IngredientsPreserves
Preiselbeerenlingonberry
The fruit of Vaccinium vitis-idaea, a low shrub of the conifer forest. The berries are small, firm and bright red.
The taste is sour with a bitter edge. That edge is what the plate needs: it cuts fat and roasting juices, which is why they sit beside game, beside schnitzel and beside fried camembert.
Not the same berry
What Mexico sells as arándano rojo is the cranberry, Vaccinium macrocarpon. A relative, but a different species: bigger, juicier, proportionally less bitter.
And arándano azul is the blueberry. Sweet, soft, dark, and entirely wrong in a game sauce.
Ersatzwhat to use
Take cranberry sauce and correct it: less sugar, more lemon. That puts the acidity roughly where it belongs.
What it cannot manage: the fine bitterness and the resinous note of the lingonberry. The sauce stays rounder and more jam like. For game it will do; fried camembert will miss the bite.
Kaufenwhere to buy it
Cranberry sauce is in every larger supermarket, and around Christmas it is stacked up.
For real lingonberries, look for German or Scandinavian product, usually jarred as a compote.