November 20, 2023 • 48 mins
In this special holiday bonus episode, Martha and her culinary experts field your most pressing Thanksgiving questions. We asked our followers on Instagram, X, and TikTok to send in their Thanksgiving meal planning questions. Ideas for the turkey - or turkey alternatives? Make-ahead sides? Perfect mashed potatoes? Martha, along with Thomas Joseph and Sarah Carey, have you covered. Listen here for Thanksgiving tips to help you create the perfect holiday.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Look at these questions. One hundred and fifty questions came in.
Hello everyone, We are posting this week so that we
can help everyone out there with their Thanksgiving planning. Joining
me today are two of my most trusted culinary experts,
Thomas Joseph and Sarah Carey. I'm sure that you are
(00:24):
familiar with each of them. Between us, we've planned Thanksgiving hotlines,
magazine stories, TV shoots, and Today's Show episodes for more
than twenty years. I can't even count how many turkeys
we've made together. We asked our followers on Instagram, on
(00:45):
x and on TikTok to send us questions about preparing
for the holiday, anything they wanted to know, baking tips,
turkey ideas, what to do about gravy. So let's jump
right in. Sarah, Thomas, are you ready, I'm ready. Yeah,
We've We've gotten a lot of questions. It was a
very effective and I call this the Martha Stewart Turkey Hotline.
(01:08):
We've done this for many, many years, and it's always
kind of fun because I love to know what people
want to know, and we'd like to be there where
and when people need our help. And without the magazine
and published forum right now. We have our website and
there's but this is such an effective way of communicating directly.
(01:30):
So thank you for coming all the way up from
New York City to our studio in Bedford to record
our answers. So here's a good question from Love Paris,
seventy four twenty people, how many sides and how many turkeys? Please?
And thank you? So at least twenty turkeys, don't.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
I don't know if they have enough oven space for that?
Speaker 1 (01:55):
No, twenty people, I would say one large if your
oven can accommodate it. I remember giving Memory Lewis a
thirty five pound turkey, fresh killed from my coop, and
it wouldn't fit in her I had no idea she
had such a little tiny oven, but she had to
(02:15):
cut the turkey in half, and that's sad. So it
depends if two small turkeys, wouldn't you say to like,
twelve pound turkeys would be nice. You could do one
roasted whole and one spatchcocked, which means spitting it down
the backbone and pressing it flat. That's a very nice
way to cook even a small bird. And how many sides?
(02:37):
Twenty people?
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Well, I think for twenty people.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
You want to have enough options for everybody, right, especially
since so many people these days are vegetarians.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
So name some of your favorites.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Well, I love mashed potatoes, of course to me is
at the top of the list, okay, And I really
love stuffing, so I think it's important to have a
stuffing or a dress.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Dingy they call it dressing in the South, I think.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
And then I love vegetables, so you know, there's so
many great autumnal vegetables like honeynuts. Squash would be perfect
to kind of roasted.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Those are the little small butternut squashes that have been
hybridized and so sweet and even just in halves halves
of those roasted with a little brown sugar and butter
and yummy. Wouldn't that be nice?
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Absolutely?
Speaker 3 (03:17):
I think a salad is a great addition because it's
something that you can keep in your refrigerator. Right, so
many people are worried about oven space. So anything that
you can serve room temperature or out other refrigerator, I
think is a nice thing to add to your menu,
or two of them.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Gravy is a must. I don't know if we would
consider that a side dish.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
We'll get into gravy because there are a lot of
questions about gravy. And no, that's not a side dish.
That is an addendum, y essential addendum, Sarah, What about
you vegetables?
Speaker 4 (03:46):
I really really love something crunchy and racing. So this
year I'm making a cul robbie salad.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
So I don't know if everybody knows what col robbie is,
but it's a bulb vegetable, not a root vegetable, and
it grows above the ground and it tastes a little
bit like a cross between very sweet broccoli and like.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
A pick, yeah, a white turnip.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
And it's so delicious and crunchy and in season right now.
And if you put like a sherry vinigrette on it,
it's really nice. Maybe some apple. So I'm really into
that right now, something really crunchy and bright to sort
of offset all the rich dishes.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
You should see what we just picked. What did you pick?
I was in the vegetable card, That's where I was.
That's I'm a little late. I was running around. Well,
first of all, I am picking up Ginko nuts for Masa.
I have a large stain in the seel bowl, which
he wants filled. He asks for a pail of them,
so that's a disgusting job to r. But anyway, the
(04:45):
white turnips are so beautiful, and that a turnip soup
would be great, or a turnip puree would be great.
Speaker 5 (04:53):
A grittan.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Yes, potato and turnups is so nice together. That's really lovely. Okay,
So that's enough answers for you. I've got lots of Paris,
got a lot of answers advocacy Abby on Instagram. Buffet,
family style or plated. Never played it on Thanksgiving. I
know we can't. We cannot do plated well. I mean,
(05:17):
if you have a butler and a couple servers, then
you can do plated if you if you sew shoes.
But people like to pick at a buffet. I always
set that big buffet on the kitchen counter and everyone
is seated in the dining room. First course might be
served or might be served as people sit down, and
then they take their plates and fill and fill and
(05:38):
fill as many times as they like. And it's a
good way to be able to eat a lot.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
If you have a buffet, yeah there's a soup, then
you might want to play that.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
And family style depends on if you have small, small family.
I mean, I think family style is nice for up
to eight people at the most, if the table is
small enough to reach. Otherwise everybody spending all their time
past big serving platters of stuff around the table, and
you can't really enjoy your food. So buffet first of
all for anything over eight people, I think.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
And what are you?
Speaker 1 (06:11):
What are you going to have? Thomas, were are you eating?
Speaker 3 (06:13):
I'm going to be in Buffalo with my sister and
her her five little boys.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Five little boys all under the age.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Of their eight under eight.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Oh, my gosh, and Sarah, where are you going to be?
Speaker 5 (06:25):
I'm going to be at my new house?
Speaker 1 (06:27):
I know. Are you hosting? I am, Oh, your whole family?
Speaker 4 (06:31):
Yes, my mom and dad and my aunt and uncle
and my cousin and my littler brother and my brother
and his girlfriend.
Speaker 5 (06:38):
Yeah, and my kids and Mary Ann.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (06:40):
I'm excited.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Quite a crowd. So you're going to do?
Speaker 5 (06:42):
Yeah, we'll do a buffet and I'll get I'm getting.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
Like a sixteen pound turkey, okay, which hopefully is big enough.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
I think it's big big enough.
Speaker 4 (06:52):
We make a lot of vegetables, and I myself will
have one slice of turkey, and then I just want
the vegetables in the side. So and my mom, not
so secretly, now that I've started hosting, makes a whole
backup turkey at home so that she has leftovers, and
I think my aunt does as well.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
So because I really, I actually really like turkey sandwich. Yeah,
I say, I have to make sure that I get
Sophie to bake me some sour dough because jerkey on
sour dough is so good. Okay, so advocacy Abby at
our Homestead twenty thirty. Cooking a turkey and ham for
(07:30):
approximately fifteen people. What's the timing for each and a
small oven? Well, that's not so hard, no.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
I mean ham first, cam first, Yeah, because a ham
is essentially cooked, right, so you're really just warming it
up and glazing it with whatever you know, whatever you
call tent.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
It nicely with a big piece of parchment and foil
and it'll stay nice and warm. And then you do
your turkey. Make sure you're ture and it's a small
turkey because well, fifteen people, I guess a sixteen pound
turkey would be plenty.
