Thanksgiving is going to be different this year, but don’t let that stop you from going all out in the kitchen. You can make your Thanksgiving meal memorable and delicious with these tips from Chef James Rigato and Chef Molly Mitchell (Rose’s Fine Food). This special Thanksgiving episode covers brining and roasting your turkey, plus pro tips on favorite side dishes like mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, and much more.
Hi I’m andeli and in this two-part episode of essential cooking my co-host Chef James orado along with Chef Molly Mitchell from Rose’s Fine Food in Detroit get you ready for Thanksgiving the turkey the brine the sides and some Thanksgiving food history so uh thanksgiving’s coming like a freight
Train and uh this is when everybody’s kind of starting to think about well you should be thinking about it by now the first Thanksgiving apparently didn’t have a turkey at all it was more like wild game is what they had back in and there you go 1621 so turkey wasn’t on
Menu but now we eat about 45 to 46 million turkeys during Thanksgiving wow which is a whole lot of birds and wild turkeys can run 20 miles an hour other turkeys not so fast apparently Benjamin Franklin as a matter of fact he saw a little fun facts and
Then we’ll get to the business Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey to be the national bird not the eagle I think it’s probably good it was overruled and Neil Armstrong and Buzz aldrin’s first meal in space after walking on the moon was foil packets of of roasted turkey wow so
How about that just like at home yeah yeah yeah all right so what we’re going to do now so uh a lot of people have already started making their turkey plans they’ve ordered it they’re waiting on it and all that other kind of stuff but some folks are still maybe uh not
Quite ready for it so what do we want to tell them to do right now just regarding the turkey James well I would decide where you’re getting your turkey from because as you know there’s lots of you know food issues this year with the supply chain so I would line up your
Turkey whether that’s through dartanian or a local company um you know there’s definitely you know your local farmers even on um you know different different you know farmer forums you can pretty much there’s some Farmers out there I know like Steve Allen at at stepen Rockies he raises turkeys you can you
Know swing by his house and pick one up that’s what I used to do with the root we get all the Steve’s turkeys so I would definitely try to secure your bird uh and nothing against you know I’m I’m not here to you know run a you know a
Smear campaign but I try to stay away from the large big box Birds because they’re not raised big box Birds big box birds are not raised as uh humanely and it’s not as good for you so the the more local and natural your bird is the
Better um and I’m also a proponent of brining so I know that that’s a controversial situation for some people like you know the higher quality of the bird you shouldn’t brine it Etc turkey is a very um you know lean large breasted bird so like talking about a
Lot of white meat that’s going to be pretty dry so I always recommend brining so start researching your brining recipes um and yes so cure your bird is number one yeah Farm field tables got them I think Merl’s got them um there’s also I got an email and there was a farm
Near the airport called uh D it’s like dtwf flight path.com and they have heritage heritage turkeys out there I it’s was like okay so that’s another farm so everybody’s been telling me all kinds of things but there are plenty of places to support your local businesses
To get a turkey so start thinking about that now okay so when to start brining the bird well that depends on size so if you’re doing a small event this year let’s say Thanksgiving for two you can always do a chicken or even a pheasant you know you don’t need to stick with
Turkey because they’re pretty large um but if it’s I always say if it’s over 20 pounds you want to enter like 36 48 hours but if it’s under 20 pounds a 24-hour brine is usually just fine right and this time of year so this is a
Little trick right my sister kind of uh had me you know think about this because she’s like what do I do with a 25 lb turkey in a normal home refrigerator so usually this time of year the weather’s perfect to get a tub with a very secure lid and brine it and
Put it in your garage or out on your patio just make sure you if you have you know if you’re in the country maybe put a couple bricks on top of it or you know obviously don’t let any Critters get into it but usually it’s you know the
Right temperature to leave it outside in the brine in a in a secure vessel so if you do have a large bird and you have a you know and it looks like it’s going to be under 40 degrees outside I would say brown it brine it outside you can just
Put it in a cooler right tell your husband to get all the beer out of the cooler cuz I’m putting a bird in there just make sure you like sanitize it like wash it out you know obviously you don’t want to you know if he was like throwing
