Posted by Zach Brooks, November 23, 2007 at 12:00 PM
For sandwich lovers all around the country, Friday is pretty much our Super Bowl. Starting late on Thursday night and continuing until the Thanksgiving meal is exhausted, amateur sandwich chefs will engage in a ritual that is as American as Thanksgiving itself—the transformation of Thanksgiving leftovers into a very serious sandwich. My concoction is pretty standard (roll, turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce), so I decided to turn to Serious Eats' contributors for some day-after-Thanksgiving, sandwich-making inspiration.
The answers run the gamut and should provide you with more than enough ideas for your pile of leftovers. Not surprisingly, every sandwich contained turkey, and all but two called for cranberry sauce of some kind. Cheese showed up on three sandwiches (brie being the most popular), and mayo is the clear condiment of choice, appearing four times (five if you count aioli), beating out mustard (one sandwich) and butter (two sandwiches). And bacon shows its almighty power in appearing twice, despite the fact that it requires you to cook more food, thereby totally defeating the purpose of the day after Thanksgiving, "leftovers" sandwich (but undoubtedly making it more delicious).
A list of Serious Thanksgiving Sandwiches, courtesy of the Serious Eats Team, after the jump.
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Posted by The Serious Eats Team, November 23, 2007 at 11:00 AM
Editor's note: A couple of weeks ago I saw the fine writer Sara Roahen give a talk at the Southern Foodways Symposium on boudin, the pork, liver, and rice sausage most often found in the Louisiana countryside. She was smart, articulate, funny, and self-deprecating, so when she was finished I asked if she would like to contribute to Serious Eats. In honor of Thanksgiving, here's Sara's take on turkey gumbo. We hope you'll be hearing more from Sara on Serious Eats in the coming months. Her book, Gumbo Tales, is coming out in February, and we will definitely be giving it away. It's a terrific book. —Ed
Words and Recipes by Sara Roahen | Last Thanksgiving, which arrived a long month and a half after my reluctant departure from New Orleans, I resolved to kick my homesickness (I had lived in New Orleans for seven years) by injecting a new tradition into my Wisconsin family’s holiday feasting: turkey bone gumbo. I imported andouille from Jacob’s World Famous Andouille & Sausage in La Place, Louisiana, and I used Louisiana bay leaves, which are fresher and mellower than the ones sold in small jars in most grocery store spice aisles. I also made a potato salad with green onion mayonnaise from Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Louisiana Kitchen, which my husband, Matt, and I like to eat in our gumbo. Many Louisianians approve of this pairing, and so did many in our Wisconsin crowd. So much so that this year, even though my Thanksgiving visit came two weeks early, we held our second-annual Roahen turkey bone gumbo dinner. Thirty people attended. Only one complained openly about my liberal use of cayenne.
Though this year we roasted a turkey so that we would have a carcass so that we could have gumbo again, usually turkey bone gumbo is something of an afterthought: what one cooks in order to make good use of the entire Thanksgiving bird once it has become carnage. The same method could be—and is in Louisiana—applied to any fowl or game. One of the most exhilarating gumbos I’ve tasted came from the pot of my friend and food enthusiast Brooks Hamaker, a Louisiana native. If ever I doubted his claims of being a huntsman, he earned my respect with the feather that I pulled from my teeth while enjoying his deep, dark Mardi Gras duck gumbo one year.
It’s amazing how much meat falls off the most meticulously carved turkey carcass after two hours in a simmering stock pot. And the stock produced is so flavorful that turkey bone gumbo requires little more than a robust roux, some seasoning vegetables, and ample salt and pepper. I like to brighten it up with filé powder and lemon juice just before serving, though both additions are optional.
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Posted by Erin Zimmer, November 23, 2007 at 10:00 AM
Although this Brit comfort food is typically made with minced lamb, it's a dish that rolls with the punches. When replaced with ground beef, it's cottage pie. In New Zealand, spuds are the key ingredient so it becomes the potato pie. In our red-white-and-blue nation, we've got one with corn called the cowboy pie. (Yee-haw) The meat-hating crowd does a vegetarian shepherdess pie. And the Midwest? They've got one, too, with cream of mushroom soup and green beans.