Speaker 5 (08:01):
Of that, especially with a ham.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Yeah, I'm going to a lunch that there's going to
be a ham and a turkey. I prefer just turkey. Yeah,
but it's kind of nice to have a slice of
ham too.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
I mean, I do love ham. I usually divide it.
Thanksgiving is turkey and Christmas is ham, so it's so
close together you get both of them. I don't need
to have them both on the same meal. But I
know a lot of people really love a ham.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Thanksgiving, okay, and so timing I guess ham first. Second,
because you want your turkey to be fresh out of
the oven.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
Unless they have a grill, then they could they then
they could grill their turkey or smoke it.
Speaker 5 (08:39):
If they like smoke. Well, that's a lot of smoke. Sorry,
I retract that because they already have smoked ham.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
So make hands SJ. Can you make traditional mashed potatoes ahead?
I don't want cement, and I would say yes you can,
but you have to heat them in a band Marie
to put them in a glass Pyrex bowl and in
a deep water and let them heat very slowly the
(09:06):
next day, and then they're absolutely fine. Stirring some extra butter.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Yea, or it's some extra cream. If they get a
little butter.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Right, they're richer the better, Right, Thomas.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
It's Thanksgiving, it's the time to splurge.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
And here is somebody else who wants I need a
recipe for make ahead mashed potatoes in a crockpot would
be wonderful. I think you don't make the mashed potato
in the crockpot. You put it in the crockpot and
that could heat it up the next day.
Speaker 5 (09:33):
Also, any mashed potato recipe, right?
Speaker 1 (09:35):
And you know what I do? You know what I
use as a refrigerator during the holidays, porch. Yeah, I
have a nice little enclosed yard of the dog yard
and there's a big table out there and I put
everything that I want to stay cold out there. And
the weather has been just perfect for outdoor refrigeration. So
if you have access to the outdoors on a table,
(09:58):
make sure you don't leave it out over night because
the critters will come, they'll find it. But mashed potatoes, absolutely,
you can make them the day before. How can I
step up my mashed potatoes? Well, if you don't know
my mom's recipe, the best, the best. It has not
only steamed or boiled, peeled good potatoes, just your favorite potato.
(10:19):
And there are many, many choices. Now, what's your favorite
for mashed.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
I really like Yukung gold. Yes, it's starchy, but it
has a little bit of like like bite to it,
which is really nice. And also the color is really
really beautiful. So I think I usually go to a
Yukun gold and you add to it. I heat butter
and milk and salt and pepper and thyme together, and
then I pour that in and I mash it, and
(10:43):
I use a potato masher, not a riser, though sometimes
I use a riser to if I want it really fine.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
If you don't know what a riser is, you should
really look it up. It's a contraption that pushes the
cooked soft potatoes through three sides well really size and
a bottom of a contraption, and it really does do
a very good job of breaking up all that fiber.
So depending on your potato, but my mom always used
(11:10):
a mesher. I like to use a riser. Don't use
an electric mixer necessarily. It makes kind of glue. Yeah,
we don't want glue. But I add cream cheese. I'll
see whole eight ounces of Philadelphia cream cheese to mine.
Do you do anything else, Thomas?
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Sometimes I'll put some brown butter on top of the
mashed potatoes, which is nice. And even if you don't
have the time to do the browning of the butter and.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Every extra butter on Thanksgiving, to do brown butter, that
takes and we timed it today it took about fifteen minutes.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
So it's a great flavorful addition, right, it really is.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
And brown butter is basically just potatoes heated to boiling
in a saucepan. Watch out, watch it. They don't boil over.
And what you're doing is cooking the milk solids in
the butter until they are kind of a nutty brown.
And that's it. That's brown butter. Darlene Riley from Connecticut, Hello,
it's my job this year to make sweet potatoes. I
(12:09):
need a recipe for fifteen people for roasted sweet potatoes.
Can you help specifically with how many and time and temperature.
That's a nice challenge, because, yeah, sweet potatoes are so delicious.
Speaker 5 (12:21):
I like a roasted sweet potato. So I would say for.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
Fifteen people, maybe eight potatoes, and you can either just
bake them in the oven at four hundred degrees until
they're soft right in their skins and scoop them out
and treat them like mashed potatoes, and they're really nice
with brown butter with sage in it. So if you
want to make something like a mash like that but
not make it sweet the way that the marshmallow top
(12:48):
mashed potatoes are, I would say eight potatoes with a
sticker stick and a half of butter brown like Martha
just said, throw some sage in right at the end
so it sort of crisps up, and then mix that
into your sweet potatoes or cut them into wedges, toss
them with a little bit of olive oil, and just
roast them until they're nice and caramelized and beautiful. And
(13:11):
you could sort of treat them the same way with
stage I think, is such a nice accompaniment or time
right on the tray.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Do you ever boil your sweet potatoes first and then
roast them?
Speaker 5 (13:20):
I haven't done that.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
I do that?
Speaker 5 (13:21):
Is that more beautiful and delicious?
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Well, it just softens them up so nicely for roasting,
and then and then I usually cut them in half
lengthwise and put them flat on the pan and then
drizzle your toppings on it. And that's another nice way
to serve meshed potato.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
I think that's actually really nice because I do find
sometimes when I'm roasting a sweet potato that they get
darker than I want. And I think maybe your method the.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Color you want. And another my favorite way to cook
sweet potatoes is home and a sliced cut slice about
a little less than a quarter of an inch thick,
and layer them in a baking dish with butter and
sage or thyme and salt and pepper, and then roast
them with a lot of butter. And that's that is
(14:11):
palm Anda. And so they're so good.
Speaker 5 (14:14):
You made that last year?
Speaker 1 (14:14):
That's great.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
That was that's probably on the Roku show people can
see that recipe.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
So here is Dear Martha, this is a nice one
from Monica Field. What do you suggest for a couple
who will spend Thanksgiving Day dinner alone? We do not
really want to go out to a restaurant. Can you
suggest alternatives to a turkey? Because it's so large for
just two people, I can make the traditional side dishes
in a small amount. Thank you, So that's not so
(14:44):
much of a challenge, would you say, I mean some
people cook a small chicken for two. Our beautiful stuffed
chicken from the from our restaurant, The Bedford would be delicious.
The stuffing is under the skin, not inside the bird,
and that's a nice recipe.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
That would be great.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
Or a game bird, A nice game bird would be nice.
Guinea fowl or I mean, even if you wanted to
be super duper plated, you could do little.
Speaker 5 (15:14):
Cornish game hends one per person.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
I personally do not like cornish, do you not?
Speaker 5 (15:19):
Is it too annoying to you?
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Don't know. I just don't like the taste of them
compared to other poultry. Guinea fowl I love.
Speaker 5 (15:26):
Didn't we just do a guinea fowl with Claire Debauer
from the pot roasted?
Speaker 1 (15:30):
That was a pheasant's You could do that way, I am.
I have a plethora of guinea fowl running around. I
hatched them this year. We hatched way too many and
they are crazy, and I think, Monica, maybe you should
just invite a couple more people. I mean, there are
so many people who have, you know, similar circumstances to
(15:53):
or two or one. Find those people. This year, my
daughter is going away going to the Sequoias, So I'm
going to have lunch with Steven Sills and Kevin sharkey
and several other friends, and Stephen wants to do the ham.
