Goal: A stress-free holiday.
Solution 1: Make reservations at your favorite restaurant.
Solution 2: Familiarize yourself with the following five essential techniques ahead of time. They will go a long way toward making this holiday feast a success without putting the cook in a tizzy.
1. TIMING THE FEAST
Battle plans are not reserved for generals and football coaches. The Thanksgiving feast is one of the most important meals you will serve all year; it helps to have it choreographed.
As executive chef, your primary goal, other than making sure the food tastes special, is to keep the meal moving at a measured pace. One advantage over routine family meals is that Thanksgiving dinner is the central event of the day. No one expects you to cook and serve at a break-neck pace. Also, the sheer volume of food makes it unlikely the participants will try to gobble and go.
Now that you’ve taken off your track shoes, consider the following to help keep your head clear and your pulse rate moderate:
– Plan a menu that includes as many prepared-ahead items as possible without sacrificing quality. If relatives or friends are bringing items, insist they do the same and leave the flaming cheese recipe or mousse with a trio of sauces at home.
– Appetizers and nibbles should be light and easy: raw vegetables with low-fat dips, cheese straws or crackers and other items that can be arranged in advance and do not demand last-minute cooking. If there is a first course, make it a presliced and plated pate or salad, or a soup that requires only reheating and perhaps a single garnish.
– In planning the main course, allocate your heat sources. The turkey gets the oven (though there will be about 30 minutes available to heat bread or rolls while the bird rests before carving). There’s going to be gravy to warm on one burner and mashed potatoes on another. There will be other vegetables as well and there may be extra dressing to cook.
– While timing depends to some extent on how you cook your turkey (low and slow or high and fast), there always will be a crunch at the end. Therefore, I use as many root vegetables as possible because they can be cooked ahead and merely rewarmed on top of the stove or in the oven or microwave.
– Everyone is willing to take a break before dessert, but stick to premade pies or cakes and limit last-minute preparation to whipping cream or scooping ice cream. Don’t forget to start the coffee before dealing with dessert.
– Delegate. Appoint a child or adult to perform appetizer refills and an adult to tend to beverages (and remind both to work away from the cooking area). Someone else can be delegated to take charge of serving and clearing. You should decide whether to cook or carve, but don’t try to do both. Then you or your designated cook can finish the gravy and mashed potatoes while the turkey is being carved.
– Make sure space is available when you need it at the two most valuable and vulnerable resources in your kitchen, the stove and the sink/dishwasher. Lacking a full-time helper, this may mean selecting an out-of-the-way space for used plates, glasses and silverware.
– Enjoy yourself.
– William Rice
2. HOW TO ROAST THE PERFECT TURKEY
We all have the same question when we shop for a turkey: How large a bird do we need and how should we cook it?
I always allow at least one pound per person of uncooked turkey. This ensures that no one goes hungry and that you’ll have a few leftovers. It’s best to pick up fresh turkeys the day before roasting to ensure freshness. Frozen turkeys should be thawed in the refrigerator or in cold water.
Remember to remove the neck and giblets from the cavities. You can simmer them in water or chicken broth and add them to your gravy for extra flavor. Rinse the inside cavity and outside of turkey with cold water. Never use hot water because you want to keep your turkey as cool as possible before putting it into the oven. (The primary bacteria found in poultry are salmonella and staphylococcus, which grow at temperatures between 50 to 120 degrees.) Drain turkey and pat dry. Be sure to wash any surfaces and utensils that come in contact with raw turkey or its juice.
Season the inner cavity and outside of turkey with salt and pepper. Place turkey breast-side up on an oiled rack in a shallow roasting pan. Oiling the rack will make it easier to lift the turkey from the pan to the carving board. Tuck the wing tips back behind the turkey to keep them from burning. Next, you’ll want to tuck the drumsticks under the bands of skin across the tail or truss with kitchen twine or skewers. Brush the skin with melted butter or oil.
I always use a lower temperature of 325 degrees when roasting turkey. Roasting at this lower and constant temperature means the meat is more tender, juicy, flavorful and uniformly cooked throughout. It also produces less shrinkage than higher temperatures. A higher temperature will draw out precious moisture, leaving a dry and tasteless turkey.
Some people like to start at a higher temperature and then decrease the heat after a time. There really is little benefit to this and it becomes one more step to remember.
To achieve the perfect coloring, begin roasting your turkey uncovered. If it reaches the desired brownness before it is completely cooked, don’t panic; simply tent the bird loosely with foil and continue cooking.