So along comes Thanksgiving with all its leftovers: a perfect chance for a seasonal shepherd's pie. Emeril has a fussied-up version and Martha does a more basic one. Either way, the bottom line is to throw leftovers (turkey, green beans, cornbread, stuffing, and cranberries) into a casserole dish. Bake at 400°F for about 30 minutes, until bubbling. For fun, throw the sweet potatoes into a pastry bag, and as if they were icing, dress the dish with some frilly designs.
Posted by Robyn Lee, November 23, 2007 at 9:00 AM
Photograph from brooklyn on Flickr
It's the day after Thanksgiving, but the holiday isn't over yet. Surely you didn't forget about that pile of leftovers in your fridge. You know, the one with all the turkey. And mashed potatoes. And cranberry sauce. Etc.
You could eat the leftovers just the way they are and bore yourself to death, or you can give them new life as ingredients in different recipes. Here's a selection of recipes that will turn some (or all) of your leftovers into something tasty instead of something you'll forget in the fridge and rediscover a month later, topped with a layer of mold.
Have any ideas of your own? Contribute them to the "What do you do with your turkey leftovers?" Talk topic!
Posted by Erin Zimmer, November 22, 2007 at 6:00 PM
Everyone loves an excuse to eat muffins, and the cleverest among us know it's all about the tops. So on Black Friday morning, when you're full but the extra cranberry sauce is staring you in the face, consider that excuse enough. They're leftover-efficient, so basically you're doing something good for the environment. Pat yourself on the back and bake these oaty cranberry guys, which come from chef Michael Harr of Butterfield 9 in Washington, D.C. Harr realizes that the gang won't quite be ready for Thanksgiving sandwiches this early and that these are just what the tummy ordered.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, November 21, 2007 at 4:00 PM
I was searching for one last Thanksgiving trick. I flipped through my copy of the Silver Palate, hoping to find some deah simple preparation for carrots, one that would fit nicely on an already overflowing table. I’d already made glazed carrots before, but this one only called for a few key spices. I was intrigued.
It was advertised as Ginger Candied Carrots, which sounded like a perfect match for all the other sweet sides. But what ended up on my plate was less candied and more earthy. That certainly came from the caraway seeds, which made this dish kind of nutty, and overwhelmed every other ingredient. It was a really interesting dish, but alas, not much of an All-American Thanksgiving side. Oh well, I’m already going to toss some carrots in with my mashed potatoes. Other than that, it’s all about the turkey. Good luck everyone!
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Posted by Erin Zimmer, November 20, 2007 at 4:00 PM
Whip out the butane torch, kids. This Pumpkin Pie Brûlée, also from friend Brendan Cox of D.C.'s Circle Bistro, is super simple and just needs that hand-held ignition and flame tip (also good for destroying small patches of weeds and for high-tech lightage of birthday candles). Grandma Mildred may call it untraditional, but again, we say: Bring on the pyromaniac urges.
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Posted by Erin Zimmer, November 20, 2007 at 3:00 PM
We’ve done sweet potato spoon bread and Japanese sweet potatoes with scallion butter, but not a sweet potato trifle yet. The traditionally Brit dessert with a kick could be considered "fusion" since it combines Union Jack with the American harvest. As long as we don’t start giving you sweet potato spotted dick and sweet potato bangers and mash, we think the combo is safe.
This recipe was created by Washington, D.C., chef Brendan Cox of Circle Bistro, who even adds an expected s’mores twist for a little campfire fun at the end. Also, on the topic of trifle—we were pretty impressed when this commenter 'fessed up on our "10 Steps to Getting a Thanksgiving Invitation," admitting that she tragically dropped her hazelnut torte (with hand-peeled hazelnuts even), and when it broke into “about 60 chunks,” presto-chango transformed it into a trifle but “told no one.” Good strategy. We like.
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Posted by Jenn Smith, November 19, 2007 at 6:45 PM
I've always been a stuffing purist; until this weekend I'd never eaten stuffing made from a mix. But when I noticed Canterbury Organics' stuffing mixes on the shelves of Whole Foods last week, branded in muted oranges and browns like a feature in a lifestyle magazine and promising to "delight the palate," I was curious. It looked as though it might taste good.
It got me thinking: Now that natural food companies are in on the packaged-food and semi-homemade trend, is there a broad enough range of mixes on the market to have a taste test? If I was going to taste one end of the packaged-stuffing spectrum, I was going to taste the full spectrum.
