The Kitchn Archive: 2014

Q: Do you have to pre-bake a quiche crust before filling? I used a flour-butter-water crust and I see that most recipes require pre-baking, but I never remember my mother doing this step. Sent by Alexia Editor: Yes, I recommend pre-baking the crusts for quiches because I think it helps keep them from getting soggy from the filling. Here’s a little more information on blind baking: How to Blind Bake a Pie Crust Readers, any other thoughts?

A good gravy is really what ties all the elements on the Thanksgiving plate together. It can rescue dry turkey, liven up mashed potatoes, and perk up bland stuffing, so there’s a lot riding on the gravy turning out well. Here are four tips to help you rescue a gravy that isn’t quite perfect! Here are the four typical problems you can encounter when making turkey gravy and solutions for fixing them!

Q: When we moved into our house last year, I was thrilled that we had a pomegranate tree in the backyard. It gave us about 15 pomegranates last year and that was exactly the right amount. This year is a different story! Thanks to some fertilizer and adequate watering, we’ve got a booming harvest of about 50 pomegranates (in my mind a good problem to have). I’ve already created two large batches of pomegranate jelly and I’m still swimming in them … I need help!

As much as I love eating stuffing or dressing on Thanksgiving, I find the whole process of cutting up a big loaf of bread for it quite tedious, especially when there are so many other cooking tasks vying for my time and attention. Here’s a way I’ve found that helps speed up the process a bit! I used to cut up the loaf of bread crosswise into slices like you would for sandwiches, then cut each of the slices into little cubes.

Want to stuff the Thanksgiving turkey with some fresh herbs or chop some up for stuffing and are not sure which ones to use? Here are the four traditional herbs you should pick up and use in your cooking to really give it that authentic Thanksgiving aroma and taste! There are two types of parsley sold in the store: Flat-leaf and curly. Choose Italian flat-leaf parsley since it has a more pronounced flavor, although many people like to decorate with the curly variety.

Aromatic bitters, the subject of our coverage this month at The 9-Bottle Bar, stars in so many classic cocktail recipes, we proposed that it may very well be the most useful member of this little company we’ve assembled. But when it comes to bitter booze, the aromatic, non-potable stuff is just one star in a brightly lit sky. This week let’s do of other notable varieties of bitters. One loosely associated group of bitters includes the Italian-made liqueurs Cynar, Aperol, and Campari.

When it comes to dessert, one thing is certain: Thanksgiving isn’t complete without pumpkin pie. This year we’re on a mission to make this classic dessert a little more interesting, and even a more glamorous star of the dessert table. From a cookie crust to candied toppings to chocolate fudge, here are five easy ways to jazz up your classic pumpkin pie. Let’s skip the whipped cream topping this year!

The most ideal carving situation for a Thanksgiving turkey (or any large piece of meat) is a big cutting board with wells or grooves to catch the juices that leak out when you’re carving. But you may not be able to justify the space for an oversized board like this if you only use it once or twice a year for holidays. Here’s a quick hack to make your everyday cutting board into a better setup for a large bird, roast, or piece of meat.

Q: I’m doing Thanksgiving in Southern California this year, and in addition to pumpkin pie, I’d like to make a second dessert. I’d like something a bit lighter and more suited to the climate and the end of a heavy dinner, but still, well, Thanksgiving-y. I was thinking a fruit tart of some sort, but cranberries are out (my Mom isn’t a fan). My only other thought was a pear tarte Tatin? Or something I could put a hard cider sorbet on top of?

Cranberry sauce is the bright little gem on an otherwise rich, savory Thanksgiving menu. Even if you only eat it once a year, it’s hard to imagine a plate of turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes without that dollop of sweet-tart sauce on the side. And while you can just buy and open a can of the stuff, cranberry sauce is hands-down the easiest thing to make from scratch from Thanksgiving, and you don’t even need to use a recipe. Here’s how to do it!

Turkey is certainly the masterpiece of the Thanksgiving table, presented with flourish and praise for the cook. Despite the idyllic image we’ve created of roasted turkey, it is essentially the same as roasting your Sunday chicken, albeit on a much larger scale. While there are lots of opinions about (and some sound advice for) roasting a turkey, there are just a few key steps to avoid for a terrific Thanksgiving turkey.

Did I miss the turkey? Nope! Here's why.

So gravy is just another type of sauce, and sauces would logically be made in saucepans, right? Well, in the case of making gravy, a saucepan is not the ideal piece of cookware to prepare it in. Instead, I prefer to make gravy in a large frying pan or sauté pan, and here are three reasons why! Gravy-making often starts with making a roux — a cooked fat and flour mixture.

Q: I use a Euro Cuisine yogurt maker. I make nearly perfect yogurt every time, but twice now, it has turned out slimy — Elmer’s glue consistency. I make two-quart batches and I use a new culture with every batch. Maybe it picked up an infection? The first time, I forgot about it and it reached 200 degrees, so I chalked it up to a too-high temperature. This time, though, I did all the same steps (and I make yogurt weekly).

When I was at the grocery store last week, I noticed the meat department was selling plastic buckets for turkey brining that looked like the ones sold at hardware stores. They were probably about five gallons in size and two feet tall. How in the world would you fit that in your refrigerator? Unless you’re lucky enough to have a second refrigerator, the only way a bucket large enough to brine a turkey would fit in the fridge is if a lot of the shelves were removed.

Whether you open up a can of cranberry sauce or make your own fancy compote, cranberries are a requisite part of the Thanksgiving menu. These tiny jewel-toned fruits actually have a rich American history that justifies its place on our tables. Here are fun facts about cranberries that you can break out at Thanksgiving dinner to impress your family and friends! Cranberries, along with blueberries and Concord grapes, are native to North America.

How do you decide whether to spread your feast on the dinner table, or set up a separate buffet table? And does everything go on the buffet, or does some food stay on the table? Here are my own rules for deciding when to use a buffet, and what to leave on the table. We’ve talked about buffets quite a bit before — how to set them up, how to create good flow at bigger events like weddings and parties.

Q: I was introduced to the wonders of carrot soups during college and would love to make some myself! Unfortunately, every carrot soup recipe I come across seems to require a blender, which I don’t have (and purchasing one is not in the budget). How can I make tasty carrot and squash soups without one? Would grating the carrots before putting them in the soup be a good substitute? This also applies to pumpkin/squash soups.