Random you know fish and earthworms in there all summer long like you know definitely have it be sanitary make an ice brine in the bathtub yeah yeah yeah you could you could put just keep add nice yeah you could bathtub brine it you know okay James let’s talk about that now there’s
Lots of different brins and lots of different things can to but what has to be in the brine to make it a successful brine to do what it needs to do for the bird so the the my Golden Rule is one cup of salt to one gallon of water and
That’s going to be like a like a solid like you know salted one to one one cup one cup to one gallon not ratier don’t say one to one that’s going to be one don’t don’t do that one cup of turkey jerky one cup of salt to one gallon of
Water and then the sweetness I like to add usually half a cup of sugar for the whole thing yeah for the well as a ratio so one one cup of salt half a cup of sugar to one gallon of water but you can use molasses or Maple or brown sugar you
Know honey you can you can kind of pick just I usually want to look into what is my Thanksgiving meal like so you know are is it a lot of orange and cinnamon flavors are you leaning more towards like Maple and smoke and you know so so
That kind of determines the what you know sweetening agent I’ll add but I brown sugar will give you a nice kind of like golden you know um kind of crispy skin okay anything else go in there peppercorns bay leaves anything of course bay leaves peppercorns you know
Cinnamon sticks garlic for sure you know that’s kind of like it depends on what you’re going for a lot of hard spices maybe not so much like garlic and horse ranch but maybe if you’re doing garlic then you want to do like you know red chili flakes and you know lots of bait
So like again you kind of where is your meal looking if if you have really traditional sides I would do some hard baking spices if you’re leaning a little towards like you know you’re going to have like some pasta then you tons and tons of garlic you can never go wrong
With garlic yeah and Molly anything what what do you do are you making a turkey this year I am not um my dad raises turkeys so that’s his domain so I don’t usually mess with it he um he always smokes the bird oh okay so we brine it
They brine it in a cooler like you said outside and uh then he smokes it so so is that how it’s been like your whole growing up was that kind of the deal yeah he’s really into poultry he um he travels a lot and so he when we were
Younger he would like take a bird on the road with him just in the car so he’d have like a paper towel on his lap and like a little baby chick a living bird yeah yeah on the road yes so now he has ducks chickens and he gets turkey every
Year so are they all for for consumption they’re all for no I mean there’s there’s like some you know OG birds that are his friends that will just die a natural death and then he gets Birds specifically for meat that’s pretty great yeah so when you were growing up
Did you always help with with making um Thanksgiving dinner yeah I mean uh I tried to get out of it but I did yeah but I I did always help yeah potatoes you know James what about you you know we had a potluck um Thanksgiving forever
And I’d say about 10 years ago I was just like I can’t I can’t do this anymore I can’t you know I can’t have the unqualified cousins in charge of these things so I I just like you know yeah my my my generation of cousins are
I mean you know honestly I’m sorry guys but they’re terrible Cooks so like I just I’m like this is like bad you know so when someone’s mother would pass down like okay we’re going to have you know so and so do the you know green beans
I’m just like I’ll do it yes you’re going to do it all our generation kind of like you know I’m 36 so like I feel like the 25 to 45 year olds don’t really know typically how to throw down on a big holiday feast how to time things out
How to prepare it all and have it hit the table you know well seasoned and at the right temperature so many mov yeah exactly so you really and you really got to plan about a week ahead so if I was catering you know I say it catering if
I’m if I’m cooking my family’s Thanksgiving I plan it and I treat it like a catering vent I mean I roll in hot boxes you know I have like a KAG of beer know yeah I’m like I’m like we’re drinking champagne we’ll open the red later like stop like you know put put
Away your you know like your whatever Minaj red wine that you’re like you know trying to pour with the oysters relax so um so you get you do the whole thing with your family and you are kind of in charge and I don’t know why it would be
Any other way tell you the truth i’ be like I’m with that guy tell me what to do um so right now you should be thinking about uh where you’re going to get your turkey if it is a frozen turkey you need to thaw that
Thing out before you brine it or can you you thaw it in the brine no I mean like if it’s a little Frosty like if it’s like you know three days in the in the refrigerator you can you can definitely brine it but you know partially frozen
