Thanksgiving Planning
One of the nice things about being 26 is that, foodwise, I’m not associated with a single dish or set of dishes. This means that it’s not yet part of “being me” (or, less charitably, “performing myself”) to bring, say, homemade pickled tomatillos (”I brined them myself. The key is salt.”) whenever presented with bringing something to a potluck or hosting something.
I’ve yet to call anything I make “my patented ____” and that’s all well and good, until something like Thanksgiving rolls around and I’m one of the people responsible for setting the menu and preparing the food. Because one of the joys of Thanksgiving is knowing that it’s traditional. For me, it’s eating my mother’s mussel and tortalini salad and my aunt Angela’s garlic mashed potatoes while watching the North Quincy Red Raiders take on the Quincy Presidents.
So between now and T-Day, I’ve got recipes to test from myriad magazines, but this may be the wrong way to go, as Thanksgiving is a classic meal, and “Classic Periodical” sounds a bit like an oxymoron.
But, here are some of the recipes up for consideration, from the current issues of said periodicals:
Brined Turkey from Cook’s Illustrated
Alton Brown’s Gravy from Bon Appetit (This recipe awesomely calls for schmaltz… due to the celiac nature of 50% of the guests, the flour may be replaced by potato starch)
Cornbread Casserole with Butternut Squash, Mushrooms and Ancho Mole from Bon Appetit
Polenta and Sausage Stuffing from Gourmet
Persimmon Cranberry Sauce from Gourmet
Darcy and Blair are (tentatively) bringing Brussel Sprouts with Bacon and a Gluten Free Pumpkin Pie both of which are going to be awesome, so I think that pretty much makes a whole menu… I’ll track how the various recipes work out here. Also, I suppose we’re missing some kind of “Roasted Root Vegetable Soup Puree” but all in all I’m not entirely sure how I feel about that course. Any suggestions are much appreciated.
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In my family, Cook’s Ilustrated is a big bone of contention. My dad likes to think that it’s a soul-sucking destroyer of improvisation and magic in the kitchen. I (and, I think Kate) believe that you can’t improvise without mastering the @#$@# basic techniques first, for which Cook’s Illustrated is freaking awesome. Kind of like playing scales, and you get really yummy, scientifically-optimized food at the end of it. Later one can do the cajun (”onh tea-SPOON of pep-PUH!”) thing, I reckon. Anyhow, I’m all for C.I., officious bow tie and all.
I think we’ve made the C.I. Brined Turkey, and found it excellent.
So I just got my patented turkey. Its an heirloom turkey meaning that it is a historical breed, and one that was on the watch for extinction. After much consideration on the turkey I consulted the formost authority on the everything that is good “Bierkraft” owner chef richard. They insisted that this would be the best turkey that has ever been consumed by man. The reason being that it was never caged and lead a happy free roaming life on 20 acres running around digging in the dirt and doing whatever turkeys do. The average life span of a regular store bought turkey (even organic ones) is 6-8 weeks, wheras the heirloom lives for a full eight months. Not force fed or given drugs to get humongous. This turkey had a good life and therefor the turkey will have a good taste. However, they recomend not brining the heirloom turkey, as it has a distinctive flavor unique to heirloom turkeys. Brining, although recomended highly for a regular old turkey is not recomended for the heirloom. So I must question the brining, but leave it up to our turkey master Mr. Danathan himself. However if you would like to check out the heirloom turkeys look on the website.
http://www.heritagefoodsusa.com/heritage_recipes/turkey.html