After the jump, the results of the Serious Eats taste test of eight packaged stuffing mixes, along with some suggestions on jazzing up your store-bought stuffing.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, November 19, 2007 at 4:30 PM
Really good cranberry sauce isn’t such a secret. It’s basically just a simple concoction of fresh cranberries, sugar, a little salt, and water. Boil for it for a scant five minutes, let cool, and it’s ready to go. Certainly not as nostalgic as the jelly mold sold in cans but comforting in its own way. Although the method described above is tasty enough, by changing a few ingredients and popping the cork on a bottle of bubbly, a whole other dimension can be added.
It, unfortunately, does make the dish just a little un-American. I’m fairly sure the Puritans didn’t have Champagne, not to mention the Native Americans. So it seems a little tragic to add. But it’s such a perfect complement to the cranberries. If your conscience gets the better of you, then just do what we did and toss about a tablespoon of the cranberry sauce into a wine glass and top with Champagne. It’s not exactly a Thanksgiving tradition, but here's to trying to make it one.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, November 19, 2007 at 12:45 PM
The following recipe was provided by Serious Eater Karen Resta, as part of her essay A Modern Woman's Thanksgiving.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, November 19, 2007 at 12:45 PM
The following recipe was provided by Serious Eater Karen Resta, as part of her essay A Modern Woman's Thanksgiving.
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Posted by Paul Clarke, November 16, 2007 at 6:00 PM
Let's get this weekend started right. Here's a cocktail recipe from Paul Clarke (The Cocktail Chronicles) to kick things off. Need more than one? That kinda week, eh? Here you go. Cheers!
You’ve invited the guests, selected the bird, and you’re about to raid the farmer’s markets and a battery of different stores in preparation for the big event. And what’s the first thing you're going to hand your guests when they arrive?
If your first thought is to go with what’s safe and familiar, and offer the same selection of drinks to your guests that you do every time you see them, you’re certainly not alone. At a time when the American palate is expanding and the Thanksgiving table is increasingly a mix of the traditional and the innovative, our approach to drinks is still fairly conservative. Sure, you may brighten things up by splashing cranberry or pomegranate juice into a glass of Champagne, but there’s an argument to be made for kicking off the festivities with a glass of something none of your guests have ever had before, a drink crafted especially with the flavors of the holiday in mind.
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Posted by Dorie Greenspan, November 15, 2007 at 12:30 PM
On Thursdays, Dorie Greenspan drops by with a delicious baking recipe for you to try. Preheat those ovens, people! —Ed.
As every baker knows, Thanksgiving is really about the pie. The turkeys may get the covers of the all the glossy mags, but it's the pie—specifically pumpkin pie—that counts. Skip it and no one will ever come to your home for Thanksgiving dinner ever again.
Here's the recipe for my favorite pie for the holiday. It's got a creamy pumpkin filling that's smoothed with sour cream, spiced like eggnog and spiked with dark rum. The filling can be used to make either a pie or a tart. I usually make a pie for Thanksgiving and a tart when I want something a little lighter and a little more elegant. (If you make this as a tart, you'll have filling left over, which you can use to make mini-tartlets; bake the minis at 400 degrees F for 10 to 15 minutes.)
The filling is super-quick to make—it gets put together in a food processor—and, if you're looking to save time, you can make it the night before and keep it in a covered jar in the fridge. Just give it a little shake before you pour it into the crust. And you can get a jump on the crust—pre-bake it the night before and keep it at room temperature; it will hold without a problem overnight.
Wishing you and yours a delicious holiday!
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Posted by Jenn Smith, November 15, 2007 at 12:29 PM
Maybe the solution to the challenge of simplifying Thanksgiving isn't to look for semi-homemade options, but to tweak the menu so that it requires less work to be fully homemade. What if, for example, you replaced mashed potatoes with perfectly baked, crusty-on-the-outside, fluffy-on-the-inside baked potatoes, served with lashings of butter and gravy?
Baking potatoes takes only a couple of steps and one of them is turning on the oven. And no messy pots and pans! If you did decide to make your potato dish easy and eliminate the mashing, you'd be smart to rely on Alton Brown's winning formula from I'm Just Here for the Food: Version 2.0. You'll end up with a potato worthy of your gravy and time to enjoy both.