But I mean if it’s a big bird you want to give it like I mean like four five days it you cuz you want it to be you know once it’s thought out I mean it’s still going to be okay for a couple days I would just be really sure I would pull
Out like 5 days early okay very good let it’s like let it fully thought now we’re going to cook the turkey some people say leave it in the fridge overnight so that it dries out yeah after you brine it some people want you to pull it out and
Let it sit in with the air flowing around it in the fridge so that’s not a bad thing it’s not a bad thing you’re going to get a little bit more of a dry surface so T you know it’s kind of a crispier skin option I think it works
Better with chicken than it does turkey but that’s an option for sure it’s not a bad idea bad idea do you put butter all over it under the breast what do you do you know what do you I mean I I like to rub it down with butter halfway through
Cooking cuz the butter in the breast just kind of like melts quickly you know I like to kind of rub it down once it starts showing some some caramelization I like to halfway through pull it out rub it down and then at the end as well
At the end as well do you put it on the skin Molly like I said my dad just has it as a smoker so you’ve never you’ve roasted a turkey before in your life yeah I suppose I have I but I roast way more chicken I do you put I actually
Don’t I I usually use olive oil yeah but there we go I’m never mad about butter so you know okay and make sure you don’t overcook and if you brind it it should stay moist but you got to pull it out at the right time yeah you know a giant
Turkey is a good time to invest in a thermometer you know for your home kitchen and like you know probe it you hit it 116 in the in the in the the toughest darkest spot of the bird like usually in the thigh then it’ll it’ll climb up as you you know carry over
Cooks don’t you don’t need to go like I feel like sometimes I read like 175 or like what the just 160 and the thickest part of the bird and then it’ll carry over pretty well cuz if your th the thigh is hug piece of meat so for sure and like I
Said let it you know let your turkey rest too let it rest a good 15 20 minutes before you start carving it everything that has to do with Thanksgiving and cooking it there are so many conversations to have it’s just amazing to me but it’s a big meal my
Favorite holiday there’s like one goal cook good food and eat it that’s it and then you just pass out and then you’re good to go anyway you’re good to go all right let’s get to um stuffing and dressing let’s talk about the traditional stuffing bread and butter
And herbs and chicken broth or something Chen Sage do we like all that I love it oh yeah yeah bread in any form yeah I mean I think stuffing that way you know with kind of like the the baked basically the baked seasoned you know chopped up old bread yeah that’s
That’s fantastic you know but stuffing I mean has been really over the years kind of frown upon actually stuffing a bird with stuffing can be dangerous it can hangs out in the you know weird temperature crazy temper yeah nobody wants that so that’s kind of like the
You know but at the same time I feel like if you if you want to use stuffing I recommend looking up like deboning and like rolling your bird which is a little bit you know I guess elegant and refined for some home Cooks but once you do it
It’s not that hard you know I always call it like the poretta method because it’s like you know just deboning and then rolling it around some kind of filling so or you know a balantine is another you know French name you see for it but I definitely recommend if you
Want to use stuffing you should learn how to do you know I feel like even rollatini is a name online you see sometimes which super stupid you can like you can see it like I feel like chicken cigar I swear the internet’s a weird place for for recipes like we were just
Talking about but I think that if you want to look up the poretta method that’s uh Jack pen has amazing video of deboning a you seen you’re just like how are you doing this I know he cuts it like right at the shoulders like Rec like just rips the
Chicken off the wow but yeah mean pulling a tablecloth from under the dishes it is Shakin is the the best by the way um yeah so I mean if you want to stuff it I would get rid of the bones and roll it and stuff it that’s if you want to do
Stuffing otherwise it should be dressing and it should be on the side you know kind of you know um you know baked as its own like almost like casserole all right let’s move on to sweet potatoes sweet potatoes versus yams oh my gosh there is is so much online about that oh
Yeah there’s lots of arguments well okay so the it’s a labeling issue really at the grocery store correct right yeah well there’s I mean there’s also yes so continue sorry so so they have these two next to each other and one says yams on it one says sweet potatoes well guess
