If Thanksgiving is a time for family food, it’s also a time for a recurring argument: Should the cranberry sauce come from the can or a sacred family recipe? It’s impossible to tell how many people have the battle lines drawn over this Thanksgiving condiment but Ocean Spray, the nation’s largest producer of cranberry sauce, reports out 72 million out of the 86.4 million cans it sells a year are sold between September and the end of December.
A Facebook group devoted to canned cranberry sauce has popped up . Its called “Cranberry Sauce in the shape of the can makes my Thanksgiving” to “When Cranberry Sauce comes out of the can with ridges.” There’s also one called “Cranberry Sauce is only good if it’s in the shape of a can,” which includes the motto: “If it ain’t from a can, it’s garbage.”
In the days of television networks all about home cooking and with many Dr Oz’ish warnings against the risks of processed foods, the love of canned cranberry seems like its not going to die anytime soon. Devote canned cranberry sauce fans say the reasons begin and end with the past and that the sight of the shiny can-shaped jelly brings back memories of Thanksgiving meals of days past.