I want to do the turkey because I know my
turkey is so much better than anybody else's turkey, So
(16:13):
I want to do that, but he said not too.
He doesn't want me to do anything. But I'm going
to bake pies. And again, we're just collecting people to
have Thanksgiving with it that might be alone. I don't
think it's a good time to be alone. So good
luck with your dinner for two. I'm sure it's going
to be delicious. Christina Hullingbau from Boston says Martha, I've
(16:43):
been a huge fan. We just bought our first helm
and we want to host our first Thanksgiving. My husband
plans to smoke a turkey. But we have multiple vegetarian friends.
What options would you recommend for Thanksgiving vegetarian main courses
for a group that also doesn't love mushrooms? See, no,
I don't even think of mushrooms at Thanksgiving time. It's funny,
(17:03):
I just don't, do.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
You know.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
I think I always think of like the autumnal vegetables, right,
like so the squash, so.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Many things for vegetarians, and you know, my family's vegetarian,
but they're allowed. The children are allowed to eat my
turkey on Thanksgiving only if it's for my turkey hoop.
So that's good and that's smart because it's sustainable and
healthy and good. I mean, we mentioned already quite a
few different dishes, but Brussels press we haven't mentioned be great.
(17:31):
I love brussels preass and roasted with olive oil in
the oven, just until they're a beautiful caramelized brown color.
Is so good. Do you have another way that you like?
Speaker 5 (17:42):
I mean, that is the way that I like them.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
I personally for Brussels sprouts like to blanch them and
get them kind of soft and then have them a
little bit fresh with like lemon juice and fresh with butter.
But my family only likes some roasted. There's several people
in my family that will only eat them that way,
including my father, my daughter, So I usually do roast them.
But also a shaved salad is really.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Nice of Brussels sprouts.
Speaker 5 (18:06):
Oh yes, yes, annoying because he has all the Brussels sprouts.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
But Sarah has just shaved the chip of her talking
about that. We don't want any thumb tips in our salads.
Oh gosh, you know, watch out with those mandolins, everybody.
The new Japanese mandolins are so sharp and so fabulous,
oh so good. We just did a segment for our
(18:31):
TV at masa who is who just got three stars?
Three stars from Michelan Yes, and he showed me his
fried potatoes. They're so so tiny, the thinnest, thinnest Julian
to I get potato whatever you want to call it, Julian,
but it's so fine that it's almost indecipherable. It's like
(18:52):
it's like string, little string that just fried in rice oil. Oil. Yes,
oh yes, this is the new this is the new oil.
You need not have to do. Yes, you have to.
If you're going to fry anything for Thanksgiving, it has
to be in rice oil. But I'm going to do
that because I have so many potatoes that we dug.
I am going to do that very fine, as not
(19:14):
as fine as his, but almost as fine. On the
on the new Japanese mandolin that I just got, and
I am going to fry those in rice oil, and
they are deliciously just like crunching your mouth, you know,
really nice, yeah, really pretty, Martha.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
One one thing I think is a great idea that
you do a lot for Thanksgiving is stuffing inside of pumpkin,
which is really impressive. It makes your guests where vegetarians
think that you've gone through the effort of something really special.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Yeah, well really really nice fruit and nut and bread
stuffing stuffed into and you can pre cook the squash
or pumpkin a little bit. I just did it last
week for TV. I've done I think I've counted like
sixteen turkeys already this year. Yes, I mean, if you
want to see the parchment wrapped turkey, the new turkey
(20:03):
one oh two, Yeah, the new turkey. That one O
one was the cheese cloth soaked in white wine and butter.
Now this one is just parchment wrapped around and stapled shut,
and a really good parchment envelope around a turkey that's
been stuffed and slathered with softened butter and salt and pepper.
(20:24):
And boy, the first one I made, when I took
it out of the I took it out of the
envelope of parchment and then it stays back in the
even until the skin browns. It tasted like peking duck.
The skin was so and it was so moist it was.
That was a heritage turkey, fresh killed. Look for your
heritage birds. Look for a fresh killed turkey, not frozen,
(20:47):
if you can. I mean, they're very expensive if you
don't unless you raise them yourself. But they are delicious.
They really change your idea of turkey.
Speaker 5 (20:56):
The heritage ones are really pretty magnots.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Yeah, they really are. And might think that they don't
have as much meat as the great big butter balls,
but actually they.
Speaker 5 (21:04):
Have a lot of meat and it's so tasty.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Yeah, and they're so elongated and one piece of that
is equal to five pieces of sort of dried turkey.
Nobody says about brining. We can't. I can't wait together
for the brining question. So there's so many great vegetarian recipes.
Please just go to Martha Stewart dot com and look
up sides for Thanksgiving. There are wonderful, wonderful sides. So
(21:28):
aside from brussel cranberries, don't forget your cranberry sauce homemade.
Do not open a cant I'm sorry, do not. You
must make your own. It's j Heller of the Black
and Turkey fame. She made three quarts of cranberries for
her bank lunch. She did, and she doesn't cook anything.
(21:48):
So she had one package of cranberries that's a pound,
I guess, and one cup of sugar and one cup
of fresh orange juice. That's it. And you cook that
until the cranberries done. And that's so good. And I
like to then turn that into a turkey mold. I
put it in my beautiful turkey molds and and unmold
(22:09):
the beautiful cranberry turkeys. Oh, corn bread, we haven't even
talked about baking a fresh corn bread.
Speaker 5 (22:16):
This is getting to be very alarid.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
Well, no, but this is mold for I do. I
bake them in those beautiful turkey molds. Who's our maker?
Nordic ware from the from the Midwest, the North Midwest.
They make those fabulous turkey molds. Wedges of acorn squash or.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
Stuffed acorn squash is also another gray, sort of hearty
vegetarian name.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
With grains, nice grains. You could do vulgart weed and
make a nice stuffing out of that with onions and carrots.
That'd be pretty, yeah, beautiful. I'm getting some ideas. Kristen
from Fernandina Beach. I'm a pescatarian do you have any
recipes suggestions for a fish main course? Yeah, there's yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
I mean I love of a beautiful side of salmon
just simply roasted, and then at Thanksgiving because of the seasonality,
like a pomegranate relish is really nice on top of that.
So just fresh and bright. So just pomegranate seeds with
a little olive oil and lemon zest and any hind
of herbs that you like, parsley, mint, dill, and then
(23:21):
just put that over the top of the cooked side
of salmon and you can slow cook it in the
oven at two hundred and fifty degrees. It only takes
about thirty minutes with lemon slices. So beautiful, beautiful.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
That would be great. Yeah, And I'm being into monkfish now.
I just I don't know why munk fish so much.
But Eric Repair from baron Aded just taught us a
really delicious monkfish simply simply cooked in a vinegar brought
kind of a vinegar boon to start and it's so simple,
and then roasted with butter and it was so good
(23:55):
in a few herbs. That's a nice recipes, nice meaty fish.
And he has a new book out. So if you're
a pescatarian, you should really get Eric Repairs New fish books.
Is it called simpimp simply fish or something like that.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
Well, and those recipes, those that rokusho will be airing
and people can see them.
Speaker 5 (24:14):
But they're really incredible.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Not before Thanksgiving. Oh here's Stacy Lottery. Remember Stacy I do. Yes, Yeah,
she's our former alum and she's hosting her first Thanksgiving
this year in her own New York City apartment. And
I thought getting a spatchcock turkey would be best since
I know it will take less time and not overheat
my apartment. So I think that's a good idea. Yep.
