Entries tagged with 'Thanksgiving'
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Harold McGee's Top 10 Thanksgiving Tips

In cased you missed this morning's live webcast with Harold McGee talking turkey from the Serious Eats world headquarters, here are the top ten pieces of useful, brilliant, or just plain duh-why-didn't-I-think-of-that? tips we learned today to help make your Thanksgiving just a little bit more delicious.

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The Food Lab Thanksgiving Special: The Best Roasted Sweet Potatoes

OK, so sweet potatoes are sweet, but they're not that sweet, right? I mean sure, you could go add maple syrup or honey with marshmallows on top, but I wouldn't wish one of those monstrous casseroles on my worst enemies, let alone my own family (though come to think of it, there's some pretty significant overlap between those two groups). Much better than those casseroles are really well-roasted sweet potatoes. At their best, they're creamy, flavorful, and sweet with a slightly crisp, caramelized crust. Too often though, they end up mealy, starchy, and bland. How does one get a sweet potato to really live up to its name?

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Video Chat With Harold McGee

We've got Harold McGee at Serious Eats world headquarters right now, answering all of your holiday questions in a live video chat. Thanks for tuning in. Recap post up soon!

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Taste Test: Chicken Stock

Not all of us have tubs of homemade stock hanging out in the freezer. So when your stuffing or sauce recipes call for stock this year, and you have plenty of other pans to dirty, it's alright to grab the canned or boxed kind. Surely Mark Bittman is somewhere shaking his fist right now. The New York Times recipe columnist pointed out in this piece from January of 2009 that the homemade version—just a half-hour of simmering a carrot, celery stalk, half an onion, and some chicken scraps in water—would be ten times better than any canned stock. But, we won't judge if you use one of these. The contenders: College Inn Chicken Broth, Emeril's Chicken Stock, Swanson's Chicken Broth, Swanson's Chicken Cooking Stock, Herb-ox Instant Chicken Bouillon and Seasoning, Glace de Poulet Gold, and Kitchen Basics Natural Chicken Stock. Find out who won.

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How to Spice Up Your Thanksgiving

When it comes to Thanksgiving, I tend towards tradition—it's just not Thanksgiving without stuffing, cranberry sauce, and all things pumpkin. But the same recipes, however welcome, can get tiresome year after year. New herbs and spices function as my compromise between tradition and novelty. Here are some ideas to consider while planning your menu this year.

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Gadgets: The Smood (Potato Masher)

Mashed potatoes are one of those side dishes that we eat—and crave—year round, but demand perfection from on Thanksgiving. So what makes the perfect mashed potatoes? That depends on who you ask. And what makes the perfect potato masher is clearly dependent upon that answer.

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The Food Lab: Buffalo Fried Turkey

Does anyone not like Buffalo wings? Crispy, salty, tangy, hot and moist, they are perhaps the ultimate snack food. They're the only thing that my wife simply can't get enough of (besides my glowing and affable personality, that is). So what could be better than a pile of Buffalo wings? How about an entire deep-fried Buffalo turkey? Yes, we're going there.

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How to Make Turducken in Under 24 Hours

The noble turducken plays out like a carnivore's dream—layers of sumptuous turkey, duck and chicken drowned in gravy and packed with at least three different types of stuffing. But the entire process can take at least a day from start to finish. I was determined to find a quicker way.

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Weekend Cook and Tell Round Up: Beyond Tofurkey, Vegetarian Thanksgiving Options

For last week's Weekend Cook and Tell challenge we wanted to make sure that none of our vegetarian friends had more to eat this Thanksgiving than a scoop of gravy-less mashed potatoes or even worse, the dreaded Tofurkey. We asked all of you to share ideas for meatless Thanksgiving mains and it looks like no one's going to be missing the turkey with these Venerable Vegetarian Thanksgiving Options. Let's take a look at some of our favorite responses.

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Taste Test: Store-Bought Turkey Gravy

Of all the Thanksgiving taste-tests we've had recently at headquarters, the gravy one didn't exactly make our tummies grumble for joy.* Bowls of brownish to brownish-gray gloop all lined up. Shudder. Though many of us wouldn't even think to use the packaged stuff on Thanksgiving, especially when the bird naturally acts as a gravy faucet, sometimes it's nice to have around as an emergency back-up. And we were curious, do any of them taste homemade? We tried the following nationally available brands: Franco-American, Campbells, Heinz (regular and fat-free), Trader Joe's, and Williams-Sonoma.

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