What they’re both sweet potatoes one is drier mhm the more slender ones with the darker flesh is not a yam it’s a soft sweet potato mhm so if I was going to cook a casserole I’d probably use the soft sweet potatoes but yams are different colors they’re not right
They’re white right right some some of them are yeah some of them have darker flashh I mean yam I feel like is like they all kind of go back to like South America like the potato you know the hundreds of varieties of potatoes in the world so I feel like that’s you know
It’s most people can name like five six potatoes but there’s like hundreds in the world so I feel like that that argument and you know yam yakar there’s a lot of of these cool you know starchy tubers that grow that can be done and cooked similarly so I like the white yam
Is a little bit starchier than a than a sweet potato would be I I think buy them more on size depending on what you’re going to do I like the Slender ones if you’re going to kind of coin and roast um because obviously the the big fat
Sweet potatoes just kind of fall apart cuz they’re so they’re so but if you’re making mashed sweet potatoes then those are perfect right so I it’s more about like size and application um but you know they all definitely if you’re looking for the Candi yams or like
Roasting them with like brown sugar and just you know honey or peacon or something the sweet elements I think for pie and Molly you m you’ll have to tell us I think sweet potatoes like I like the big fat ones that have a lot of moisture but you tell me you know what
What do you yeah I mean honestly like I I think you’re right about that and I’ll use any anything from like a yam to a sweet potato to any kind of squash pumpkin you can make it all into Pie make it into a custard and the same and
Same method yeah same method yeah you just custard it and bake it up and it’s delicious now and by saying custard essentially it’s like whole eggs and like cream or or sweet and condensed milk is an alternative to cream sometimes I like using sweet and condensed milk cuz it kind of has like
Almost like that confectionary Vibe it almost tastes like it’s like too good you know like peon a pie you can eat with your hand yeah exactly peon Pie has that with like you know there’s a lot of peon pies that use like dark corn syrup which is like kind of frown upon like
Maple syrup great for sure but like I feel like just sometimes I want something that tastes almost like candy you know and just like just super sticky those are delicious just like not you know like not it doesn’t taste it’s like you know it’s homemade but it doesn’t it
Tastes like you know almost like Snickers it’s like too like too sweet yep um what do we think about all those marshmallows and what have you on top I’m a pecon strucel kind of girl but yeah m i mean I think it depends if it’s like you know if you’re going to like
You know broil it in the oven and get a little bit of like a brown on those marshmallows and it’s kind of part of like your family’s thing I there’s nothing wrong with it but I definitely think more of like I would do like peacon Maple maybe like scallion maybe a
Little pinch of like chili flake just like you know CU sweet is so one note so if you add a little sea salt a little Crunch and a little bit of heat I think you’ll have a more you know I even at the restaurant we’ll we’ll thinly slice
Sanos and fold it into honey because the pressure the density of the honey will squeeze the sanos and it’ll kind of extract the juices oh that’s exactly what I was going to say yeah right well honey honey is very dense I’m sure you know you can tell when you pour
It so like making a it’s basically a honey hot honey is like such a great garnish for things so make a hot you know shave a couple jalapenos or sanos and put it in honey and drizzle that over your sweet potato mash and that’s so simple and every I think your
Family’s going to love it that’s that’s like a that sounds awesome that’s a really cool trick great all right so that’s sweet potatoes now let’s talk about potato potatoes mashed potatoes it is definitely um a popular side that’s usually the worst thing I feel like at
Home you know like at home kitchens you say why it can be I think it’s hard I feel like when you just come across some who like either like not cooked thoroughly or overcooked or you let them cool before you mash them and they get gluey or under seasoned under season is
A big one I try to season my mashed potatoes when they’re in the water simmering like I want the I want the water to season the potatoes fully so you salt the water oh yeah for sure I make it taste like you know almost like
The ocean like you want it to be like seasoned water and then when you drain them and you add the butter and the buttermilk I like to add a little Tobasco and you whip them you your goal should be to like not add any salt and
So like that’s a amount of salt in the water so a lot of you know and if you do too much then you’re you’re kind of you know too late you’re screwed so like it’s a it’s a gamble it’s a walk in the plank but you could always cook some potatoes without salt