(24:39):
But should she put cheese cloth over the top of
the turkey? No, no, you do not have to. My
mom has used that she's got the method forever and
is insisting I do that as well. You do not
have to read our spatchcock turkey recipe. It is so delicious, Stacey,
and it roasts flat quickly. All the vegetables can be
put a round it or even under it, and you
(25:01):
will have a very intentalizing, delicious big turkey. So oh,
have fun. You can call Sarah on Thanksgiving morning everybody
else will be when chesus Oh has anyone ever has
ever smoked a turkey? Thomas Joseph has smoked turkeys perfectly
as I have. And if you have one of those domes,
(25:23):
they work the best, don't you think? Yep, yep, it's
turkey right here? Oh there it is. Yeah, what what
issue was that? This was November one, twenty twenty one
from Martha Stewart Living Magazine Toma pics smoke turkey, but
go to Marthastewart dot com. The recipe is right there,
and you will love that smoke turkey. And we don't
(25:45):
make it too smoky, but we do cook it thoroughly,
and it is a delectable, delectable turkey.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
It just takes time, it does. It's a very low temperature.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Low low temperature. You do not want to burn it.
You do not want to dry it out at all.
Speaker 4 (26:00):
A nice thing about a smoke turkey is the most beautiful,
even golden all over color.
Speaker 5 (26:07):
And it holds up really really nicely.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Oh it does. Yeah, it stays. It stays looking like
it was just yeah, it exactly.
Speaker 5 (26:15):
And it's also nice.
Speaker 4 (26:16):
You can serve a smoke turkey room temperature, which is
nice if you are into that kind of thing and
you want to have something that's make ahead.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Here's a sophisticated question. When you do a dinner of appetizer,
soup or salad, main course, and dessert, what formula do
you use to balance the flavors so that they compliment
each other. That's a good question, and it's not really
Thanksgiving me, but we can apply it to Thanksgiving. So
soup is so nice at Thanksgiving? I think do you
(26:44):
like serving soup as a first time I don't often
do it, but it's mostly just a matter of service
service in space.
Speaker 4 (26:53):
But I do think that it's really nice to be
one of your very simple vegetable puree soups that are
are like a very light puree is really nice.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
Like a squash soup or a carrot soup, or a
fennel soup, or a celery root. And I have the
best celery roots this year. I have never grown such monsters.
But the flavor should be different. If you're looking for
four different kinds of flavors, don't repeat yourself, So don't
don't have roasted pumpkin or a roasted orange squash. If
(27:24):
you're going to have a pumpkin pie for dessert, and
that pumpkin merangue miileheigh merangue. That's a nice nice or
a pumpkin breulet tart would be nice. But don't have
squash drink for the meals. Have other vegetables, greener vegetables,
mashed potatoes better than squash. And the turkey should be
(27:44):
you know, stuffed appropriately depending on what you're not having
in the other courses. What kind of what's your favorite stuffing, Thomas,
My favorite stuffing.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
I just like a lot of flavor in my stuffing,
so I'd like a lot of onions, leaks, celery. I
think it's really important that you Most often I add
more than a recipe calls for I'm not a big
fruit person in my stuffing, and I don't really love
nuts that much.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
But something sausage. It depends.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
I think it depends on who's going to be I
never with us. Yeah, my nephews. They don't really like
a lot of stuff in their stuffing, so I try
to avoid that. But sometimes I'll actually put in a
little bit of heavy cream. So it's kind of a
hybrid between a stuffing and almost like a bread pudding,
but not as wet, yeah, richness, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
That's so interesting. Look at these questions. One hundred and
fifty questions came in. We are skipping the bird and
just slicing up pre cooked turkey brists. Ah, please don't
judge us. We're going to judge. You. Roast your own
(28:57):
turkey breast. I mean, it's so easy to roast and
so so far superior to buying a cooked turkey breast.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Don't you think I do.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
It's so easy to roast a turkey breast. And is
there anything they can add to the broth or breasts
itself to add extra flavor? I mean, I don't think
you really can improve it too, too terribly much. It's
really easy just buy it. It's going to take you
how long to cook a turkey breast, like an hour
and a half an hour?
Speaker 3 (29:24):
If that, it depends on the size, and there are
you know, smaller turkey breasts. I would say get bone
in because it will give you more flavor and also
it will give you the foundation to make a gravy too,
which you can put over your slice turkey.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
If that's we only cook a Kira yosha. Oh do
you know this? Akira Yoshima? Yes, this is a very
good friend of all of ours, a colleague and a friend,
and he's we only cook the dark meat part of
the turkey thighs and wings on a baking sheet and
cook cranberry sauce on the side. What kind of salad
would you recommend so the entire meal will be balanced? Also,
(30:00):
can you recommend an alternative sauce to gravy? So only
the dark meat? What does he do with the rest?
I wonder can you just buy You.
Speaker 4 (30:10):
Can buy thigh You can buy any of the pieces, right,
so you probably just buy turkey thighs.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Sometimes I like to make gravy and then I'll also
make like a salt of air day, like an herb
sauce that I think helps to compliment all the rich
foods on the Thanksgiving plate. So I think you could
try that.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Malized onions would be nice on dark meat of turky.
Can that be good?
Speaker 5 (30:33):
That would be delicious?
Speaker 1 (30:34):
There's so many good things to make the salad. I
love butternut squashing, a salad that you can roast little
thin slices and put that in your salad with pomegranate
seeds and celery. And what else would you put in there.
Maybe sliced apple also, I.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
Think that would be nice, so you get some different
textures and flavor and.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
A beautiful ridicio. I love all the ridicios that people
are serving salads now with so many different Yeah, it's
so beautiful, all those different triviso riduicuios. So Akira, have
a nice lunch. It's gonna sounds good. High Gurly, this
is from a Monique or Tegas. She's saying, Hi, Gurly,
(31:15):
been a big fan house snoop. Anyways, I'm throwing a
drags giving. If the drag show starts at five pm,
when should I put the turkey in? Well, it depends
on what size.
Speaker 5 (31:27):
Your turkey is, and also they're planning on eating.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Drag show is dinner.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
Yeah, it depends on the size of your turkey and
how you're gonna cook it, right, I mean, if you
spatchcock a turkey, it really would only take like an
hour to maybe an hour and a half to.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Do your backwards. Monique, you have to work backwards. So
if you're when you want everything ready at five, uh,
check the size of your turkey the number of minutes
it takes to roast that particular size turkey or shape
of turkey, and all your vegetable size and everything and
have a real good time. Girly, what's the tip for
(32:02):
staying organized when having Thanksgiving company? Well, it depends how
organized you are as a person. It is hard to
manage the guests, manage the table, manage the drinks, manage
the food itself, and have a little bit of help.
Try to have somebody helping you with the drinks so
you don't have to think about that. And also maybe
(32:24):
have somebody else think about the dessert so you don't
have to think about that. But you have to be
very neat. But you have to pay attention to your
friends and your family on Thanksgiving Day.
Speaker 5 (32:37):
I have one thing to add to that. In terms
of prep.
Speaker 4 (32:40):
What I like to do is keep everything prep to
buy recipe in my refrigerator. So I try to clean
my refrigerator a couple of days ahead, clean it out
so it's as empty as possible. And then, if your
refrigerator can accommodate this, put things on little pans or
sheet pans or something, buy recipe and then I take
them out and I make and make them as I
(33:01):
need them, and then i'm I know I'm not missing it.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
So that's called mees on. Please. That is a very
good way to stay organized for something like this. In
the same vein this is low law mark seventy seven.
