the most important of the berries borne by a group of low, scrubby, woody plants of the genus Vaccinium. These grow on moors and mountainsides, in bogs, and other places with poor and acid soil in most parts of the world, but are best known in N. Europe and N. America. All yield edible berries. The genus also includes the bilberry (see also blueberry).
The generic name Vaccinium is the old Latin name for the cranberry, derived from vacca (cow) and given because cows like the plant. This accounts also for the common name ‘cowberry’, which is lingon in Swedish, giving rise in the middle of the 20th century to the English term ‘lingonberry’. The origin of the name cranberry is obscure, apart from the dubious suggestion that cranes eat the berries. The common names of these berries are confusing and sometimes overlap with those of berries in other genera or families. See cranberry tree; huckleberry; whortleberry.
The plants to which the name cranberry was originally given are two species which occur in Europe as well as in other temperate parts of the world: Vaccinium oxycoccus and V. vitis idaea. The former is sometimes called the small cranberry. The latter, which replaces it in the more northerly regions and at higher altitudes, can be termed mountain cranberry, or foxberry. Either can be cowberry, or lingonberry (as mentioned above). Both plants bear reddish oval berries about 8 mm (0.3″) across with a piquant flavour. This fits them for making sharp sauces to go with game; and they also provide excellent jellies or preserves.
When the Pilgrim Fathers arrived in N. America they found a local cranberry, V. macrocarpon, which had berries twice the size of those familiar to Europeans, and an equally good flavour. American Indians were accustomed to eating these fresh or dried, and to adding the dried fruits as an ingredient in pemmican (a dried, preserved meat product). Cranberries contain large amounts of benzoic acid, which is a natural preservative and accounts for this practice; the berries will keep for months without treatment of any kind. It was no doubt these large American cranberries which, at an early stage in the evolution of Thanksgiving Day dinner, were made into sauce to accompany the turkey, which became established as its centrepiece.
For a long time now the American cranberry has been both cultivated and exported. Even in former times its remarkable keeping properties enabled it to withstand long sea voyages stored in barrels full of plain water. Cranberries for storage were selected, by tipping them down a flight of stairs. The sound berries bounced and fell to the bottom, while damaged ones stayed on the steps. This principle is still used in modern sorting machines.
Most cranberries on sale in Europe are imported from the USA, but there is some European cultivation of V. macrocarpon, and as a result of escapes the plant is sometimes found growing wild on European moors. Cranberry juice, with its high vitamin C content, is a popular product.
Various Vaccinium spp in other parts of the world produce fruits comparable to the cranberry but of less importance. One such is V. reticulatum of Hawaii, which bears the ohelo berry, red or yellow in colour, sweet enough to eat raw, and suitable for jam if its low pectin content is strengthened.
Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.
