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Take Control of Thanksgiving Dinner
Learn how to prepare a delicious Thanksgiving dinner with a maximum of enjoyment and a minimum of stress, snafus, and sleeplessness!
If you'd like your Thanksgiving preparations to go smoothly (and who wouldn't?), turn to experienced tech writer and foodie Joe Kissell for help. At least half the battle is a good plan, and Joe provides you with a customizable plan that gets you organized, helps you figure out what you need to buy, and prevents last-minute problems. Once the planning and shopping are done, follow Joe's detailed, tested recipes for Thanksgiving dinner: roast turkey with gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry relish, candied sweet potatoes, and pumpkin pie.
"Thanks for a great guide! I used it to successfully cook my first complete Thanksgiving, almost single-handed. While I can follow recipes, I am nowhere close to 'a cook'—your guide gave me the confidence to take on this meal!" —Ed Ruder
More Info
Contents & Intro
FAQ
Excerpt - Stuffing Recipe
Appendixes cover special cases from allergies to vegans, drawings guide you as you work with the turkey, and a special included "Print Me" file provides shopping lists and schedules, as well as versions of the recipes that you can tape up in the kitchen. Although these recipes scale easily for a few more people, they are meant for 8-12 people. The recipes use U.S. and metric units.
Read this ebook to learn the answers to questions such as:
What type of turkey should I buy?
Is there a fast way to make cranberry relish?
What's the secret behind making perfect gravy?
How do you deal with a raw turkey, and which end is the neck?
"I've been cooking Thanksgiving dinner for longer than I care to admit, and I never would have thought I'd pick up so many good tips! Great book!" —Trish Huffman
Joe Kissell has written numerous books about the Mac, including
Real World Mac Maintenance and Backups and many popular Take Control ebooks. He contributes frequently to Macworld and previously spent 10 years in the Mac software industry. His food blog, The Geeky Gourmet, is one of several sites run by alt concepts, which he founded.
Preparing a complete Thanksgiving dinner for a crowd can be a daunting task, but this book lays out the entire process, complete with easy recipes and detailed, step-by-step instructions. If you've volunteered (or been volunteered!) to make Thanksgiving dinner, and you want to ensure that everything goes smoothly, this book will keep you organized, focused, and on track. This book was written by Joe Kissell, edited by Karen G. Anderson, and published by TidBITS Electronic Publishing.
Introduction
Thanksgiving is a wonderful time of family togetherness, good food, and all-around positive vibes—for most of us. For the cook, however, it's often a time of stress and grumpiness! Putting together a feast like this is an unusual feat even for experienced cooks. If you've never done it before, it can be terrifying. Many things can go wrong, but you can avoid or solve virtually every problem if you plan well and have the right tools and information within reach.
I'm a foodie from way back, but I make my living writing about computers. In technical writing, my goal is to break down complex and confusing computer tasks into simple, easy-to-follow steps. In this book, I do the same with Thanksgiving dinner, breaking down complex and confusing cooking tasks into simple, easy-to-follow steps.
Anyone who wants to prepare Thanksgiving dinner from scratch can benefit from these instructions. This may be the first time you've cooked Thanksgiving dinner, or perhaps you've tried cooking one in the past with dubious results. You might be a working parent, a guy who usually leaves major cooking to the women, or simply someone who's better at cooking than planning (and needs help with logistics). Whatever the case, I can help you put together the entire meal from start to finish with minimal stress, so you can enjoy the holiday!
For a great Thanksgiving feast, you want all the basic dishes to be prepared well, taste good, and be ready at the right time. You can pull this off if you stick with my recipes and timeline as much as possible. There are a million ways to cook each of these dishes, and what you see here may not be the way your mom or your favorite celebrity chef does it. But after extensive testing of recipes and procedures in this book, I can assure you that if you follow them, you'll get good results.
What's on the menu? It's a classic, traditional American and Canadian Thanksgiving dinner: Roasted Turkey, Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Cranberry Sauce, Candied Sweet Potatoes, and Pumpkin Pie.
I've included a few other options, such as a vegetarian main dish (see Appendix A: A Vegetarian Main Dish) and green vegetables (see the sidebar What about the Greens?), but in general, I stick to the basics. By the way, this meal is not low in fat, carbs, or salt. Sorry, dieters!
