or, Thanksgiving Dinner- The Good, the Bad, and the Bite Marks…
It’s officially November. As you know, Canadian Thanksgiving happens in October so I ran my race weeks ahead of you. In the aftermath I sat down and recorded my Top Ten Thanksgiving Tips out of love and an earnest desire that you don’t burn your stuffing.
If you’re Martha Stewart don’t bother reading any further. If you’re not making dinner this year, just scroll down to the last tip.
How do you fit everything into your oven?
It’s simple. Cook the turkey first.
After research I decided to let my turkey rest for 45-60 minutes after cooking which was the perfect time to get the yams, stuffing, and green bean casserole baked.
If you put the stuffing on the bottom rack it will burn underneath. I saw this through my pyrex pan. I’d put the yams on the bottom rack so they can carmelize better. Put the stuffing and the grean bean casserole on the top rack.
Fresh vs. Frozen Turkey
Big companies flash freeze their turkeys so they can’t be distinguished from fresh in tastes tests (according to America’s Test Kitchen). Save the money and buy frozen. Before I knew this, I made the mistake of going to a local butcher who didn’t have any fresh turkeys, only frozen, and who also did not use a flash freezer. You could tell.
Emergency Defrosting of the Bird
Even if you allow ample time for your turkey to thaw (1 day per every 4 pounds) you may find it still too frozen if the refrigerator fairies deem it so. This Cook’s Illustrated tip worked for me: place the bird still in it’s original wrapper in a bucket of cold water. Change the water every 30 minutes. I hated this cumbersome job, but it worked after only 4 changes.
Hock Locks
Those little plastic thingies that hold the legs together ARE food safe. But I didn’t like the flavor I imagined they imparted to the turkey meat and broth. Yes, it was probably only psychological. But I won’t do it again. I’ll truss with kitchen twine. Bought ahead of time of course, because everyone knows what aisle the kitchen twine is on.
Fresh Pumpkin for Pumpkin Pie
Fresh pumpkin tastes better over canned but it can be watery and make a pale pie. I used to bake a pumpkin until it was tender. This year I forgot it in the oven and it was a happy mistake. Roast the pumpkin until the skin puffs and is brown but not burned. This decreases the water content and makes a denser pulp. Substitute dark brown sugar for brown sugar in your recipe and your pie will not be so pale.
Read Recipes Carefully the Week Before
My gravy recipe called for home-made chicken broth. My chicken broth recipe simmers for three days. If I had not read it soon enough, I wouldn’t have had that delicious savory brew for my gravy.
Prepare Dishes Ahead of Time
I assembled my stuffing and yams the day before and you couldn’t tell. They baked up as if they’d just been prepared.
I saved the green bean casserole ’til that day because it’s really easy to throw together and I was afraid the fried onions would sog up.
Save Your Sanity and Have a Prep Day
You know how those television cooks have everything ready to use in their recipe? I made a prep chart with all the onions, celery, carrots, parsley and thyme I would need for all five dishes.
I chopped them all at the same time, but use caution here. If you need to chop 5 onions total, chop only enough for one dish, scoop them into a ziploc, then chop the amount for the next dish and scoop those into their own ziploc. This keeps you from having to judge how to divide a big ol’ pile of onions.
I labeled my ziplocs: Turkey, Gravy, Stuffing, Yams. Then when I was making each dish, everything was washed, chopped, minced and ready to go for my recipe. This saved a LOT of time.
These ziplocs sat in my fridge for two days. I smelled onions whenever I opened the fridge to I shoved the bags into a sealed container and that solved the problem.
Making Room in the Fridge
My turkey called for brining. I actually had to remove a shelf in my refrigerator to fit the brining stockpot in. Clean out your fridge the week before and find creative places to put things. Lay milk containers on their side on a short shelf. Use ziplocs instead of bulky sealed containers. I put my chicken broth in two huge ziplocs (freezer ziplocs are more puncture proof) and this saved a ton of room. Ziplocs can be stuffed into the silliest corners.
Make a Timeline for Thanksgiving Day
Start with when you want to be eating, my time was 5:00. I backed up from there, Turkey out at 4:00, other dishes in the oven from 4-5:00.
I calculated my turkey would take 3 hours to cook so then I backed up 3 hours from turkey done time and knew I’d have to have it in the oven by 1:00. Lastly, I wrote preheat oven at 12:30.
If you have little details like: remove foil, sprinkle on marshmallows, sprinkle on fried onion; pencil those in at appropriate times.
Don’t Forget
I forgot my cranberry sauce. I like the canned stuff. If you have something small like that, that you’re likely to forget, set it out on the counter in sight but out of your work area.
If you Double a Recipe, Really Double It
Double your gravy recipe. You can always use extra gravy. It makes left overs taste like first-timers.
My gravy recipe called for 1 cup of wine to deglaze the roasting pan. When I doubled the recipe I was afraid to dump 2 cups of wine in the pan because it would take too long to reduce by half. I regretted it later because the gravy really needed that extra kick from the cup of wine that was missing.
Don’t be afraid to really double everything.
Guests Occupied
I actually needed someone to stand and watch a pot for me. Really, really. It was a pressure cooker that I didn’t want to overheat. It was critical and I was too busy to do it myself.
No matter how prepared you are, at the last minute you will still be racing around the kitchen because everything culminates during those last 20 minutes.
Think of small tasks that guests can do when they ask, “what can I do to help?” Instead of stopping to think of something (trust me, you won’t have the brain power for it) tell them what you’ve thought about ahead of time. This will make them happy and you happy.
A Place for Guests’ Dishes
If guests are bringing dishes plan a place to put them. Don’t scramble for a hot pad, have those placed too. Make sure there’s room in the fridge for that plate of deviled eggs.
Dogs (Or, Congratulations, You’ve Made it to the End!)
This is really tip number 15, but I didn’t think you’d make it if I told you I had more than 10.
If your dogs and company don’t mix, get rid of your dogs. They’ll only be in the way and you can’t supervise unruly dogs with your hands full of gravy spoons. We put Tonka in Mckenna’s room because we hadn’t planned a place for her. She had her own Thanksgiving dinner:
Do you know what you’re looking at? The sorrow of a fifteen-year-old girl’s heart. Her first pair of spiky shoes and her iPod.
Eaten.
If you have any tips you remember from past Thanksgiving Days, or any tips on taxidermy of dogs, let us know in the comments.
Wow. You really covered all the bases here – great tips! I would only add that you can make the green bean casserole ahead of time – just don’t put the onions on until you’re ready to bake it. Other than that, I think this is quite comprehensive.