Thanksgiving Roundup

So it’s the Thursday of Thanksgiving weekend, and you’ve abruptly realised that you don’t actually have any recipes, and you promised to bring the pumpkin pie. While I’m not ready to share my recipes, here’s the rundown on how to do the core Thanksgiving components and not come across as though you forgot.

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The Turkey

I am so tired of the purist roast turkey people. “It doesn’t look right! It’s tradition!” stop. It’s impossible to fit the brit in the oven, you have to brine or baste to keep it cooking properly, and it takes forever. It’s good if it’s done with patience, experience, and a stable oven. On a good day, this is MAYBE a pick one of the three-and for most, it’s a gamble as to whether any of these will show up the day of.

That’s why I’m an advocate for spatchcocking your turkey. You don’t have to brine it. You don’t have to baste it. You don’t have to time it meticulously. You just turn the oven on high, cut the spine out of the bird, do a little CPR, coat in oil and salt(or MSG if you want to go the extra mile), and bingo, you have a beautifully cooked bird, crispy skin, in half the time. You can roast potatoes, vegetables, sweet potatoes(!), etc at the same time, and because you have flattened your bird, you can fit! Multiple! Racks! In! Your! Oven!

If you go to a butcher, you can request your bird be spatchcocked for you, but it’s not hard to do it yourself.

Babish shows how to do it here, and you don’t even need a recipe beyond that; oil(on top and between the skin and the meat), salt, pepper, roast on 450 until it’s done, an hour and a bit. Because it’s flat, it’ll cook evenly and you don’t have to stress about the breast drying out.

Once you learn how to spatchcock a bird, you won’t roast it any other way. Save the backbone for gravy or stock. I initially discovered it through Kenji Lopez-Alt’s textbook, The Food Lab, and solid, evidence and theory-based exploration of basic cooking techniques that I couldn’t recommend more as a gift for students moving away from home and newbies to cooking. It reinforces the skills and basics, and is a fantastic reference text.

his video and extended article arguing in favour and providing specifics for how to spatchcock and roast a turkey can be found Here:

https://www.seriouseats.com/butterfiled-roast-turkey-with-gravy-recipe

The Pumpkin Pie

As the resident baker, it’s important to maintain my rep and a pumpkin pie is the easiest way to lose the baking authority I’ve developed in my family over the last decade. Because of that, I’m going to ask you to put a bit more effort into this- because bad pumpkin pie is not only disappointing, it’ll ensure you’re not invited back next year.

My pumpkin pie from my Canadian-American-London 2023 Thanksgiving. This pie doesn’t typically crack; the ones on this pie are from the expedition to Greenwich on a Friday afternoon tube journey .

Pumpkin pie is made up of a prebaked crust and the pie filling. Because I have tried every pie dough recipe under the sun, I feel confident recommending Claire Saffitz’s flaky butter pie dough. NOW LISTEN, I love Claire, but her caramelized honey filling just doesn’t have the texture and richness I want in a pumpkin pie. So I recommend swapping it out for Joshua Weissman’s filling. It’s a lot of work, as he starts from Actual Pumpkins, but as a UK resident these days, I can’t get the canned stuff anyway. You can substitute the sugar pumpkin for butternut squash, and please, PLEASE don’t use a jack-o-lantern pumpkin. They have less sugar, and it’ll be an all-around disappointing mess. If you don’t feel up for it, you can sub in the canned pumpkin, but I definitely recommend making the reduced sweetened milk; the homemade stuff is closer to dulce de leche than the stuff in the can. Whatever you choose, strain the filling before it goes into the prebaked crust. This will make sure any bits or texture are removed and leave you with a beautiful, smooth, creamy pumpkin pie.

Between the two components, you end up with a pie with a super flakey, crisp crust, and a smooth custard filling. Toss some whipped cream on there, or toast some pecans and smash them to bits for an extra crunch. This combination was how I introduced my London friends to pumpkin pie- and dare, I say, it was a success.

The Stuffing

Some people love stuffing. Some people hate stuffing. My favourite stuffings are a combination of bread(duh), sausage, something with texture, and something with sweetness. My favourite is the pork sausage-pecan-green apple route, especially if there’s cornbread involved. I don’t actually use a Recipe; instead, I just saute together the sausage with onions and herbs, toss it with the cubed apple and bread, and then cover it with a couple cups of chicken broth. I also like to roast my turkey flat on top of the stuffing- if you’re going to do this, be sure to reduce the amount of broth you put in initially.

This recipe is a pretty close approximation. It’s not super hard, it’s just bread and whatever else you want.

Sweet potatoes

………you could make a casserole. You could. But why. Save the sugar for the pie.

I recommend combining sweet potatoes with your salad.

And please, for the Love of God, make a salad.

Specifically, make This Salad, and toss in some of the roasted veggies to make it a little more Thanksgiving-themed. Jeremy Scheck’s kale salad is a good balance, providing a dish with Real Greens, is generally very popular with even a picky audience, and can be prepped alongside all the other dishes. The initial recipe doesn’t have sweet potatoes, but I cube up the sweet potatoes and roast them with the turkey, and the slight spice and acidity of the dressing balances the overwhelming and gluttonous nature of Thanksgiving food. I omit the eggs and typically double up on the crunchy vegetables. I promise that if this is on your plate, you won’t feel as horrendous after Thanksgiving.

I hope this recipe roundup finds you in your time of need, and let me know if you try any of the recipes above! Next year, I’m hoping to publish my own recipes.

Happy Thanksgiving!