How can I keep the kitchen consistently clean throughout Thanksgiving Day? Before?
It should be impeccable and after you can do the
final big cleanup after your guests leave, But don't take
(33:27):
out the broom while they're there. Yeah, but you can
wipe the counters down a little bit with a damp rag,
but don't. Don't be sweeping and vacuuming while people are
still around.
Speaker 4 (33:39):
Clean as you go, yes, and ran as you go
that way. When you get to that point, you don't
need to. You won't be thinking about it because you'll
have a pretty clean space already.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
Yes. Oh for pie crusts here, this is chicksimaw. Is
there really a difference in the outcome when using unsalted butter?
Speaker 5 (33:56):
Oh, that's such a great question, because we were just
we were just talking about that.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
I will tell you.
Speaker 4 (34:04):
So, we have a little bit of an abundance of
salted butter here right now and a shortage of unsalted
So we discussed this and we're making our pie crust
with salted butter. Our recipe the Martha's pat prese uses
about one and a half teaspoons of kosher salt or two.
I actually usually use two, which is about one teaspoon
(34:25):
of fine salt. What we're doing is using salted butter
and then getting rid of almost all the salt except
about a quarter of a teaspoon, just to sort of
enhance the flavor slightly. I think that's a good amount
for many people. They might just leave the salt out altogether.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
I have to make at least twenty five pies on
the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, to be picked up starting at
four pm. So I have a very and Tuesday I
have to work all day. Well, I made you a
little gift through some piecrust, thank you so much. And
I'm making the rest of the pie crist tonight and
(35:04):
putting it in the freezer. Nice disks of pie crest,
and those will all be rolled out this weekend and
put into and frozen. What I did today was send
out the questionnaire with I think they have five or
six choices of pie. There's a lemon pie, there is
a cranberry charge, there is a pecan chocolate or plane
(35:24):
pecan tart. There is a pumpkin meringue, and there is
what other pies?
Speaker 5 (35:31):
App you're not doing apple.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
I'm doing apple for myself, but you know how long
it takes to peel and cut up the apples.
Speaker 5 (35:38):
It also doesn't hold up as well as the other one.
So these are the new one.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
The new one that I just created, the apple sauce
just top of the tart that has the apple sauce tarts.
It really holds up beautifully. Second day it's just as good.
Speaker 4 (35:51):
And apple pie doesn't hold up as well. And so
those are such great options.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
These all holds. Yeah. I learned that from Joanne from
up in Boston from Join Chang, Yes, because she said,
you know, they don't they do not hold up in
the bakery. And so she has her little tips for
making things last longer. And that pear tart that yeah, yeah, oh,
that was so good, and she poaches the pears first
(36:18):
right then layers them into a pre baked crust. She
gave me one unbaked for and I froze it and
it was delectable.
Speaker 5 (36:27):
Yeah, you baked it directly from frozen.
Speaker 4 (36:29):
So that's actually a great tip for people if they're
nervous and feel overwhelmed.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
They can make some of their tarts ahead of time
and freeze.
Speaker 4 (36:37):
Them, especially with the pre cooked fruit. But that's what
we were talking about this morning, that the roasted or
poached pears are really nice because they don't exude liquid.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
That's right, So Jennifer Moore says this Thanksgiving, my daughter
is sixteen, fourteen and twelve and myself will be at
home for Thanksgiving. Oven broke this year Gus thermostat, and
as a single parent, replacement is too costly. We have
been able to get along fine with just the stovetop,
air fryer and microwave. Do you have any dinner planning
(37:08):
suggestions aside from Thanksgiving carry out? Well? Okay, well, you
can do a lot of stuff on the stovetop. I
have not used an air fryer for any turkey, have.
Speaker 5 (37:18):
You, No, It depends on what kind they have.
Speaker 4 (37:21):
If it's big enough, they could do turkey breast in
an airy fryer.
Speaker 5 (37:25):
I don't know what sid like. There are a lot
of different kinds.
Speaker 4 (37:27):
The drawer versions don't work quite as well for something
like that, but if they have the sort of toaster
oven kind, I feel like that would work right now?
Speaker 1 (37:35):
Tim, you used airs?
Speaker 3 (37:37):
Yeah, oh yeah, lots of different models. I live in
a small apartment, so I don't have a room for
a lot of appliances. But there are a lot of
great quality air friers that are large enough to accommodate
a turkey breast.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
But Jennifer, you are challenged this year with your lack
of an oven, but you can do such great things.
I think the idea of doing a nice turkey breast
skin on would be very nice in the air fryer exactly.
And you can also microwave is not good for a
turkey breast. You would not be cooking. But many of
(38:08):
the vegetables can be cooked very successfully if you know
how in the microwave. And your stovetop is great for
most things.
Speaker 4 (38:15):
Mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, any green vegetable. We didn't
talk about cream spinach, should we?
Speaker 1 (38:22):
Oh? Cream spring spinach so good? And she says ps.
My autistic daughter Marin loves Big Martha's mashed potatoes and
enjoys helping to make them each holiday. Thanksgiving Blessings to
you all.
Speaker 2 (38:35):
Isn't that nice?
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Oh? I wish I could send you a pie? Say
hi to your to your lovely girls, and I'm sure
you'll have a delicious dinner.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
Yeah, she could.
Speaker 3 (38:44):
I mean also if she has a grill, right, you
could also spatchcock a turkey and cook it on the grill.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
Lisa Wagner. I believe she does that every year.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
She makes such a good turkey, so very slow, grill covered,
covered grilly. Yeah. Maybe if you don't have one, maybe
somebody could borrow one. Peta sushi. How can I serve
pecan pie warm without it melting?
Speaker 5 (39:05):
We've experienced this.
Speaker 4 (39:07):
I think you have to bake it, cool it and
then just warm it gently in the oven once it's
been fully Yeah, you can't cut a warm pecan pie,
but you can warm it.
Speaker 5 (39:20):
We've done this, right.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
I don't like warm pie.
Speaker 5 (39:24):
Yeah, I hate to say. I don't really love warm
pie either. I never I never warm.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
I do not like warm apple pie with ice cream
melting all over it.
Speaker 5 (39:33):
No, I don't either.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Do you have a present movie you watch in the
evening after Thanksgiving?
Speaker 4 (39:40):
Well, we used to watch the Wizard of Us because
that would that would be on every Thanksgiving. This is
gonna sound super boogey, but now we get the screeners
because Mary's and the producer's guilt, So we usually just
watch the new movie.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
No, I think we play cards now. Cards are a
big after dinner. It's nice activity, yes.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
To keep you awake and engaged.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
Right, to make good drinks, nice fourbon sours with cider. Yeah,
there's all kinds of good things to do after dinner.
Or scrabble and then have a sandwich late. Yeah, I
can't wait for my sandwich. Turkey cranberry stuffing and gravy
has to be my gravy thickens in the pan, but
(40:24):
thin's back out as it cools. Nor am I doing wrong?
Speaker 2 (40:30):
It's a good question.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
Yeah, let's see chemistry lessons In chemistry.
Speaker 3 (40:35):
One would think that it would actually thicken as it cools. Right,
So I mean my advice would be, we have a
great gravy one O one recipe.