Baste occasionally with melted butter and any pan drippings that have accumulated. Basting helps keep the breast from overcooking, adds flavor and helps brown the skin. I prefer basting with butter because of the flavor, but others use vegetable oil, olive oil or even flavored oils for a twist. If you don’t want to add additional fat to your turkey, baste with chicken stock or broth.
Remove the turkey from the oven when the internal temperature reaches 170 degrees. Insert meat thermometer into the thickest portion of the thigh but do not touch the bone. If the thermometer touches the bone it will give an improper reading.
Remove the turkey from the oven and let stand 20 minutes before carving. This allows juices to redistribute and lets the turkey “coast” to the desired internal temperature of 180 degrees, which is recommended by the USDA.
Accompanying this story is a simple basting solution to give the holiday bird a different flavor.
– Alicia E. Tessling
ROSEMARY BASTING BUTTER
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes
Yield: about 2/3 cup
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
Salt, freshly ground black pepper to taste
1. Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in small skillet over medium heat. Add shallot, garlic and rosemary. Cook until shallot is soft, about 5 minutes. Add remaining butter; cook until melted. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Keep warm.
2. Baste turkey with flavored butter before putting into oven. Baste turkey about every 30 minutes using pastry brush, until turkey is done.
Nutrition information per tablespoon:
Calories …….. 80 Fat ………….. 9 g Cholesterol .. 25 mg
Sodium ……. 90 mg Carbohydrates .. 0.5 g Protein …….. 0 g
3. SMASHING SUCCESS
Mashed potatoes are simple. Right. Like Armani is just a designer and the space shuttle is only a long plane ride. But some people make them appear so, and without any ado, can cook spuds just right, then vigorously assault them with a potato masher, softening each blow with milk and butter.
Don’t be deceived. If fluffy mashed potatoes are simple, it’s only in their charms. I’ve mashed my share. Some have been very good, others less so. This is what I know:
For mashing, Yukon Gold potatoes unseat Idahos and russets as top spud. They’re dry enough to fluff while a bit of starch contributes creamy smoothness.
Yukons also have a buttery taste built in, though this should not usurp the role of butter–real butter and lots of it. Margarine? Banish that thought. Also forget, at least for Thanksgiving, notions of adding roasted garlic, truffle oil, fresh herbs and so on. Yes, they taste great, but not with turkey and cranberries.
Peeled or not is an option 364 days a year. On Thanksgiving, tradition says pure white and peeled.
A few wee lumps are OK if that’s your preference, but they should be soft enough to yield without argument. Al dente is for pasta, not for mashed potatoes.
How to mash? A potato ricer is my first choice but they’re nearly obsolete. A hand mixer is unnecessarily noisy on a day when there’s plenty of chaos already. Better to try a masher: quick, efficient, to the point.
Leave them plain. Mound them up and make them look grand, sort of like Mt. Fuji in a bowl. Dab some more butter on top. Dig in.
– Pat Dailey.
MASHED POTATOES
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 25 minutes
Yield: 10 servings
4 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled, halved or quartered
Salt
1 cup whole milk, about
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, cut in 6 pieces
Freshly ground white pepper to taste
1. Cook potatoes in large pot of salted water until very tender when pierced with a fork, about 20 minutes. Drain well in colander, shaking to remove as much water as possible.
2. Spoon potatoes into a potato ricer; press back into pan. Or, mash with potato masher in pan. Add 3/4 cup milk and mix with potato masher or large spoon until smooth, adding more milk as necessary to reach a fluffy, light consistency. Add butter, salt to taste and pepper; mix lightly. Serve at once.
Nutrition information per serving:
Calories …….. 215 Fat …………. 8 g Cholesterol … 25 mg
Sodium …….. 20 mg Carbohydrates .. 33 g Protein ……… 4 g
4.STUFFING ON THE SIDE
Away with traditional Thanksgiving turkeys stuffed like throw pillows and roasted for hours in pans of blue-speckled porcelain-enamel! Not only is it much safer to roast the turkey unstuffed, you also can have more than one type of stuffing–or do you call it dressing?
Stuffed birds are virtual nurseries for salmonella and other harmful bacteria, especially if the stuffing goes in early or is allowed to sit at room temperature for any length of time.
Then, if you cook the turkey long enough to get the inner stuffing hot enough to kill any bacteria, you risk overcooking and drying out the breast meat.
Don’t fret about missing the turkey taste in stuffing cooked outside the cavity. Make a rich stock from the neck, gizzard and other giblets and use it to flavor the dressing as well as to enhance your gravy and baste the roasting bird.
The stuffing ingredients can be assembled a day ahead and refrigerated, then finished on Thanksgiving Day.
