To some people, Thanksgiving is merely quality time with family and friends that they can't get throughout the rest of the year. To others, it's that one time when it's okay to be a greedy hog and get hammered all weekend long.
A turkey baster is one of those single-use kitchen items that most people only need once or twice a year (although you can use it for a few other things). You never seem to miss having one until the holidays roll around when it's time to cook your Thanksgiving turkey. But do you really need a baster to end up with a moist, delicious bird? The short answer is no.
I've never been a huge fan of the traditional roasted turkey at Thanksgiving. Different parts of the bird finish cooking at different times, so by the time the legs are cooked through, the breast meat is totally dry. If you don't want to go the deep-frying route, how can you still end up with a moist and delicious turkey?
It's bad enough messing up in the kitchen when it's just for you or your family, but when you're cooking for a big event with a lot of guests, it can be mortifying. And on a holiday like Thanksgiving, that's all about the food, the last thing you want is to botch a key component of the meal.
With T-Day on the horizon and approaching rapidly, you are probably in one of two camps. The one that is eagerly awaiting the holiday feast with barely-contained drool. Or the one that involves breathing heavily into a paper bag while worrying about your lack of oven and stovetop real estate, while also bemoaning the lack of multiples of you to get all the prep work done.
Gravy is a relatively simple dish, yet it's remarkably easy to mess up. We've all experienced the disappointment of excitedly pouring gravy onto our mashed potatoes, only to realize it's too runny, too lumpy, or too bland. And because gravy is so simple, even if you don't mess it up, it's still challenging to make it memorable and delicious.
When I was 12, for some mysterious reason, my dad put my little brothers and me in charge of cooking the Thanksgiving turkey. Naturally, my brothers and I spent the rest of the day playing hide-in-seek in the backyard and forgot all about the humble bird defrosting in the sink.
Roasting turkey is a topic that inspires endless debate among cooks. How do you get the perfect mixture of juicy meat, crispy skin, and flavor? Everyone has a favorite technique, whether it's brining the bird or spatchcocking it. However, if you're ready to move onto Ph.D. levels of turkey cooking, you might just want to look beyond these methods and get genuinely wild.
Mashed potatoes are universally beloved, and for a good reason — they're cheap, tasty, and relatively easy to make. What's more, they're adaptable to just about every dietary regimen, whether you're vegan, gluten-free, or lactose-intolerant. And they're a staple for holidays such as Thanksgiving.
How often do you make a pie from scratch? If your answer is "only during the holidays," you're not alone. Unless you're an experienced baker, homemade pies can be pretty tough to tackle. And the most common problems are the crusts coming out of the oven soggy or scorched.
Since leftovers are such a coveted thing following a big cooking holiday, I decided to follow up my previous post on reusing Thanksgiving leftovers with 13 more ideas for doing more with your holiday scraps.
What's better than stuffing yourself during Thanksgiving dinner? Gorging on leftovers the next day, of course. Everybody loves a good turkey and cranberry sauce sandwich, but what are some other creative ways to re-purpose all the leftover turkey meat, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and everything else sitting in your refrigerator?
After the turkey is carved and the leftover meat is refrigerated, don't get rid of the remaining carcass and bones just yet. You can make some delicious turkey stock with them. Just add them to a big pot of carrots, celery, onion, and water — then simmer.
Lumpy gravy? Gluey mashed potatoes? Dry turkey meat? So many things can go wrong when you are bestowed the honor (and burden) of cooking Thanksgiving dinner. Thankfully, some culinary mishaps that you encounter in the kitchen can be reversed or craftily disguised right before your guests sit down to eat.
Thanksgiving is almost here, so now is the perfect time to figure out how you're going to cook that Turkey Day bird for dinner. Choosing a high-quality turkey is important, but if you haven't even gotten yours yet, the pickings may be slim, so do the best you can.
If you love the creamy flavor of mashed potatoes, but need a healthier option to appease your health-conscious relatives this Thanksgiving, try making mashed cauliflower, mashed celery root, or mashed carrots and parsnips using a food processor and seasonings of your choice.
From choosing the right potato to the movement at which you mash your cut and boiled spuds, making the perfect mashed potatoes requires more attention to detail than you might think.
Autumn is a time of year when everything looks, smells, and tastes good. The scents of cinnamon and spices are everywhere you go, and even the dead leaves that fall off the trees are pretty. In particular, the fruits and vegetables of the season are gorgeous.
When it comes to Thanksgiving, some people live for stuffing (or dressing, if that's what you call it). Personally, I love all stuffing, even the boxed kind. However, even the classics can start to feel a little staid and dull after a while.
Turkey is the focal point and A-list star of your Thanksgiving table, so it only makes sense to make the bird as delicious as possible, right? Eschew the tired method of roasting and basting your turkey in the oven for hours on end and try out a new method of cooking it this year: deep frying.
Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and the belts are already loosening in preparation. Besides the copious amounts of turkey, stuffing, greens, and pies, you may have enough room for some classic cake.
The debate over whether to deep-fry or roast a Thanksgiving turkey can get pretty heated. Both have their merits, but it's hard to argue with that crispy, golden brown skin and moist texture that the fryer gives. But what's better than a deep-fried turkey?