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Posted by The Pioneer Woman, November 15, 2007 at 8:00 AM
And the Pioneer Woman's back with one of her patented visual recipes—this time for sweet potatoes so rich and decadent that they're almost dessert. —The Serious Eats Team
OK, so they’re my mom’s sweet potatoes. And OK, they weren’t even hers to begin with; she picked up the recipe in New Orleans more than 30 years ago when she was pregnant with me or my brother or someone in my family, I’m not sure who. I don’t remember those days very clearly.
Known originally as "Soul Sweet Taters," this dish is so deliciously divine, my sibs and I would gobble up the entire pan every Thanksgiving and meet our annual beta carotene requirements in one sitting. And really, folks, when you look at the list of ingredients in this dish, you’re going to laugh at me. No, really. You’re going to laugh and ridicule and mock and criticize and laugh again. Because while I’m passing this off as a Thanksgiving side dish, it’s every bit as decadent as a dessert. Still, I think it needs to stay on the plate with the turkey, dressing, and mashed potatoes, as you wouldn’t want to do anything to upstage Aunt Bessie’s pecan pie. That would be really rude.
Let’s get started, shall we?
Here’s what you’ll need: Sweet Potatoes, Milk, Sugar, Vanilla, Eggs, Salt, Butter, Pecans, Flour, and Brown Sugar. How bad can THIS be?
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Posted by Jenn Smith, November 14, 2007 at 1:00 PM
In addition to his new, encyclopedic Cooking, James Peterson has collected tips, culinary advice (how to season a pan, sharpen a knife, freeze clear ice cubes), and basic recipes in What's a Cook to Do. He gives step-by-step carving advice and includes a no-frills roasting recipe that exists at the opposite end of the spectrum from James Beard's chatty recipe for his own favorite bird. Great for a beginner or an old hand that simply doesn't want to fuss too much with the turkey, this is a building block of the Thanksgiving world.
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Posted by The Serious Eats Team, November 14, 2007 at 8:00 AM
When we talked to Bon Appétit editor in chief Barbara Fairchild about the November 2007 issue of the magazine, we asked her what her favorite Thanksgiving recipes from the issue were. This potato gratin, published here courtesy of Fairchild and Bon Appétit, was one of them. Here's what she said about it: "It's way too rich for Thanksgiving, especially since I serve two kinds of stuffing and two kinds of potatoes already. But, man, is it good."
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Posted by The Serious Eats Team, November 14, 2007 at 8:00 AM
When we talked to Bon Appétit editor in chief Barbara Fairchild about the November 2007 issue of the magazine, we asked her what her favorite Thanksgiving recipes from the issue were. These muffins, published here courtesy of Fairchild and Bon Appétit, were among them.
This recipe is fun, Fairchild says, "because everyone gets their own little cornbread muffins. I bet it would even work with a cornbread mix, though we never tested the recipe using a mix."
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Posted by The Serious Eats Team, November 14, 2007 at 8:00 AM
When we talked to Bon Appétit editor in chief Barbara Fairchild about the November 2007 issue of the magazine, we asked her what her favorite Thanksgiving recipes from the issue were. This chutney, published here courtesy of Fairchild and Bon Appétit, was one of them. Here's what she said about it: "It's easy, different, and I like the texture. Plus, it's foolproof, so I'm giving it to a friend who never cooks the other 364 days of the year."
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Posted by The Serious Eats Team, November 14, 2007 at 8:00 AM
When we talked to Bon Appétit editor in chief Barbara Fairchild about the November 2007 issue of the magazine, we asked her what her favorite Thanksgiving recipes from the issue were. This brussels sprout hash, published here courtesy of Fairchild and Bon Appétit, was one of them. Here's what she said about it: "I want something green at my Thanksgiving table, and it's always brussels sprouts. I know my nephews are going to pick the almonds out of the dish."
