"cranberries" news and stories

We love the tart little orbs that burst when you cook them up in a sauce, and sometimes take your breath away when you put them in a relish. And what else can you eat that comes from a bog? This Thanksgiving, visit Kitchen Daily's gallery of cranberry sauce recipes, and give the berries you love some worthy partners, such as the unexpected tomatoes and garlic in the Tomato-Cranberry Sauce, above. Or how about a relish with pecans, or a chutney with chiles and ginger?

And for more on the fascinating science and history of cranberries visit MSNBC.

Straight from the bogs of New England, the magical, medicinal powers of the cranberry are getting a new boost from science. NPR reports that food chemists are finding compounds within the little red berries that were unknown even 20 years ago. Jim Harnly, research leader of the USDA's Food Composition and Methods Development Lab, told NPR that the lab is using new high-tech methods to decipher the exact composition of cranberries, which are loaded with polyphenols, and known to have an antioxidant, or "anti-aging" effect. In Allison Aubrey's latest entry in her NPR video series, Tiny Desk Kitchen, she explores it all in "Are Berries All That Or Just Hype?".

After getting inspired by the video, you may be inspired to cook up some special cranberry sauces (or a Cranberry-Pecan or Gingered Cranberry-Raspberry relish) in this gallery of Kitchen daily recipes. Or get right to dessert with a Cranberry Cheesecake.

Thanksgiving or not, cranberries are invited to our table anytime, lending tartness to just about any relish, compote, jelly or chutney.

We love the way they form red carpets over New England bogs, the way they plump up and burst when they're cooked and, as the blogger who combined them with orange zest, honey, cinnamon and cardamom rhapsodizes in the caption to this photo, the way they "make the kitchen smell heavenly."

That cranberries are loaded with antioxidants and help fight infections are just two more good reasons to find yet another way to serve them, such as in a tart-and-creamy cranberry-horseradish dip.

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Cranberry sauce is the most ubiquitous Thanksgiving condiment -- perhaps even more so than gravy. Whether it's conditioning or tradition (or force feeding from our parents at a young age), it seems to go perfectly with everything on a late November plate. And though a glob of it straight out of a can is hilarious to look at, it pales in comparison to homemade cranberry sauce, which happens to be ridiculously easy to make.

This version from Flickr user rachel is coconut&lime is a little more time-consuming than most, but only because there are pomegranate arils (seeds) in the sauce.

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Cranberry sauce is the yin to the Thanksgiving turkey's yang with its perfect flavor balance of sweet and tart.

Get this cranberry sauce recipe along with many others after the jump.