Video: The History of Cranberry Sauce

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Learn the History of cranberry sauce from a Thanksgiving dinner authority and expert baker in this free holiday cooking video

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Video Transcript

Before we start our Cranberry Sauce, let's talk about the history of these fruits. Now cranberries are one of three fruits that are native to North America. The other two are blueberries and concord grapes. The settlers and pilgrims were introduced to cranberries on the first Thanksgiving dinner by the Native Americans who were there. So cranberries have been part of Thanksgiving ever since the start. They became popular during the Civil War when Ulysses S. Grant had all of its soldiers serve Cranberry Sauce during the Battle of Petersburg, one year after Lincoln had declared Thanksgiving a National Holiday. Now the cranberries were originally called crainberries; hence how they became cranberries because the plants in which they grow look like crains coming out of the bog. Native Americans were eating them for years and years and years. They have been dried and they would also mix them with deer meat and deer fat to preserve the meat for a tasty snack on the run.