Thanksgiving
Our Most Popular Thanksgiving Recipe for 2 Years Running
The untold story behind "Mama's Cranberry Salad."
You'd probably think I was yanking your chain if I told you our most popular Thanksgiving recipe the last couple of Novembers wasn't a turkey, or a mashed potato, or even a pie—but a cranberry sauce.
Yep, you heard that right.
In 2017 and 2018, as our traffic numbers show us, the recipe page you all visited the most in the month of November was this beauty by longtime community member Kayb:
| 1 | (12-ounce) bag fresh cranberries |
| 1 | large Granny Smith or other tart green apple |
| 1 | large orange |
| 1 | large Honey Crisp or other red apple |
| 1 | cup chopped pecans or walnuts |
| 1 | large (6-ounce) box raspberry jello |
| 2 | cups water |
| 1 | cup sugar |
| 1 | (12-ounce) bag fresh cranberries |
| 1 | large Granny Smith or other tart green apple |
| 1 | large orange |
| 1 | large Honey Crisp or other red apple |
| 1 | cup chopped pecans or walnuts |
| 1 | large (6-ounce) box raspberry jello |
| 2 | cups water |
| 1 | cup sugar |
Mama's Cranberry Salad, uploaded in 2010, is reminiscent of the American jello salads that pervaded kitchens in the 1960s (though an earlier version called "Perfection Salad" can be cited back to 1904). Whether you serve it as a mold or in a bowl, it's a delicious alternative to canned cranberry sauce.
To learn more about the popular recipe, and the "Mama" behind it, I reached out to Kayb via email.
"It goes back at least 60 years," she wrote me, "and I can never remember being without it. My grandmother lived with us, so I don't know if she brought the recipe with her, or if it was something Mama discovered or came up with. I just know it was a constant.
"The best sign the holidays were getting near was when the sausage grinder came in from the smokehouse. It was a massive thing, mounted on a 2x10 board that rested across two kitchen chairs. All the fruit and nuts would go through it into a big dishpan. I would sit astride the board on one chair and Mama on the other to crank. When I got older, I'd take my turn cranking. We'd sit and talk while we ground the fruit, or she would sing ... that's where I learned the lyrics to Roger Miller's 'King of the Road' and Marty Robbins' 'El Paso.'
"Once we got through with the cranberry salad and got it in the refrigerator, we'd wash the grinder and then grind the coconut for fresh coconut cake, more nuts for whatever holiday baking she was doing, and candied fruit for other sweets. She loved to do 'fancy' baking and candy making, oddly enough (because she was a Type 1 diabetic and couldn't eat any of it!)."
And the jello is important here, distinguishing it as a gelatin "salad" versus just a sauce.
"Mama was always quite insistent on raspberry jello," Kayb says. "I used cherry one year when I couldn't find raspberry, and it decidedly tasted different. The raspberry's tartness plays well with the tart elements of the other fruit. Cherry and strawberry are too sweet."
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Written by: Eric Kim
Popular on Food52
29 Comments
Then I used 1 3oz. Box of orange jello and 3oz. Of plain jello
I was just told best salad ever!
Thank you
Oh and I used lime over the cut up apples...yummy 😋
Thanks!
If you just google how to make vegan jello, there are many recipes. I see folks saying substitute 1:1 and I see others that say don't....so I think you'd just have to experiment to see what works best.
This looks like a nice guide (not sure if you can post links here): https://www.connoisseurusveg.com/vegan-jello/
Enjoy!
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