Although you'll be preparing almost everything from scratch—using fresh, whole ingredients where feasible—I understand that due to time, money, or space constraints, you may have to compromise here and there. So I've included a series of "Cutting Corners" sidebars with simpler approaches you can use if you get in trouble. On the other hand, if you're feeling more ambitious and want to get fancier, you may be interested in the "Upgrading" sidebars (for a few of the dishes), which tell you how to add extra flavor, texture, and finesse.
This book contains detailed instructions, but for your convenience, a separate "Print Me" file includes compact versions of all the recipes, the schedule, and the shopping list.
Before I set you loose, I want to tell you what assumptions I made when writing this book. I assume:
You have at least basic kitchen skills (such as chopping vegetables and melting butter without burning it).
You have an average-sized kitchen with a reasonably large oven.
You'll have at least one helper. (See Appendix D: What If? if not.)
You'll be cooking for eight to twelve people. (See Appendix B: Scaling Recipes if not.)
You'll purchase ingredients and supplies well in advance. (See Appendix C: Last-Minute Thanksgiving if not.)
You'll do some cooking and prep work the day before.
You'll read this whole book before you do any cooking, prepping, or even purchasing of ingredients!
Last but not least, I assume that cooking Thanksgiving dinner can and should be fun! With these instructions under your belt, you'll be ready to relax and enjoy cooking and eating on Thanksgiving.
Quick Start
Because the most important thing you can do to ensure a successful Thanksgiving dinner is prepare well, I strongly urge you to read this entire book before you do anything else—and do that at least a week before Thanksgiving. At the very least, read Obtain Supplies, Obtain Ingredients, and Plan Your Cooking Schedule first, and be sure to take a good look at Appendix E: The Schedule.
Print out your reference materials:
The separate "Print Me" document includes your shopping list, schedule, and recipes. Print these out now so they'll be handy when you need them.
Prepare for the big day:
Work through the Plan Ahead! section. Follow the steps provided to determine how many people you'll be serving, what dishes you'll prepare, and whether you want to cut any corners or upgrade certain recipes. You’ll also print the "Print Me" document, gather the necessary equipment and ingredients, and review your cooking schedule with your helper.
Do day-before preparation:
To make your life easier while you're cooking, first Prepare the Dining Room & Kitchen.
Prepare the Turkey by setting it to soak in a brine solution for several hours.
While the turkey is brining, you can do some of the initial steps to Prepare Stuffing and Make Gravy—making the turkey broth with neck and giblets, and combining it with a simple roux. You can then Make Cranberry Sauce, Make the Orange Dish, and Bake Pumpkin Pie.
Do Thanksgiving Day tasks:
Your biggest job on Thanksgiving is cooking the turkey. And when it's done, be sure you know how to carve it. See Roast and Carve the Turkey.
While the turkey is roasting, you'll Make Mashed Potatoes, finish up the last steps in Prepare Stuffing, and Make Gravy, and reheat the candied sweet potatoes.
After the meal, you'll want to Deal with Leftovers.
Deal with special situations:
If your guest list includes vegetarians, check out Appendix A: A Vegetarian Main Dish.
For a crowd smaller than 8 or larger than 12, see Appendix B: Scaling Recipes.
What if you have to make Thanksgiving dinner in a hurry and haven't had time to prepare? See Appendix C: Last-Minute Thanksgiving.
If your guests include vegans or people with food allergies, or if you're unable to find a helper, be sure to consult Appendix D: What If?.
Q: What if I don't want to make everything by hand?
A: You don't have to! Although the book assumes you'll make most things by hand, it also has sidebars that suggest when cutting a corner may the better part of valor and an appendix helps if you have to make Thanksgiving dinner with little prep time.
Q: What about my aunt Martha's stuffing recipe?
A: The book provides recipes that work together in terms of time and temperature, but it also assumes that you may want to swap in a recipe or two of your own.
Q: I love David Allen's "Getting Things Done" methods. Will this book help me have a Getting Things Done Thanksgiving?
A: Yes it will. It walks you right through the planning process with lots of next steps, to-dos, and lists.
Q: How do you recommend preparing the turkey?
