T-Day 2023 Megathread - Prep, Pride & Postmortem

[Skillet Doux]

It's crunch time, folks.

What are your plans? Is the menu set? Are you bringing a dish or cooking the whole shebang?

I'm really curious to hear what does and doesn't work for everybody.

I'm cooking for six this year, and somehow "taking it easy" still ends up being turkey and gravy plus four sides plus dessert.

• Sous Vide Turkey Breast
• Sous Vide Herbed Turkey Roulade (Chef Steps)
• Turkey Gravy (Riff on Serious Eats)
• Potato and Cauliflower Mash (Improv)
• Squash and Caramelized Onion Tart (Bon Appétit)
• Creamed Onion Gratin (Saveur)
• Winter Greens Salad with Walnuts, Apples, and Parmesan-Anchovy Dressing (Serious Eats)
• Strawberry Shortcake (Riff on Saveur)

The tart, gratin and salad are new this year. I have a friend who raves about the onion gratin, and I keep putting it off every year because I'm concerned the family will turn their noses up at gorgonzola, but screw it. They're getting gorgonzola this year. If they hate it, I get all the onions.

The Chef Steps turkey, BTW, is so flipping wonderful. I pledged years ago to never roast a turkey again. Sous vide all the way. The breast is stupid easy. The leg roulade is a pain in the ass to prep (debone, remove tendons, season, sprinkle with meat glue, wrestle that f**ker into a tube shape, remove air pockets, etc.) but once it's in the sous vide bag, it's a peach, so the only thing to do on T-Day is pull it out of the water and brown it somehow. And it's flipping incredible when it's done — looks impressive and crazy delicious. It's so tender you can slice it into 3/4" slabs and eat it with a fork. And it's already bun-shaped for turkey sandwiches later.

What's your plan?

[honartvandelay]

Cooking for 23 and so getting some commercial help on one of the proteins. We have a mix of vegetarians and meat eaters so much of the sides are vegetarian friendly. I’m making/procuring:

1) Dry brined and spatchcocked turkey (Kenji recipe from years ago)
2) Turkey breast roulade (first time. Using a Martha Stewart recipe)
3) whole brisket (courtesy of the fine folks at Little Miss. Planning to pick up at 9 and hold using sous vide until dinner.
4) dressing (vegetarian) with walnuts, apples and raisins.
5) Rosemary Honey Buttermilk Biscuits (an old Saveur recipe)
6) deep fried Brussels with honey and balsamic (recipe from Food and Wine)
7) grilled broccoli with vegan roasted garlic aioli (an inadequate riff on a dish I have enjoyed over the years at FnB)
8) Braised green beans with tomatoes (Martha Stewart)
9) Maple Syrup pecan pie (old Epicurious recipe)
10) Costco apple pie (which is accidentally vegan)

And others are handling things like yams, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie and other yummy stuff.

I have spatchcocked the Turkey for the last several years and it produces a fantastic bird in a lot less time, which is a huge advantage.

[Lunchbox]

I don't have to cook this year! And with work projects and other busy-ness I'm relieved. FIL was a cook in the army so he knows his way around the kitchen and it usually turns out pretty dang good.

Speaking of onions, I'm making an onion pie. The backstory is that a few years ago we were chatting with some friends about their Thanksgiving traditions. One friend piped in with their sweet onion pie tradition. I, and the rest of our group, hadn't heard of onion pie until she mentioned it... So of course I was like "Whoa, that sounds great, what's in it? What's the recipe?"

She said, "Oh that's a family secret, I can't tell you."

WHAT?! No sharing of recipes? Come on man! She said her aunt showed her how to make it one time and that was it. She was bound to secrecy.

So I did what any self-respecting foodie would do and went and figured it out by using my google-foo skillz. I don't know if it's exact but the friend who's secret family recipe can't be shared, has tried mine and said that it's close. So I call it a win. (Recipe can be found on my personal blog here..) It's pretty delicious IMHO. And it is a huge hit whenever I have served it to people. And now it's become sort of a tradition, especially at Friendsgiving. If you make it please let me know how it comes out.