And add them into there if you did overt them balance it out it’s true if you were like panicking yeah but uh you’re under the wire yeah but I I think you know like go pretty salty in your water and don’t you know don’t like leave room
To add a little at the end but you want your potatoes fully fully seasoned mhm and you are a buttermilk person yeah I mean like o that’s a good idea oh yeah I don’t I don’t add one t i don’t add one drop of milk or cream to my potatoes
It’s butter and buttermilk and it has to be gnes that’s like the only buttermilk for me it’s the only buttermilk that it’s the only buttermilk that matters it’s so Tangy it’s so it’s she’s a One Buttermilk man it’s it I don’t even know of any other I can’t even name any other
Buttermilks never heard of them I thought they invented I didn’t know that didn’t know people made it all right are you mash by hand or R you get out the yeah rer just so beautiful fluffy I don’t know I just love the fluffiness you put in ring moles too when you serve
It to everybody I type it out of a bag into people’s mouths right on top of their turkey I mean if you if you have a mix you know most people don’t have a mixer big enough to make of you know like we use I use a Hobart at the restaurant so
We use a big tabletop 30 CT and you I like to whip the hell out of them so like they’re almost like air rated the ricer is a similar thing the rer will kind of like basically just make sure there’s no chunks whatsoever and that’s
Like a you know it’s like a food meal the rer she’s talking about I think yeah it’s like what you would make applesauce with at home like those metal things yeah and I mean that does that does a great job for sure I I just usually I
Will Mash but then I once my potatoes are mashed I’ll take a whisk and I’ll whisk it in the pot like and then just kind of fluff them up and then that’s my then you can call them whipped potatoes say so what what is the best way to
Rehabilitate let’s say your dinner gets away from you and you know you’re like to everybody and you the potatoes kind of sat for longer than they should have and you know how they get if they sit yeah how do you do you put a little more
Buttermilk in there and whip it up to get it a little more life it’s been known to happen yeah oh yeah I think the best thing to do is obviously preventative maintenance is better than repair understand so you want like leave it in the pot you mashed it in which is
A probably a metal pot and then wrap it put a little plastic wrap on top and leave it on the stove like the flame is off but your oven’s on so it’s warm so do leave on the store right so like do that first now let’s say you blew it and
And like you just have cold weird potatoes and know I think new name for a band yeah exactly I would say like a low I would probably do a low low flame and I would just like get a rubber spatula and I would kind of just like fold it
Maybe maybe melt a little bit of butter to give it some life or even sometimes like a splash of like hot milk or something but you know if you add too much more liquid you’re going to get like you know soupy potatoes which if you if it’s a small batch and you have
Time I would say start over take those potatoes put them in the fridge and you should make a potato soup the next day mhm you sauté some onions garlic and celery add those potatoes add a little bit of milk or chicken stock and then puree it with a stick blender or
Something in top of some cheese and some you know herbs and just eat have potato soup tomorrow instead instead of eating terrible potatoes today eat potato soup tomorrow to live by and with that we’re if you have time if you have time and with that we’re going to take a break
And uh we’re going to come back with h green bean casserole one of my favorite things Black perspectives haven’t always been centered in the telling of America’s story now we’re taking Center Stage introducing NPR’s black stories black truths a collection of black Le stories from NPR’s podcasts search NPR black stories black truths wherever you get your podcasts let’s get to the green bean
Casserole so we got some history there 50 years it’s over 50 years ago $20 million worth of cream of mushroom soup is sold every year to make that darn casserole oh my gosh and $5 the rest of the year people buy it it’s the cumulative amount of money made well
They even referred to it it’s like filler soup that’s a terrible appetizing I’m sorry that that stuff like just fill your body with the soup well so this was actually have the Campbell Soup company back in 1955 Dorcas Riley she worked in the Campbell soup kitchen and she used
To test all this stuff and she came up with this recipe so now um cream of mushroom soup is sold like crazy at this time of year to do exactly that so we want to talk about maybe a better way to go about that and that is part of your