Speaker 2 (40:42):
I would say, look at that.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
Follow to Martha Stewart dot com and look up gravy
one oh one and you will not have a watery gravy.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (40:51):
And another thing I would add is if you ever
do have a thin gravy, Wondra right, the instant flower
that is available at all grocery stores.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
It comes in a blue cylinder.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
Right, mixed with a little bit of broth.
Speaker 3 (41:04):
Broth, Yeah, and it thickens up almost immediately with heat.
So if you can, you can easily whisk it and
it doesn't clump up right at all.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
It's a it's a great tip.
Speaker 1 (41:12):
I love wonder. I use it for several things. Oh,
here's a good one. Joseph Dale Pats asks what side
of aluminum foil should face the food, the shiny or
the dull? Does it matter? Yes, it does matter. No
side of the aluminum foil should face the food. I
line all my aluminum foil that I'm using for anything
(41:34):
with parchment paper by yourself, some sheets of parchment or
a roll, and do not let the aluminum foil really
touch your food. Well, it's a bad habit, first of all,
I think. And if you're say cooking something with acid
like tomatoes or lemon, the illuminum foil actually deteriorates onto
your food and you can see little holes in the foil,
(41:57):
so you're ingesting that. Remember, just use just use foil.
There's nothing wrong with using foil. Is a nice cover
like a blanket, but line it with parchment please. Oh,
this is a nice one dap Bert asks what is
an easy and unusual hostess gift for friends giving?
Speaker 5 (42:17):
Oh, that's nice.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
We did that cranberry cordial, which was very delicious, lovely. Yep,
that recipe is available and you just it's vodka with
cranberries and a little bit of sugar and in a
pretty decorative jar and wrapped with a nice red ribbon.
That's a nice gift. What else would you be giving?
Speaker 3 (42:39):
I love to give like a dessert wine, so kind
of skipping over a table wine that you know you
could serve for dinner. Just something special for after dinner
I think is really nice.
Speaker 4 (42:49):
Something for breakfast I think is always nice if you're
going to someone's home, Like if you make a homemade
granola or you know someplace that makes amazing croissants, you
can bring those to your posts and they can have
a nice relaxing breaface the next day, or a great
loaf of bread for their sandwiches the next egg that's
a nice gift.
Speaker 1 (43:07):
And I always take like a dozen eggs, or if
you have chickens. I have chickens, and this year I
might be taking celery roots because I have so many
celery roots that are like they weigh about nine pounds each. Martha,
what's your favorite Thanksgiving food? Oh, dear, this is that's
such a hard I love a really good pumpkin pie,
(43:30):
and I love a really good stuffing, and I love
a perfectly roasted heritage turkey. Just I mean, those are
so traditional, and they might sound boring to you guys,
but they're awfully good classics for a reason. Oh you
had a chip last year from mahoosh Oh seven for
getting rid of garlic smell? What about onion smell? I
(43:53):
stuff my turkey and now my hands stink. Well, onion
is basically soap and water. But garlic is rubbing your
hands on something stainless steel, a stainless steel bowl running
under hot water, and with a little soap it takes
every evidence of garlic off your hands. You can use
a stainless steel knife, just don't cut yourself, And that
(44:16):
is so good. How to repurpose turkey? What do you
do with leftover turkey? Thomas?
Speaker 2 (44:22):
I'd love a turkey sandwich.
Speaker 1 (44:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (44:24):
I usually will roast a separate turkey or turkey breast
so that there's enough. With five little kids running around,
they all want a turkey sandwich.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
The next day. So I really I'm kind of a purist.
Speaker 1 (44:34):
And that's that's good. Yeah it's Sarah.
Speaker 4 (44:36):
I almost every year make a turkey leftover pie. So
all the things that you described in your sandwich, I
put into pie crust and I bake into a pie
with the gravy, even with the mashed potatoes, anything that
we have left, even if there are roasted vegetables, I
layer everything in there.
Speaker 1 (44:55):
Sarah is a pie maven. So this is what I
never told you that a right it. You did that
with your pie.
Speaker 4 (45:01):
But I also do you know, I tend not to
love turkey broth, but last year I also don't like
to throw things away, so I always make a broth.
So I made my turkey broth with the carcass of
my turkey, and I made a really spicy soup with
chilis and lime and lime juice and cilantro and lemon
(45:24):
grass so it was and ginger. So it was very,
very flavorful. It could be less spicy if you don't
like spice, just.
Speaker 1 (45:29):
The ginger and the herbs beans in it or anything
like that.
Speaker 5 (45:32):
I didn't do that.
Speaker 4 (45:33):
I just ate it as a broth, and it was
really really nice. But also I was sick lass Thanksgiving,
so it's very nice. If you're not feeling well, you
can freeze it. I really loved that as a great
use for the turkey carcass.
Speaker 5 (45:47):
It was nice.
Speaker 1 (45:49):
So here's something, Martha. Is there a ceramic paint that
is food grade to cover the lead based paints and
old dishes. Don't go there. It's just not worth it.
Put those plates on a shelf, and consignment shops have
so many stacks of beautiful plates right now. I went
(46:09):
to some consignment shops last weekend. I found such beautiful
things very inexpensively. So don't go painting your chipped or
worn plates. It's not a good IDEA. Need help with
an easy beginner pie crust recipe? Please? The easiest recipe
and the most flavorful and delicious is pie crust like
R one oh one, which is two and a half
(46:32):
cups of flour, two sticks of unsalted butter, a teaspoon
and a half of salt, and ice water. I also
sometimes put a teaspoon of sugar and ice water, and
I do it in the food processor. Mix your flour
and salt, add butter, cut up into like quarter inch
cubes icy cold butter. My rule is make it cold,
(46:56):
bake it hot, and you add ice water by tablespoon
until it just comes together. Roll it into a disc
between two sheets of plastic wrap. Chill it, roll it,
form it into a pan. Couldn't be easier. Look it
up Marthastewart dot com. I think we've answered an awful
lot of questions a question, but I just wanted people
(47:16):
to also know that our complete, no Failed Guide to
Thanksgiving Turkey. It is a like a six page story.
This is the November twenty seventeen issue. You know what,
I'm going to put this on my Instagram. H Jocelyn Joscelyn,
who helps me with all things blog and Instagram, et cetera,
(47:37):
et cetera. Let us post this, Okay, our complete, no
failed Guide to Thanksgiving. We're going to do that. I
promise you all. Just go to Martha Stewart forty eight
has essential tools that you need, how to prep, how
to select a turkey, how to carve and plate, and
how to cook. It's really great. Thank you Thomas, thank
(47:58):
you Sarah, and thank all of you for your questions.
And I hope our conversation has helped you I have
a really beautiful and friendly Thanksgiving
Look at these questions. One hundred and fifty questions came in.
Hello everyone, We are posting this week so that we
can help everyone out there with their Thanksgiving planning. Joining
me today are two of my most trusted culinary experts,
Thomas Joseph and Sarah Carey. I'm sure that you are
(00:24):
familiar with each of them. Between us, we've planned Thanksgiving hotlines,
magazine stories, TV shoots, and Today's Show episodes for more
than twenty years. I can't even count how many turkeys
we've made together. We asked our followers on Instagram, on
(00:45):
x and on TikTok to send us questions about preparing
for the holiday, anything they wanted to know, baking tips,
turkey ideas, what to do about gravy. So let's jump
right in. Sarah, Thomas, are you ready, I'm ready. Yeah,
We've We've gotten a lot of questions. It was a
very effective and I call this the Martha Stewart Turkey Hotline.
