The Kitchn Archive: Nov 2015

Poached eggs seem really tricky and fussy to make, but they’re not at all. You can put away the egg rings — they’re totally not necessary here. As long as you avoid these five mistakes, you’ll end up with perfect poached eggs every time. When it comes to making poached eggs, age matters. As eggs age, the whites change and become more fluid. If you use older eggs, you’re more likely to see those ghost-like wispies in the water when poaching eggs.

More than the turkey itself, more than the stuffing and mashed potatoes fresh from the kitchen, leftovers command our hearts and minds on Thanksgiving. The meal itself is often busy and talkative with out-of-town family and friends, so the days following the holiday are when you get to really focus on yourself and your prize — that much-treasured turkey sandwich, eaten alone in the kitchen in the sunny quiet of a Friday afternoon while everyone else is shopping or playing tag football.

Whether you just rolled out a flaky, homemade buttery pie crust, or took a store-bought one out of the freezer (no shame in that!), there’s one more crucial step before you pop that pie into the oven and wish it well: brushing the dough with a glaze. But which glaze gets you the result you want? What does whole egg do to create a burnished finish? Cream? Sugar? We decided to test out a few popular glazes on pie dough strips and see how they make that pie crust pop!

Q: I am new to freezing fresh tomatoes. I put them in the freezer bag, and when I took one out and set it in a bowl on the counter, it was a runny mess and didn’t seem edible — even for soup or stew. Do you have any helpful advice? I probably have 80 to 100 wonderful Early Girl tomatoes frozen that were so delicious eaten over the summer.

Everyone has a favorite dish at Thanksgiving, and it’s never the turkey — sorry, turkey! I polled my fellow editors to learn the must-have-or-will-die dishes they count on every Thanksgiving. Stuffing? Gravy? Rolls? Here’s what they said. Sour Cream Balsamic Sweet Potatoes Stuffing After my grandparents moved away to Florida, my family started our own Thanksgiving tradition: ordering Thai take-out.

Q: We are a family living abroad, and want to invite local friends to celebrate Thanksgiving with a traditional dinner. I can find most ingredients, but there are no fresh cranberries for the relish. Any ideas on what I can substitute for the cranberries or another relish? Sent by Elizabeth Editor: That’s too bad that you can’t find fresh cranberries where you live.

A good gravy can cover up an overcooked turkey and dress up gluey mashed potatoes with one swift pour, and yet cooks don’t pay much attention to this masterful finishing touch. The results are heavy gravies — over-seasoned, thin, or worse, lumpy and left to congeal on the dinner table. Good gravy can be the difference between a good and a great Thanksgiving meal, so here are seven mistakes to avoid when making this flavorful sauce.

Thanksgiving is just a few days away, friends. Do you still need a side dish to serve to your guests or bring to a potluck? This impressive stuffing recipe — with roasted root vegetables, sausage, and goat cheese — might be just the thing you’ve been looking for. What I really love most about this stuffing — and what I think makes it stand out — is the roasted root vegetable mixture.

Q: I’m preparing to make my own wedding cake for my wedding in July of next year. I’m planning a three-tier sponge cake and I want to fill the layers with both jam/curd and buttercream, but I’m worried the buttercream in particular will melt and the cake will slump. I’m planning to cover each layer in fondant icing.

Piled high, topped with a pat of butter or savory gravy, mashed potatoes are hard to resist. But this Thanksgiving essential has the power to go way beyond just a comforting side dish — we’ve got five ways to prove it. The key to making any of these dishes shine, of course, is making a really great batch of mashed potatoes.

Never babysit a skillet of hot, sputtering bacon again — the oven is your friend on Saturday morning. With this method, you can cook a whole package of bacon at once, and you don’t even have to flip it as it cooks. Go on, pour yourself a cup of coffee and let yourself wake up without grease splatters down your robe. This video will show you how.

I thought I knew pumpkin pie — I mean, you can’t really beat the classic — and then Ruth Reichl comes along and drops this bombshell on me, and now I feel like I’ve been lying to myself about the gloriousness of my pies for years. I would be disheartened if I weren’t so dang excited to bake more pie this Thanksgiving. Enough teasing — here’s what Ruth Reichl has to say on the subject of pumpkin pie.

Can you ever have too many mashed potatoes? Probably not, but since we aren’t one to assume, here’s a scalable formula that helps you figure out how to make mashed potatoes for a party of one all the way up to a table of 12. Get fancy with added garlic, herbs, butter, or different types of cheese at your own discretion. This formula is based on one serving and for a basic potato + milk or cream + cream cheese situation that results in rich, creamy perfection .

This time of year it’s all about the long and slow cooking. When it comes to cuts of meat that require a little extra coaxing, both stewing and braising can make tougher cuts — like shanks, brisket, chunk, and round — tender enough to slice with your fork. We always knew they had a soft side. Vegetables, never to be left out of the party, benefit from braising and stewing as well.

Who: Tucker Pecan Company What: Southern Pecans Where: Montgomery, Alabama Got a pecan tree in your yard? Well, today you’re in luck: David Little, president of Tucker Pecan Company, is sharing a few gathering and shelling tips. In the fall, when the green outer hull enclosing each nut opens, the pecans are ready for harvest. At commercial pecan orchards, machines are used to shake them out of the trees.

If you’ve ever blind-baked a pie crust (essential for desserts like pumpkin pie), it’s likely you’ve encountered the tragedy that is a shrunken pie crust. You rolled out the dough, carefully placed it in the pie dish, made a perfectly crimped edge, and transferred it to the oven to pre-bake before adding the filling. But what came out of the oven was something almost unrecognizable.

Q: I made some bland chicken stock for a pet to try, to encourage him to drink more, but he didn’t end up liking it. I made the stock in a slow cooker and used a whole chicken, some carrots, sage, and basil, based on a recipe for pet broth that I found. I couldn’t use onions or anything in the initial making, but since he won’t eat it I have 2.5 quarts of pretty bland stock. I used a quality organic chicken so I don’t want to just toss it if it’s still salvageable.