Cooking class right it is you know God thank you Public Service it is it is public service I mean I feel like there’s nothing more um just shocking to like put to put in your mouth then like canned green beans topped with canned soup topped with like canned French
Onion Krispy things oh my God and call it a casserole so I uh yeah I think that’s what that’s like and I means yeah some people like it some people like canned corn beef like I’m not I’m not here to judge do whatever you want but
Like for me I love green beans and I love mushrooms and I wanted to enhance it so I take fresh green beans we blanch them and then we make a you know I use my Taki mushrooms which are so flavorful also they’re also known as Hen of the
Woods but when they’re kind of you know domesticated and done you know um you know by I like you kind of create do a culture you grow them in a vase so when they’re not wild they’re you know essentially you see my Takis but I’m I’m
Going to do a nice kind of mushroom sauté I actually had dried mushroom powder as well to really get that Umami because I think that’s what cream of mushroom soup has on people sautéing mushrooms at home is it’s so much Umami it’s like sodium and it’s like that salt
It’s it tastes like super it’s tastes like concentrate and I understand but like soy sauce mushroom powders you know using things like you know Thyme and garlic and really roasting things down that’s going to give you that same Umami Vibe and even like you know sometimes
You can even have a little whack of miso miso is like instant Umami so some of those flavors will show up if you do them properly and then obviously you add a nice beautiful heavy cream and then you just you know not too much cuz I obviously you’re not trying to like you
Know go to sleep at 2 in the afternoon you’re not at least 6 p.m. but but yeah so I mean just a little bit of cream and then uh kind of like to smother the uh green beans in that mushroom mixture and then top it I to do a garlic bread crumb so
I’ll take Panko and kind of microplane garlic into it and then kind of like you know thumb it in and then toast it in your oven because you know those french onion Krispies are probably actually the most delicious thing in the traditional green bean casserole but they’re basically like an oniony garlicky kind
Of little crispy they are tasty so like you know you can actually you you know use those still if you want to make one from scratch but I like to use a little garlic breadcrumb so we we Serv this at the restaurant during the you know holiday time and people like you know
Just like go crazy over it cuz I think people want to like green bean casserole it sounds like you should like it but then when you see it you’re just like no well the green beans are tend to be can be a little gray green which is not what
We want which is why you blanch and so talk about the blanching in a little more detail so people know like how long salt the water blanch the then shock them and so make sure everybody knows that yeah so when you blanch a vegetable or anything really you basically are
Looking to get it to a right texture but still preserve its freshness and it’s and it’s the Integrity or the color usually for green vegetables so super boiling water heavily salted you throw the green beans in you want the water to stay pretty hot boiling if if you can
And then you remove them after I’d say like you know they’re depends on the size of the green beans the heracle is you know 10 seconds the bigger wax kind of P Bean looking beans I’d say maybe like you know 20 30 seconds and then you
Shock them in ice water stir them around in the ice water to get them cool down as fast as possible and they’ll still have a crunch to them and then you that’s when you want to put them in the the you know your Pyrex smother it in
The in the mushroom sauce top it with the breadcrumbs and then bake it and then you want cuz your green beans you want them to be like kind of hot but you don’t want them to like Cook and Cook and Cook and be soggy I mean the whole
Point of a canned green bean made sense 75 years ago when you couldn’t get fresh green beans shipped from California everywhere nowadays you have no excuse to eat canned green beans unless you’re like you know really living in a remote place or the gr you know you’re scared
To go to the grocery store or something but there is just I mean I feel like canned vegetables are like the last resort of you know for for the holidays it’s a holiday celebrate buy some fresh green beans all right so there you go green beans and should we make a turkey
Stock or something after we’re done yeah I mean this time of year especially with Co I feel like this time of year like making stocks has never been more important like you know save your scraps so you’re obviously saving money and then you’re starting your you know if
You’re going to make a risotto or a soup have stocks in your freezer save all your trimmings and really start making high quality stocks and then if you when the weather turns you should be you should be adding some ginger and turmeric and garlic and making these