(01:08):
We've done this for many, many years, and it's always
kind of fun because I love to know what people
want to know, and we'd like to be there where
and when people need our help. And without the magazine
and published forum right now. We have our website and
there's but this is such an effective way of communicating directly.
(01:30):
So thank you for coming all the way up from
New York City to our studio in Bedford to record
our answers. So here's a good question from Love Paris,
seventy four twenty people, how many sides and how many turkeys? Please?
And thank you? So at least twenty turkeys, don't.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
I don't know if they have enough oven space for that?
Speaker 1 (01:55):
No, twenty people, I would say one large if your
oven can accommodate it. I remember giving Memory Lewis a
thirty five pound turkey, fresh killed from my coop, and
it wouldn't fit in her I had no idea she
had such a little tiny oven, but she had to
(02:15):
cut the turkey in half, and that's sad. So it
depends if two small turkeys, wouldn't you say to like,
twelve pound turkeys would be nice. You could do one
roasted whole and one spatchcocked, which means spitting it down
the backbone and pressing it flat. That's a very nice
way to cook even a small bird. And how many sides?
(02:37):
Twenty people?
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Well, I think for twenty people.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
You want to have enough options for everybody, right, especially
since so many people these days are vegetarians.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
So name some of your favorites.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Well, I love mashed potatoes, of course to me is
at the top of the list, okay, And I really
love stuffing, so I think it's important to have a
stuffing or a dress.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Dingy they call it dressing in the South, I think.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
And then I love vegetables, so you know, there's so
many great autumnal vegetables like honeynuts. Squash would be perfect
to kind of roasted.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Those are the little small butternut squashes that have been
hybridized and so sweet and even just in halves halves
of those roasted with a little brown sugar and butter
and yummy. Wouldn't that be nice?
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Absolutely?
Speaker 3 (03:17):
I think a salad is a great addition because it's
something that you can keep in your refrigerator. Right, so
many people are worried about oven space. So anything that
you can serve room temperature or out other refrigerator, I
think is a nice thing to add to your menu,
or two of them.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Gravy is a must. I don't know if we would
consider that a side dish.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
We'll get into gravy because there are a lot of
questions about gravy. And no, that's not a side dish.
That is an addendum, y essential addendum, Sarah, What about
you vegetables?
Speaker 4 (03:46):
I really really love something crunchy and racing. So this
year I'm making a cul robbie salad.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
So I don't know if everybody knows what col robbie is,
but it's a bulb vegetable, not a root vegetable, and
it grows above the ground and it tastes a little
bit like a cross between very sweet broccoli and like.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
A pick, yeah, a white turnip.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
And it's so delicious and crunchy and in season right now.
And if you put like a sherry vinigrette on it,
it's really nice. Maybe some apple. So I'm really into
that right now, something really crunchy and bright to sort
of offset all the rich dishes.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
You should see what we just picked. What did you pick?
I was in the vegetable card, That's where I was.
That's I'm a little late. I was running around. Well,
first of all, I am picking up Ginko nuts for Masa.
I have a large stain in the seel bowl, which
he wants filled. He asks for a pail of them,
so that's a disgusting job to r. But anyway, the
(04:45):
white turnips are so beautiful, and that a turnip soup
would be great, or a turnip puree would be great.
Speaker 5 (04:53):
A grittan.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Yes, potato and turnups is so nice together. That's really lovely. Okay,
So that's enough answers for you. I've got lots of Paris,
got a lot of answers advocacy Abby on Instagram. Buffet,
family style or plated. Never played it on Thanksgiving. I
know we can't. We cannot do plated well. I mean,
(05:17):
if you have a butler and a couple servers, then
you can do plated if you if you sew shoes.
But people like to pick at a buffet. I always
set that big buffet on the kitchen counter and everyone
is seated in the dining room. First course might be
served or might be served as people sit down, and
then they take their plates and fill and fill and
(05:38):
fill as many times as they like. And it's a
good way to be able to eat a lot.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
If you have a buffet, yeah there's a soup, then
you might want to play that.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
And family style depends on if you have small, small family.
I mean, I think family style is nice for up
to eight people at the most, if the table is
small enough to reach. Otherwise everybody spending all their time
past big serving platters of stuff around the table, and
you can't really enjoy your food. So buffet first of
all for anything over eight people, I think.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
And what are you?
Speaker 1 (06:11):
What are you going to have? Thomas, were are you eating?
Speaker 3 (06:13):
I'm going to be in Buffalo with my sister and
her her five little boys.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Five little boys all under the age.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Of their eight under eight.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Oh, my gosh, and Sarah, where are you going to be?
Speaker 5 (06:25):
I'm going to be at my new house?
Speaker 1 (06:27):
I know. Are you hosting? I am, Oh, your whole family?
Speaker 4 (06:31):
Yes, my mom and dad and my aunt and uncle
and my cousin and my littler brother and my brother
and his girlfriend.
Speaker 5 (06:38):
Yeah, and my kids and Mary Ann.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (06:40):
I'm excited.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Quite a crowd. So you're going to do?
Speaker 5 (06:42):
Yeah, we'll do a buffet and I'll get I'm getting.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
Like a sixteen pound turkey, okay, which hopefully is big enough.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
I think it's big big enough.
Speaker 4 (06:52):
We make a lot of vegetables, and I myself will
have one slice of turkey, and then I just want
the vegetables in the side. So and my mom, not
so secretly, now that I've started hosting, makes a whole
backup turkey at home so that she has leftovers, and
I think my aunt does as well.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
So because I really, I actually really like turkey sandwich. Yeah,
I say, I have to make sure that I get
Sophie to bake me some sour dough because jerkey on
sour dough is so good. Okay, so advocacy Abby at
our Homestead twenty thirty. Cooking a turkey and ham for
(07:30):
approximately fifteen people. What's the timing for each and a
small oven? Well, that's not so hard, no.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
I mean ham first, cam first, Yeah, because a ham
is essentially cooked, right, so you're really just warming it
up and glazing it with whatever you know, whatever you
call tent.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
It nicely with a big piece of parchment and foil
and it'll stay nice and warm. And then you do
your turkey. Make sure you're ture and it's a small
turkey because well, fifteen people, I guess a sixteen pound
turkey would be plenty.
Speaker 5 (08:01):
Of that, especially with a ham.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Yeah, I'm going to a lunch that there's going to
be a ham and a turkey. I prefer just turkey. Yeah,
but it's kind of nice to have a slice of
ham too.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
I mean, I do love ham. I usually divide it.
Thanksgiving is turkey and Christmas is ham, so it's so
close together you get both of them. I don't need
to have them both on the same meal. But I
know a lot of people really love a ham.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Thanksgiving, okay, and so timing I guess ham first. Second,
because you want your turkey to be fresh out of
the oven.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
Unless they have a grill, then they could they then
they could grill their turkey or smoke it.
Speaker 5 (08:39):
If they like smoke. Well, that's a lot of smoke. Sorry,
I retract that because they already have smoked ham.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
So make hands SJ. Can you make traditional mashed potatoes ahead?
I don't want cement, and I would say yes you can,
but you have to heat them in a band Marie
to put them in a glass Pyrex bowl and in
a deep water and let them heat very slowly the
(09:06):
next day, and then they're absolutely fine. Stirring some extra butter.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Yea, or it's some extra cream. If they get a
little butter.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Right, they're richer the better, Right, Thomas.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
It's Thanksgiving, it's the time to splurge.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
And here is somebody else who wants I need a
recipe for make ahead mashed potatoes in a crockpot would
be wonderful. I think you don't make the mashed potato
in the crockpot. You put it in the crockpot and
that could heat it up the next day.
