Eat What We Say!

We decided to have our own thanksgiving this year, rather than profit from the labor of friends and family. Our meal was done entirely from the pages of Cooks Illustrated, the sort of gadget guide for the relentless kitchen optimizer. We live off of CI and Bittman’s How to Cook Everything for 90% of our cooking.

We didn’t brine our own turkey this year (Fairway sold Murray’s pre-brined turkey but ours came sans neck, which affected gravy plans), but we let it air dry for maximum crispy skin action. B Jr. loves the crispy skin. Despite me screwing up and starting it breast side up (which resulted in a little torn skin), it turned out delicious. The skin definitely had a separate, Peking Duck quality to it.

We hacked it up according to the butcher’s method, though we didn’t do any carving off the legs and wing. I grew up with my dad using his electric carving knife.

We used CI’s Giblet Gravy, Smashed Potatoes (using mostly truffle butter instead of regular butter - a substitution which received a big thumbs up), stuffing (8. Sticks. Of. Butter. And homemade chicken stock, but no celery, Ms. B hates celery.) Green beans with lemon and breadcrumbs. Apple pie from City Bakery (breaking my streak of Little Pie Company sour cream walnut apple pies, to excellent result), and of course, Ocean Spray Cranberry Sauce jelly, which is too good to resist and nostalgically lowbrow.

It turned out very well, though we started the stuffing too early and as a result, the crispy topping got soggy. I also think I could have cooked the potatoes a bit longer. The gravy turned out too watery, which required further reduction in the roasting pan and a little more flour. End result? Awesome! But Ms. B wasn’t so into the giblets after seeing them uncooked, so we had two gravies - one with minced giblets, one without.