Aromatic broths and be sipping them all day long all that gelatin and all those wonderful you know antioxidants good for you I do it all the time at the restaurant I mean I sip broth all winter long so let’s say uh you’re done with dinner and you still have a little gas
In your tank and you’re like wow I want to cook something else so you take the carcass take all of it you stick it in your biggest stock pot correct and then you’re going to fill it with water and what else are you going to put in there
You’ll have mushroom scraps from the mai carrot onion celery is the most basic um I usually add a little bit of peppercorn or garlic towards the end of the stock but if you have you know any kind of vegetable trimmings you know if you’re using par snaps things that like they
Always say garbage in garbage out potato peels onion skins they’re not going to give you a good stock leave them out and then if you obviously are adding things like ginger and lemongrass you’re going to get more of you know that kind of vibe so no know what you’re putting in
Is going to lead to an end result too but I think Mira the celery carrot onion is the most basic for sure and then any other you know chicken parts if you I don’t know if you freeze chicken wings or bones you should be you know you should definitely save all your trimming
And then you know if you’re using if you like beef scrap in your fridge you can roast beef scrap and add that or what other you know anything that’s like meat bits you want to kind of caramelize in the oven anything that’s like bone you
Don’t you you don’t have to you can just use the turkey carcass that’s kind of been roasted and just use that and then cold water and then uh start it low simmer and don’t be I let it go overnight too I mean like I’m not you
Know be careful like you I’m not trying to tell if you set your kitchen on fire but a low low flame I’m sure you do that too Molly I do and I also like to do it inside the oven too like if you have a
Big pot you could just put it in the oven and put it at 200° and then you don’t have to worry about the flame or a great call that’s a great point or you have like cats or whatever or you know some people do it in their crockpots too
You know like I mean I don’t really use a Crockpot but like you know that that works perfectly well too we’re getting close to being done here and we didn’t talk about gravy so what is the best way to attack getting the gravy right and uh
What to put in it is it cornstarch or flour is it both do you make a rude what do you do yeah I think that you know having a high quality stock to start with helps if you don’t you should buy a couple cartons of chicken stock from the
Store just so you you know you’re not trying to make a gravy from water um don’t rely on the drippings because you’re not going to get enough for gravy the drippings are like a little are like a little bump um and I would try to find
Some cheats so like I like to use orange juice and Cracked Pepper um to add to the chicken stock if you’re F you know it depends on if you have like a lot of gluten-free people in your family then you should probably go corn starch if
You don’t or you don’t care then you can certainly do uh a r which is flour and and butter um you can also think use WRA flour which you just add at the end it just kind of thickens on its own um so yeah I mean that’s there’s no wrong way
To do it I think cornstarch is probably the easiest way just little cornstarch and water you make it slurry and you can kind of add it at the end while you’re simmering your gravy I think that’s it does make a nice glossy gravy it does yeah it’s going to give you that shinier
You know kind of like a you know that more honestly a lot of I feel like a lot of the American Chinese food you see like sweet and sour sauce and orange chicken they use a lot of cornstarch so that kind that’s the gloss that m is
Talking about is like that shiny and it’s kind of got that like um it’s like a it’s like a it’s thick but it’s it’s very like um malleable it kind of poures well Rue is going to give you more of like that it’s going to look a little
More like like pasty if you if you add too much R it’s going to like look like a you know like a like too way too thick like a over like an over reduced alfredo sauce or something so tackle yeah EXA exactly like you know wallpaper paste so
It depends on what you what you like with your gravy I think corn starch is a good is a good start start there but don’t be afraid of Wonder flow like I said that Wonder is a great cheat cuz you just add it at the end and it just
Kind of dissolves in and I wanted to talk about cranberries really quickly because I I feel like that globular uh thing that comes out of the can is not does not do justice to the cranberry which is one of three native fruits to North America by the way what is the
Best way Molly if you’re going to make a cranberry sauce or a relish I guess we could call it what would you say would be the best way to go about it well honestly I think cranberries are one of the easiest things to cook you know I