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Posted by Jenn Smith, November 13, 2007 at 4:20 PM
Ed introduced the concept of an assisted Thanksgiving with yesterday's confession of a semi-homemade holiday, and I say, why stop with the big classics of stuffing, sweet potatoes and pie? Nancy Silverton's A Twist of the Wrist collects ideas that rely on high-quality ingredients that come in "jars, cans, bags and boxes", resulting in tasty dishes in 30 minutes or fewer. Start your elaborate Thanksgiving dinner with a simple bowl of soup, made elegant and smoky with a garnish of bacon.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, November 13, 2007 at 1:15 PM
Ruth Reichl's favorite part of Thanksgiving is baking the pies—why else would she wake up at 4 AM to do so? One of the pies she'll be baking this year is this cranberry almond crostata, an Italian tart made of an almond-scented crust filled with fresh, cranberries that have been cooked down. Read our interview with Gourmet magazine's editor-in-chief Ruth Reichl about the magazine's approach to Thanksgiving this year for more of her recipe recommendations.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, November 13, 2007 at 12:40 PM
"The Japanese sweet potatoes are the simplest, most delicious sweet potatoes I've ever eaten." —Ruth Reichl
Read our interview with Gourmet magazine's editor-in-chief Ruth Reichl about the magazine's approach to Thanksgiving this year for more of her recipe recommendations.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, November 13, 2007 at 12:30 PM
This stuffing, loaded with mushrooms, smoked oysters, and sweet, fatty Chinese sausage, sounds like a meal in itself. In our interview with Gourmet magazine's editor-in-chief Ruth Reichl about the magazine's approach to Thanksgiving this year, she recommends this recipe, describing it as "really, really good" and "off the charts." Wrap it in lotus leaf for a more dramatic presentation at the table.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, November 13, 2007 at 12:30 PM
"The stir-fried baby bok choy is so fresh and light it complements so many other richer Thanksgiving dishes." —Ruth Reichl
Read our interview with Gourmet magazine's editor-in-chief Ruth Reichl about the magazine's approach to Thanksgiving this year for more of her recipe recommendations.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, November 13, 2007 at 12:20 PM
This ricotta tart with dried-fruit compote (made of figs, apricots and sour cherries) is just one of the many desserts that Ruth Reichl will be baking after waking up at 4 AM on Thanksgiving morning. Read our interview with Gourmet magazine's editor-in-chief Ruth Reichl about the magazine's approach to Thanksgiving this year for more of her recipe recommendations.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, November 13, 2007 at 12:00 PM
"The grappa cranberry mold from the Italian menu is amazing. There isn't one person from the magazine not making that this year." —Ruth Reichl
Read our interview with Gourmet magazine's editor-in-chief Ruth Reichl about the magazine's approach to Thanksgiving this year for more of her recipe recommendations.
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Posted by Jenn Smith, November 12, 2007 at 3:32 PM
Can a Thanksgiving dessert be made entirely from scratch, but also be easy? I find making pie crusts to be a real challenge, and while there are some good store-bought options, another solution is to avoid pies altogether. This year I'm planning to make something that requires broad gestures rather than precise measurement and timing.
I've been working on a pumpkin pandowdy and once I perfect it I'll share the recipe, but until then, consider this recipe for Apple Cranberry Crisp with Pecan Topping from Fine Cooking's guide to Thanksgiving, How to Cook a Turkey. The topping can be made 3 days and the apple filling up to six hours in advance of baking and it is easy to assemble at the last minute.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, November 12, 2007 at 11:43 AM
Although Ed Levine is a self-proclaimed semi-homemadeoholic when it comes to preparing Thanksgiving dinner, he does have a few tried-and-true recipes that he can count on to make the meal less "semi-homemade" and just plain "homemade." He admittedly uses Pepperidge Farm cubed cornbread stuffing instead of the homemade bread that the recipe recommends, but says, "This stuffing turns out so good I can't imagine actually making the Silver Palate stuffing recipe comes out any better."
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Posted by Robyn Lee, November 12, 2007 at 11:22 AM
Although Ed Levine is a self-proclaimed semi-homemadeoholic when it comes to preparing Thanksgiving dinner, he does have a few tried-and-true recipes that he can count on to make the meal less "semi-homemade" and just plain "homemade." Ed's wife makes pureed broccoli with creme fraiche "enlivened by Parmigiano-Reggiano" as one of the few green things on their Thanksgiving table.
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Posted by Jenn Smith, November 9, 2007 at 3:45 PM
For a healthy twist on sweet potato casserole, we recommend the shallot-flecked, double-baked sweet potatoes from Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Cooking. Calling for a little less butter than traditional casseroles, this recipe uses goat cheese rather than marshmallows to punctuate the spoon bread, which provides a tangy counterpoint to the sweetness of the potatoes.
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Posted by The Serious Eats Team, November 9, 2007 at 8:00 AM
The following recipe is from Cook's Illustrated's November 2007 issue. The magazine's publisher, Chris Kimball, didn't mention it when he talked to us about the magazine's Thanksgiving coverage, but we love these biscuits so much we asked Kimball for permission to run it here on Serious Eats. You'll find it after the jump.
