My mom has a recipe on Epicurious. At first I found that amusing. Epicurious, after all, is the holy grail of recipe websites, the collected works of some of the best food writers in the country. And, to put it most kindly, my mom was not a gifted cook. At least not by the definition we most often apply today.
Oh, it's a good recipe. Maybe a great recipe. We printed it in the Los Angeles Times for the first time in 1992 and for the last time in 2000, and I still get calls and emails every Thanksgiving asking for Mom Parsons' cranberries.
It has just the right balance of sweet and tart, with the spice of cloves, cinnamon and allspice coming up from the background. I can - and sometimes do - drink the syrup straight. The texture is like a loose jelly, but the cranberries are cooked briefly, so they still have pop.
The cranberry sauce is pretty easy to make: You boil spiced simple syrup and then add the berries and cook them just until they start to pop. Chill for a couple of days and you're good to go. (Times restaurant critic Jonathan Gold says he substitutes orange juice for half of the liquid, which I think is a very good idea.)
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So where does this recipe come from? After a couple of weeks of concerted searching, I still don't know. I can't ask her; she's been gone for almost 20 years. The only record I have is a recipe card in her handwriting titled simply "Spiced Cranberries." It will go to my daughter.
My sister, the family historian, has a similar recipe card, but hers reads "Grandma Smith's Spiced Cranberries," which indicates that it came from my mom's family in Wapakoneta, Ohio. But it also has the note "Good with turkey and ham," and while my family always ate turkey, we almost never ate ham, so that could be an indication that it was copied from a cookbook or magazine. That's my dad's best guess as well.
But where? I've looked through my old editions of "Joy of Cooking" - my mom's family's kitchen bible - and though there is a spiced cranberry recipe somewhat similar in structure, the technique and balance of ingredients is different.
My sister pointed to the 1943 edition of "The American Woman's Cookbook," which she remembers my mom using. There's a spiced cranberry recipe in there, but again, though the ingredients are similar, they're put together in a different way.
At this point, I guess it's going to have to remain a Thanksgiving mystery.
And in a way, I think that's kind of fitting - let's let it stand as a tribute to all those anonymous souls who labor in the kitchen, cooking not for the fun of it but simply because the families they love need to eat.
They can't all wind up on Epicurious, but they still deserve our thanks.
Mom Parsons' Cranberries
Makes: About 2 1/2 cups.
• 3 cloves
• 3 allspice berries
• 2 (3-inch) cinnamon sticks
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup water
• 1 (12-ounce) bag fresh cranberries
• Grated zest of 1 orange
Make a sachet: Wrap the cloves, allspice and cinnamon sticks in a cheesecloth square and tie it shut. Bring sugar, water and spice sachet to a boil in a 4-quart saucepan. Cook, stirring, until the syrup is clear, about 3 minutes. Add the cranberries and cook just until they begin to pop, about 5 minutes.
Remove the pan from the heat, add the grated orange zest and cool. Refrigerate 1 to 3 days before serving. Remove the spice sachet before serving.
Each 1/4 cup serving: 134 calories; 0 protein; 35 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams fiber; 0 fat; 0 cholesterol; 32 grams sugar; 1 mg sodium.