Mean you could do something as simple as just putting them in a pot with water turn it on low and let them gel and season them how you want put a little sugar in there you know I guess like you could do you could do a relish also I
Love to put orange zest in them but yeah cranberries should be celebrated they’re so they add so much to the meal which it needs like a little bit of Tang a lot of times like when when you’re having turkey and gravy and potatoes it’s kind of bland and you need something to kind
Of like offset that unless you put a lot of pickles in your Thanksgiving too there you go it kind feels like it fills that I totally agree yeah I I think for a too I like a raw cranberry relish if you like pulse them in the ROC coup and
Then sugar them like that’s that’s a great way to get their fresh their fresh acidity yeah don’t be don’t be afraid of the cranberry it’s they’re affordable and they’re easy to cook and so easy Yep they’re easy so good for you Americans consume here’s a little info 400 million
Pounds of cranberries a year wow 20% of that is during Thanksgiving and there are which I didn’t know James you probably know this because you travel up north in Michigan a lot Michigan has approximately 300 acres of commercially produced cranberries So Co yeah we do they and honestly I feel like Kroger and
Meer buy a ton of them because a lot of our Distributors can’t get them because they like they’re like they’re like the crop is purchased before it’s even harvested it’s like whatever you produce we will buy so when you go to Myer and Kroger they have more local cranberries
Than like you can even find like the farmers market wow yeah if you’re in Detroit on Saturdays there’s bir’s berries and he always has cranberries as well oh that sounds awesome that’s awesome yeah so here’s a little info for you Swanson TV dinners right first TV
Dinner was Turkey was the first one they invented and here’s why so uh one of the salesmen for Swanson his name was Jerry Thomas he conceived of the company’s frozen dinners in 1953 when he saw that the company had 260 tons of frozen turkey left over after after Thanksgiving and it was
Sitting in these uh refrigerated railroad cars and the only way that the refrigeration would work is if the railroad was as if the train was moving so it went back and forth and back and forth until they could figure out what to do with of this turkey so they
Decided okay we’re going to do this you know frozen turkey dinner and then they’re like oh we’re going to put cornbread stuffing and sweet potatoes and then have the Frozen bird and then they had this bacteriologist I didn’t know about these people Betty Cronin was
Her name and she was the one who figured out how are we going to do this so everything Cooks oops everything Cooks at the same time and it’s a safe meal for everyone to have and that’s how it started so that’s how the I don’t know
If I’ve last time I had a Swanson turkey dinner can’t say yeah I know right you know I wonder too like do you think they were better then than they are now because of how because of how like much junk is in like St stabilizers is a 19
You know can we I wonder if there’s any surviving somewhere in some deep doubt that’s they’re they probably were real food they probably you what I’m saying like yeah I wonder I wonder if TV dinners are better than you know that’s funny it’s kind of interesting to think about so Abraham Lincoln proclaimed
Thanksgiving in National holiday in 1863 only after the woman who wrote Mary had a little lamb wrote him letters for 17 years begging him to make thanks giving a naal hey passion project like you’re going to do it she just wore him she just wore him down and like writing an
Email those were letters yeah that’s like commitment 17 years 17 years she wrote to him and so when it comes to president’s pardoning the turkeys that’s a little more recent than I guess I thought so Harry Truman was credited but he really didn’t pardon the turkey he actually ate the turkey that the
National Turkey sounds like something Tri do so the national fed the National Turkey Federation who knew they gave him a turkey and he just had it for dinner he’s like well thank you I know what to do with this John F Kennedy was the first to let the turkey go Richard Nixon
Gave his to a petting zoo and then George HW Bush was the first to formalize pardoning a turkey and that was in 1989 well we hope you got some valuable insights while listening to that conversation we would like to thank lamara prco for their support from the
Hills of Veno Italy you can never go wrong with prco whether it’s in a spritz or drinking straight we’d also like to thank you for listening Joan Isabella is our executive producer associate producers are Lisa brancato and David Lions production provided by Studios on the pond and Rowan Neo original music by
The Mallet Brothers this is a production of Detroit public radio station WD subscribe on your favorite podcast app and join us as we explore the world of food and how to cook it right here essential cooking