A: Joe explains a basic brining technique.
Q: Isn't brining too hard for less-experienced cooks?
A: Joe has a special talent for breaking down complex tasks into simple steps. We think a lot of cooks will be pleased when they see how easy Joe makes it.
Q: I noticed that you don't cover a green vegetable, homemade rolls, or pecan pie.
A: Yes. We limited the book's scope to something we felt could be achieved by normal humans. The book does welcome you to make more dishes, and it links to a few noteworthy recipes for green veggies.
Q: What about vegetarians?
A: The book has a lovely recipe for a polenta-and-cheese based main course for vegetarians, and it even has an appendix on how to accommodate vegans. However, if you plan to cook an all-vegan feast, this isn't the right book for you.
Q: What about the gravy?
A: The gravy recipe is superb. And, Joe splits it so people with less time or experience can go for great gravy, but readers with more time or experience can go for amazingly superb gravy.
Q: What's a computer geek doing writing a cookbook?
A: Joe writes about technology in order to support his habit of
eating well, and he was playing with his food long before he started
playing with computers. He wields a whisk or a mouse with equal
proficiency. Joe realized that the same methods he uses to make
seemingly complicated computer tasks seem easy could be applied to
seemingly complicated cooking tasks, and this book is the result.
Ask a Question
Feel free to ask us if you have a question about this book!
Prepare Stuffing for Thanksgiving
For your enjoyment, here's an excerpt from the ebook that covers how to make stuffing. The overall ebook has you starting your shopping early, but you can jump in here. Note that this recipe is intended to span 2 days, with you doing some prep work on the day before Thanksgiving. Of course, you can do it all on Thanksgiving day, if necessary.
The great thing about stuffing is that you can vary the recipe dramatically and still end up with a perfectly delicious end result. The basic ingredients of a turkey stuffing are bread, aromatics (celery and onion), stock or broth, a few spices, and a bit of butter. Of course, lots of stuffings get fancy with sausage, oysters, chestnuts, fruit, cornbread, or any of a zillion other modifications. We're going to stick with the standard (though I provide other suggestions in the "Upgrading" sidebar [at the end of this excerpt]. If you have a family recipe for another type of stuffing, and your guests expect it, feel free to use it instead.
IN OR OUT?
There are two broad schools of thought about stuffing: one says to cook it inside the turkey (in which case it truly is stuffing) and the other says to cook it separately (in which case it's sometimes called dressing). If you cook the stuffing inside the turkey, it will absorb a good bit of moisture and fat from the turkey—and along with it, lots of flavor. Stuffing the turkey is a (slightly awkward) extra step, as is removing the cooked stuffing, though using a stuffing bag can simplify both greatly.
But the main argument against stuffing the turkey is that the stuffing takes a long time to heat up, while spending significant time in contact with uncooked meat. That's a recipe for bacterial growth, and of course the last thing you want to do is make your guests sick! However, you can solve this problem quite easily. First, make sure the stuffing is very hot when you put it into the bird. And, second, before you take the turkey out of the oven, check the stuffing's temperature. If it's 160*F (71*C) or higher, you're completely safe.
Because the taste of genuinely stuffed stuffing is better, we'll be cooking it in the bird. But we'll also make some extra, cooked separately, because you can never have too much stuffing!
Most of the stuffing preparation should be done the day before Thanksgiving. Just before you put the turkey in the oven, you'll perform the last two steps: combining the wet and dry ingredients, and heating the stuffing.
Ingredients
1/2 cup (125 ml) unsalted butter
(1 stick)
4 large celery stalks
1 large onion
1 teaspoon dried sage
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried marjoram
1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon ground pepper
2 loaves (16 oz./450 g each) white sandwich bread, dried or
2 bags (14oz./400 g) of plain dried bread cubes
1/2 cup fresh parsley
3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
Only if upgrading...
2 medium apples (replacing half the celery)
or
1-2 cups chopped fresh mushrooms
Ingredient Notes
A few words about the bread: For the best texture, the bread should be thoroughly dried before you make the stuffing. You can dry fresh bread by laying the slices on a counter or, better yet, wire cooling racks for about 3 days, depending on the humidity. (It'll dry faster if it's already torn into small pieces.) If you are pressed for time, you can tear up the bread, lay the pieces on cookie sheets, and bake them in a 300*F (150*C) oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until thoroughly dry (but not browned). Or you can simply buy packages of plain dried bread cubes.