Have a great holiday everyone!

[Lunchbox]

• Sous Vide Turkey Breast
• Sous Vide Herbed Turkey Roulade (Chef Steps)
  
  The Chef Steps turkey, BTW, is so flipping wonderful. I pledged years ago to never roast a turkey again. Sous vide all the way. The breast is stupid easy. The leg roulade is a pain in the ass to prep (debone, remove tendons, season, sprinkle with meat glue, wrestle that f**ker into a tube shape, remove air pockets, etc.) but once it's in the sous vide bag, it's a peach, so the only thing to do on T-Day is pull it out of the water and brown it somehow. And it's flipping incredible when it's done — looks impressive and crazy delicious. It's so tender you can slice it into 3/4" slabs and eat it with a fork. And it's already bun-shaped for turkey sandwiches later.

This is so intriguing to me. I just watched the video and holy shit. That looks delicious. It is quite ambitious and your knife better be sharp. Please take some pix of yours Mr. Doux. I can't wait to see what it looks like in the real world away from the professional videos... I know yours will be steller looking too but still... Please post a pic...

[Skillet Doux]

Roulade.jpg (408.66 KiB) Viewed 6377 times

Welp, I hate the butchering and rolling just as much as I remember, but NGL, it feels pretty effing good when you plunk the completed roulade down on the cutting board.

Goes in the water at 6:30 AM. I'll get some photos of the completed project. I was going to try frying it this time, but I just put in nine hours in the kitchen and I'm feeling a little less ambitious than I was yesterday Convection oven for the finish, it is.

Squash Tart.jpg (514 KiB) Viewed 6377 times

P.S. Hope this squash tart tastes as good as it looks.

[Skillet Doux]

Hey, speaking of roulades, honartvandelay, how is that Martha Stewart roulade done?

[Skillet Doux]

Eh... roulade didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped. I thought I only did it once because it was a pain in the ass. Now I'm wondering if I was kinda so-so on it last time as well.

Roulade - Torched.jpg (424.99 KiB) Viewed 6346 times

Took Plan C to brown it. Convection oven didn't do it. Possible user error. While it rested pre-browning, it was letting off a lot of juice. I think I may have done a poor job of getting out the air pockets. Couldn't keep it dry. Plan B was the cast iron skillet that I used to brown the breasts (which were awesome as always). Round roulade, flat plan. That didn't work so well. So Plan C was the Searzall. That got it done. Though it was more sizzled than roasted.

Roulade - Sliced.jpg (539 KiB) Viewed 6346 times

Still beats roasting, but tougher than I would have liked. I'm thinking the fact that I subjected it to three (3) heat sources for browning probably played a role in that. The other thing is that my Activa didn't seem to activate. No uniformity at all.

I really want this to work and I can see it working. I think I may have just bungled it.

Squash Tart.jpg (708.93 KiB) Viewed 6346 times

Man, that tart came out beautifully, though. Kind of a lot of work if you're doing the whole dinner, but seems like an awesome "bring a dish" kind of dish.

The gravy is my secret weapon, actually. I got it locked down a couple of years ago. Starts with an old Serious Eats recipe that uses a bit of soy sauce and marmite. I wanted to make it super intense and still nice and viscous, which kind of work at cross purposes. So I start it with double stock (making stock with stock, but I just start with commercial stock and reduce to half a typical volume for the recipe — same difference), use less roux than I would for that volume to get just a little bit of that toasted roux flavor without it getting too floury, then finish the thickening with xanthan gum. Works CRAZY well. That over the dumb potato and cauliflower mash was probably my favorite thing on the table.

[honartvandelay]

It’s just a boneless breast pounded thin, stuffed and rollled. Nothing fancy. It was, fine. Pretty sure it’s not making a repeat appearance.

https://www.marthastewart.com/1095038/turkey-roulade