Moisten your dressing (or dressings) well with strained stock, then roast in a tightly covered casserole or foil-covered pan one to two hours along with the turkey or as the turkey rests. Almost any dressing can be cooked this way. If you want the stuffing drier or crusty, uncover it for the last few minutes depending on how moist it is.
You can even cook the dressing a day ahead when oven space is at less of a premium. Just refrigerate it, then warm it thoroughly before serving.
Another tip: Spray the casserole or pan with non-stick spray first or line it with foil to ensure easy removal.
In addition to your regular stuffing, try this one:
– Steven Pratt.
WILD RICE AND MUSHROOM STUFFING
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 50-65 minutes
Yield: 8 servings
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 to 3 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
2 medium onions, coarsely chopped
4 to 5 fennel or celery stalks or 6 or more water chestnuts, or a combination, chopped (about 1 cup)
1 large carrot, chopped
1 cup wild rice, rinsed, drained
1 cup basmati or any rice 5 cups turkey or chicken broth
1 to 2 cups (about 1/2 pound) mixed wild mushrooms or any mushrooms, coarsely chopped
3/4 cup freshly chopped pecans or walnuts
2 teaspoons each fresh herbs (or 1/2 teaspoon dried): sage, rose- mary, parsley, thyme, tarragon or basil or to taste.
2 tablespoons bourbon or sherry
1. Heat oil in large, heavy saucepan until very hot. Add garlic and half the onions; cook just until lightly browned. Add remaining onions, fennel or celery and carrot; cook about 2 minutes, stirring to keep from sticking. Add rices; stir vigorously to keep from sticking until mixture gets very dry, about 2 more minutes.
2. Add broth and mushrooms. Cover and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook until rices are almost tender, about 20 minutes.
3. Remove from heat; stir in nuts, fresh herbs and bourbon. Spoon dressing into casserole or oven-safe dish sprayed with non-stick cooking oil. (Stuffing can be made a day ahead and refrigerated at this point.)
4. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Bake, covered, 45 minutes if hot or 1 hour if cold. Uncover casserole; bake until a slight crust forms, if desired.
Nutrition information per serving:
Calories ………. 335 Fat ………… 13 g Cholestero … l0 mg
Sodium ……… 500 mg Carbohydrates .. 46 g Protein ……. 10 g
5. LADLE OF LOVE
Gravy can strike terror in a cook. Witness the number of cans of commercial gravy sold during the holidays because cooks simply give up on making their own.
It’s the lumps that cause havoc.
The quick way of making gravy is to mix flour and water together until smooth and then stir it into the hot pan juices. This method often leads to lumps as portions of the flour clump together and refuse to disperse throughout the hot liquid. Flour can be touchy.
A safer method is one the French have used for centuries. They mix the flour directly into hot fat, stirring to form a paste, or roux. Then the pan drippings and a rich stock are slowly whisked into the fat mixture, creating a silken gravy.
(Of course if you want to make gravy the fast way, here’s a tip. If you find you have lumps, pour the gravy through your trusty strainer. No one will know.)
Try this recipe, sparking it up with fresh herbs and plenty of freshly ground black pepper.
– Carol Mighton Haddix.
HERBED TURKEY GRAVY
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Yield: 4 cups
Pan drippings from roasted turkey
1/2 cup turkey fat (from drippings) or butter
4 cups low-fat chicken broth or turkey broth made from giblets
1/4 cup chopped mixed fresh herbs, such as a mixture of rosemary and sage or thyme and parsley, or tarragon and chives.
1 teaspoon each: salt, freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup flour
1. Heat turkey drippings to a boil in roasting pan on top of stove. Stir and scrape up any roasted bits on bottom of pan. Pour drippings from roasting pan into fat separator or bowl; separate or skim fat off top, reserving fat. Measure the fat, adding butter if needed to total 1/2 cup. Pour into large, heavy saucepan; set aside.
2. Pour turkey drippings through a strainer into another saucepan or back into roasting pan. Heat to a boil. Add broth, herbs, salt and pepper. Cook on medium heat to reduce slightly, 5 to 10 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, heat turkey fat until bubbling; whisk in flour. Cook over medium heat until thick, about 5 minutes. Slowly whisk in hot turkey broth; continue cooking until thickened, about 5 minutes. Add more broth if necessary to desired consistency. Adjust seasonings to taste. Serve hot.
Nutrition information per 1/4 cup:
Calories …….. 85 Fat …………. 7g Cholesterol … 7 mg
Sodium …… 365 mg Carbohydrates .. 3 g Protein …….. 2 g