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Posted by The Serious Eats Team, November 9, 2007 at 8:00 AM
When we talked to Cook's Illustrated publisher Chris Kimball about the November 2007 issue of the magazine, we asked what recipes really stood out in it this year. This pie crust is one of them, he said. "It's a brilliant recipe," Kimball said. "The secret ingredient in it? Vodka."
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Posted by The Serious Eats Team, November 9, 2007 at 8:00 AM
When we talked to Cook's Illustrated publisher Chris Kimball about the November 2007 issue of the magazine, we asked for his turkey recipe. You may not be able to get a fresh turkey from your neighbor across the street, like Kimball did, but you'll be able to cook a turkey just as moist and flavorful.
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Posted by Jenn Smith, November 8, 2007 at 2:45 PM
Here's another option if you're throwing a meat-free Thanksgiving. These smoky greens from Matt Lee and Ted Lee's The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook are "sneaky" because, while they taste rich enough to make you believe they have been simmered for hours with bacon or ham, they actually take little more than an hour to make and are completely vegan.
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Posted by Dorie Greenspan, November 8, 2007 at 12:30 PM
Although I can’t quite believe it, it’s almost Thanksgiving, America’s favorite and most food-centric holiday.
I’m like everyone else, I love Thanksgiving—but it’s not a holiday without its hassles. For me, the biggest problem, and the one I can never beat, has to do with real estate, specifically: how to get everything into my one average-size oven when the turkey is hogging most of the space for most of the day.
Since every square inch of space I can liberate is precious (and also, as I see it, a triumph of ingenuity), I try to get as much of the baking as possible done as far ahead as possible—something that’s easy to do since so many sweets freeze so nicely.
I get biscuits, muffins, and scones in the freezer early, ditto coffee cakes for Friday’s brunch, and I always have this All-in-One Holiday Cake ready to go.
This bundt cake includes all the ingredients we think of at holiday time—pumpkin, cranberries, apples and nuts—and cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger, the fall spices, too. The only thing more you might want is maple syrup and you can get it – you can mix a little into some whipped cream and use it as a topping, or you can make a maple sugar icing to drizzle over the cake (see Playing Around).
If you bake the cake ahead—and I think you should—make sure to:
- Cool the cake completely
- Wrap it airtight (I either double wrap it in plastic film then give it a last wrap in aluminum foil, or double bag it, making sure to get all the air of the plastic bags before sealing them;
- Freeze it and then, the day before you want to serve it.
- Defrost it, still in its wrapper
Next week, another Thanksgiving treat.
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Posted by Jenn Smith, November 7, 2007 at 5:30 PM
Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian
was a recent Cook the Book entry and is destined to become a big gift book this holiday season. We're sharing one more recipe, for a fragrant burger filled with rich and colorful dried fruits and beets that you could serve on a platter with winter greens as the centerpiece of your Thanksgiving meal, should you be looking for a non-meat turkey alternative.
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Posted by Jenn Smith, November 6, 2007 at 4:00 PM
Thanksgiving is about welcoming everyone to the table, and sometimes that means accommodating specific dietary restrictions. An increasingly common dietary need is that food be prepared without wheat, as the gluten present is intolerable by people with allergies and celiac disease.
Jacqueline Mallorca's The Wheat Free Cook collects recipes that substitute for—or are built on an absence of—this problematic ingredient, and includes a chapter on gluten-free groceries.
While her recipe for stuffing on one level simply substitutes rice-flour bread (available at many grocery stores including Trader Joe's and Whole Foods) for the traditional white or cornbread, it is nice to be able to follow tried-and-true proportions developed especially to factor the change in bread texture, so that your final product ends up crumbly but moist.
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Posted by Jenn Smith, November 5, 2007 at 1:30 PM
When it comes to looking good, 1980s supermodel Carol Alt probably has a genetic advantage on most of us, but she attributes her age-defying beauty to the raw-food diet she's been keeping for years.
Raw foodism is a diet based on food that is unprocessed and not cooked above a temperature of 116°F. Supporters of this diet say that this keeps food enzymes, which aid in the digestion and absorption of food, intact. Other benefits may include general detoxification, clearer skin, and more energy.
