly juicy, and they're quite spongy. The alchemy going on from that, to super silky, dense, saucy sauce is always delightful.
I love the taste of cranberry sauce but I also love the color on the plate. Arielle, can you get a bit nerdy with us for a moment? What are those phenolic compounds that Harold mentioned, and what flavors do they bring with them?
Arielle Johnson: A lot of red fruits, like grapes and like cranberries, have in their skin, a lot of their pigment comes from phenolic compounds. Anthocyanins are some of them but they're basically like sunscreen for the berry. They share a lot of chemical similarity, and are also made from the same initial building blocks, as, for example, the aromas of clove or cinnamon. There are actually a lot of berries that have these subtle clove or cinnamon or spice notes that come from having ramped up their production of the pathways that lead to the phenolic compounds.
So interesting.
Harold McGee: Actually, red fruits, red berries and so on, remind me of the things that I love for punctuation in things like dressings and accompanying dishes. It's an ingredient that I think is just not appreciated enough, barberries, which are these tiny, bright red, beautiful, jewel-like, little bombs of tartness. You just saute them. Not even saute them. Just cook them in a little bit of oil or butter to emphasize their color more than anything else, so they don't get clouded by the moisture or whatever you're adding it to and then putting it into a dressing, or pretty much anything. They're a beautiful and underappreciated ingredient.