It's a Wonder: Some brands of bread, such as WonderBread, come in 24-ounce loaves rather than 16-ounce loaves. Be sure to check the weight and adjust the quantity accordingly if necessary.
As for chicken broth: If you have some homemade chicken or turkey stock, by all means use it. But you'll get dandy results using canned (or boxed) broth from the supermarket, too. For the stuffing (unlike the gravy), you don't absolutely need low-sodium broth, but buying just one kind of broth is easiest. If you have vegetarians at the table, you can substitute vegetable broth—and be sure to serve them the stuffing cooked separately from the turkey.
Preparation
If you are using fresh bread, tear it up into small (1 inch/2 cm) pieces—they needn't be uniformly shaped—and dry it thoroughly. (Refer to the explanation just previously.)
Chop the onion and celery finely (or ask your helper to).
Separately, chop the parsley finely. (If you have a pair of kitchen shears, you can use those, rather than a knife, to cut the parsley.)
In a medium skillet over medium heat, melt the butter. When it just starts to bubble, add the onion and celery and saute them until very soft, about 10 to 15 minutes. (If the onions begin to brown on the edges, consider them done.)
Stir in all the spices except the parsley (marjoram, sage, thyme, salt, and pepper), and the chicken broth.
Allow this mixture to cool slightly. Then transfer it into a covered container and refrigerate until tomorrow.
In a very large bowl (or two bowls, if you don't have a single bowl large enough), toss together the bread cubes and the chopped parsley. Cover this bowl loosely with a dry towel and set it aside until tomorrow.
When you're ready to stuff the turkey, warm the wet mixture slightly (in a saucepan or in the microwave), just enough to liquefy any fat on the surface. Combine the wet mixture and the dry mixture and mix thoroughly.
Following the directions in Roast and Carve the Turkey (page 69), microwave about 6 cups of the stuffing until it reaches 130 degrees F (54 degrees C). Then spoon it into the turkey (or the stuffing bag). Put the remaining stuffing in a casserole or glass baking dish and cover it, but don't refrigerate (if you think you'll be low on oven space, use a loaf pan instead). Better with butter: The stuffing you're baking separately will be extra yummy if, before you put it in the oven, you drizzle the top with about 4 tablespoons (half a stick) of melted, unsalted butter.
When the turkey has been roasting for 2 hours, put the remaining stuffing into the oven alongside or above it, covered with foil or a glass lid. Bake for about an hour, so the stuffing will be ready when the turkey has finished resting after it comes out of the oven.
Cutting Corners
Stuffing isn't at all hard to make, but if you're worried about getting everything done, there are always store-bought stuffing mixes. Frankly, I don't think any commercial mix can hold a candle to homemade stuffing, but this is ultimately a lower-priority menu item than, say, turkey or mashed potatoes.
Upgrading
This stuffing recipe, as it stands, is plenty tasty (especially the portion cooked inside the turkey). But it's also pretty basic. To add some pizzazz, you can try these suggestions:
* Replace half the celery with two medium-sized apples, peeled and diced into pieces about the same size as the celery.
* Add 1-2 cups of fresh chopped mushrooms.
* Look for other stuffing recipes. Among the thousands of stuffing recipes you can find online are ones that use rice or cornbread instead of white bread; ones that include sausage or oysters; ones that add chestnuts for some extra crunch; and numerous other variations. If you're feeling adventurous, substitute any of these recipes for the one here, but be sure to make enough to fill the turkey and an extra baking dish—at least 12 cups (3 l) in all.
If you'd like your Thanksgiving preparations to go smoothly (and who wouldn't?), turn to experienced tech writer and foodie Joe Kissell for help. At least half the battle is a good plan, and Joe provides you with a customizable plan that gets you organized, helps you figure out what you need to buy, and prevents last-minute problems. Once the planning and shopping are done, follow Joe's detailed, tested recipes for Thanksgiving dinner: roast turkey with gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry relish, candied sweet potatoes, and pumpkin pie.