It can be a tough lifestyle to adhere to if eating delicious foods aside from salads is a priority, but there are a few cookbooks out there to help expand your raw-food horizons. Alt wrote The Raw 50 to answer the need for recipes that turn raw ingredients into real food. Having tried a few recipes for the novelty of it, I can attest that she crafts dishes that are full of flavor and have a variety of pleasing textures, from creamy to crunchy.
Alt's recipe for pecan pie results in a sweet treat that can serve as an introduction to the raw experience and as a healthy, guilt-free end to an otherwise gluttonous Thanksgiving dinner. I was surprised by how tasty, rich, and dense it actually was. Shock your in-laws or impress your vegan friends this Thanksgiving by bringing a raw dessert.
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Posted by Jenn Smith, November 2, 2007 at 10:00 AM
JerzeeTomato showed Thanksgiving spirit when she invited novice cooks to use Serious Eats as a resource (and when she observed that "Turkey Day is my Olympics!").
We want our Thanksgiving roundup to provide recipes for all skill levels, tastes and dietary needs. And so we bring you a basic: a calculated, written recipe for something many of us learn by doing and observing, without ever reading words on a page.
We bring you Perfect Mashed Potatoes, from Seriously Simple Holidays by Diane Rossen Worthington.
These may not be your perfect mashed potatoes, but they are perfectly tasty. You may be a purist who makes mashed potatoes without garlic, or who refines their mash by peeling the potatoes, or who believes in the importance of using a starchy potato for a fluffy end product. We welcome all mashed potato feedback and variations!
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Posted by Jenn Smith, November 1, 2007 at 6:00 PM
Ambitious home chefs of the world: if you are considering culinary school but aren't committed to the hours and low wages associated with working in a restaurant kitchen after school, save yourself a great deal of money and invest instead in chef, teacher and author James Peterson's latest cookbook, Cooking.
Cooking is a friendly master work ("600 recipes, 1,500 photographs, and one education") on general culinary technique. Peterson's Sauces is the definitive book on that subject; this new book encompasses a much broader range of techniques, tricks, and tips while maintaining the same spirit of encouragement and calm authority.
Because much of what he presents are foundational recipes, Cooking is a great source for simple side dishes. Narrowing down which recipe to include in our Thanksgiving roundup was my only challenge.
Perhaps because the farm-to-table movement has improved the overall quality of brussels sprouts available, their image as a least-loved vegetable has reversed in the past few years, although the question of whether they are scary or tasty was raised in Talk this week.
Although I think they are delicious with only olive oil as dressing, brussels sprouts, as a member of the cabbage family, pair beautifully with smoky meats such as bacon. They are a staple of the holiday table, and Peterson's tasty take is a quick preparation that provides a nice firm bite next to all the mashed potatoes and soft stuffing.
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Posted by Jenn Smith, October 31, 2007 at 2:45 PM
The "my" of this recipe's title is James Beard, who observed that "American food is anything you eat at home". As no meal is more associated with home cooking than Thanksgiving, and no food writer was a greater champion of our country's regional cooking, it seems fitting to select a recipe for the Great American Bird from James Beard's American Cookery. The recipe has simple flavors to let the taste of the turkey take center stage, and gives step-by-step for trussing. It's also a nostalgic choice: my grandmother made giblet gravy according to Beard's instructions.
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Posted by Jenn Smith, October 30, 2007 at 3:00 PM
To paraphrase Erma Bombeck, no one diets on Thanksgiving, and Serious Eaters are usually first in line for seconds at this celebration of good fortune, family, and food.
Between now and the big day itself we'll be posting recipes for your Thanksgiving feast. We've spent weeks poring over cookbooks to bring you Serious Eats–tested, Serious Eater–approved ideas, so whether you're looking for down-home American classics, healthy options, or easy approaches to an epic meal, be sure to invite us to your holiday table!
Posted by Jenn Smith, October 29, 2007 at 5:00 PM
Barbara Kafka's Vegetable Love is a love letter to the endless possibilities of hundreds of vegetables, both common and obscure. Being that it is about the sensual pleasures of vegetables rather than simple or ascetic vegetarian eating, I thought it would be fitting to try her recipe for a rich squash pudding that can be made into a classic holiday pie. And while I've happily eaten canned pumpkin pie my entire life, the complexity of flavors achieved by cooking pumpkin pudding from scratch far outweighs the simplicity of opening a can.
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