Speaker 5 (09:33):
Also, any mashed potato recipe, right?
Speaker 1 (09:35):
And you know what I do? You know what I
use as a refrigerator during the holidays, porch. Yeah, I
have a nice little enclosed yard of the dog yard
and there's a big table out there and I put
everything that I want to stay cold out there. And
the weather has been just perfect for outdoor refrigeration. So
if you have access to the outdoors on a table,
(09:58):
make sure you don't leave it out over night because
the critters will come, they'll find it. But mashed potatoes, absolutely,
you can make them the day before. How can I
step up my mashed potatoes? Well, if you don't know
my mom's recipe, the best, the best. It has not
only steamed or boiled, peeled good potatoes, just your favorite potato.
(10:19):
And there are many, many choices. Now, what's your favorite
for mashed.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
I really like Yukung gold. Yes, it's starchy, but it
has a little bit of like like bite to it,
which is really nice. And also the color is really
really beautiful. So I think I usually go to a
Yukun gold and you add to it. I heat butter
and milk and salt and pepper and thyme together, and
then I pour that in and I mash it, and
(10:43):
I use a potato masher, not a riser, though sometimes
I use a riser to if I want it really fine.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
If you don't know what a riser is, you should
really look it up. It's a contraption that pushes the
cooked soft potatoes through three sides well really size and
a bottom of a contraption, and it really does do
a very good job of breaking up all that fiber.
So depending on your potato, but my mom always used
(11:10):
a mesher. I like to use a riser. Don't use
an electric mixer necessarily. It makes kind of glue. Yeah,
we don't want glue. But I add cream cheese. I'll
see whole eight ounces of Philadelphia cream cheese to mine.
Do you do anything else, Thomas?
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Sometimes I'll put some brown butter on top of the
mashed potatoes, which is nice. And even if you don't
have the time to do the browning of the butter and.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Every extra butter on Thanksgiving, to do brown butter, that
takes and we timed it today it took about fifteen minutes.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
So it's a great flavorful addition, right, it really is.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
And brown butter is basically just potatoes heated to boiling
in a saucepan. Watch out, watch it. They don't boil over.
And what you're doing is cooking the milk solids in
the butter until they are kind of a nutty brown.
And that's it. That's brown butter. Darlene Riley from Connecticut, Hello,
it's my job this year to make sweet potatoes. I
(12:09):
need a recipe for fifteen people for roasted sweet potatoes.
Can you help specifically with how many and time and temperature.
That's a nice challenge, because, yeah, sweet potatoes are so delicious.
Speaker 5 (12:21):
I like a roasted sweet potato. So I would say for.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
Fifteen people, maybe eight potatoes, and you can either just
bake them in the oven at four hundred degrees until
they're soft right in their skins and scoop them out
and treat them like mashed potatoes, and they're really nice
with brown butter with sage in it. So if you
want to make something like a mash like that but
not make it sweet the way that the marshmallow top
(12:48):
mashed potatoes are, I would say eight potatoes with a
sticker stick and a half of butter brown like Martha
just said, throw some sage in right at the end
so it sort of crisps up, and then mix that
into your sweet potatoes or cut them into wedges, toss
them with a little bit of olive oil, and just
roast them until they're nice and caramelized and beautiful. And
(13:11):
you could sort of treat them the same way with
stage I think, is such a nice accompaniment or time
right on the tray.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Do you ever boil your sweet potatoes first and then
roast them?
Speaker 5 (13:20):
I haven't done that.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
I do that?
Speaker 5 (13:21):
Is that more beautiful and delicious?
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Well, it just softens them up so nicely for roasting,
and then and then I usually cut them in half
lengthwise and put them flat on the pan and then
drizzle your toppings on it. And that's another nice way
to serve meshed potato.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
I think that's actually really nice because I do find
sometimes when I'm roasting a sweet potato that they get
darker than I want. And I think maybe your method the.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Color you want. And another my favorite way to cook
sweet potatoes is home and a sliced cut slice about
a little less than a quarter of an inch thick,
and layer them in a baking dish with butter and
sage or thyme and salt and pepper, and then roast
them with a lot of butter. And that's that is
(14:11):
palm Anda. And so they're so good.
Speaker 5 (14:14):
You made that last year?
Speaker 1 (14:14):
That's great.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
That was that's probably on the Roku show people can
see that recipe.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
So here is Dear Martha, this is a nice one
from Monica Field. What do you suggest for a couple
who will spend Thanksgiving Day dinner alone? We do not
really want to go out to a restaurant. Can you
suggest alternatives to a turkey? Because it's so large for
just two people, I can make the traditional side dishes
in a small amount. Thank you, So that's not so
(14:44):
much of a challenge, would you say, I mean some
people cook a small chicken for two. Our beautiful stuffed
chicken from the from our restaurant, The Bedford would be delicious.
The stuffing is under the skin, not inside the bird,
and that's a nice recipe.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
That would be great.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
Or a game bird, A nice game bird would be nice.
Guinea fowl or I mean, even if you wanted to
be super duper plated, you could do little.
Speaker 5 (15:14):
Cornish game hends one per person.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
I personally do not like cornish, do you not?
Speaker 5 (15:19):
Is it too annoying to you?
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Don't know. I just don't like the taste of them
compared to other poultry. Guinea fowl I love.
Speaker 5 (15:26):
Didn't we just do a guinea fowl with Claire Debauer
from the pot roasted?
Speaker 1 (15:30):
That was a pheasant's You could do that way, I am.
I have a plethora of guinea fowl running around. I
hatched them this year. We hatched way too many and
they are crazy, and I think, Monica, maybe you should
just invite a couple more people. I mean, there are
so many people who have, you know, similar circumstances to
(15:53):
or two or one. Find those people. This year, my
daughter is going away going to the Sequoias, So I'm
going to have lunch with Steven Sills and Kevin sharkey
and several other friends, and Stephen wants to do the ham.
I want to do the turkey because I know my
turkey is so much better than anybody else's turkey, So
(16:13):
I want to do that, but he said not too.
He doesn't want me to do anything. But I'm going
to bake pies. And again, we're just collecting people to
have Thanksgiving with it that might be alone. I don't
think it's a good time to be alone. So good
luck with your dinner for two. I'm sure it's going
to be delicious. Christina Hullingbau from Boston says Martha, I've
(16:43):
been a huge fan. We just bought our first helm
and we want to host our first Thanksgiving. My husband
plans to smoke a turkey. But we have multiple vegetarian friends.
What options would you recommend for Thanksgiving vegetarian main courses
for a group that also doesn't love mushrooms? See, no,
I don't even think of mushrooms at Thanksgiving time. It's funny,
(17:03):
I just don't, do.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
You know.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
I think I always think of like the autumnal vegetables, right,
like so the squash, so.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Many things for vegetarians, and you know, my family's vegetarian,
but they're allowed. The children are allowed to eat my
turkey on Thanksgiving only if it's for my turkey hoop.
So that's good and that's smart because it's sustainable and
healthy and good. I mean, we mentioned already quite a
few different dishes, but Brussels press we haven't mentioned be great.
(17:31):
I love brussels preass and roasted with olive oil in
the oven, just until they're a beautiful caramelized brown color.
Is so good. Do you have another way that you like?
Speaker 5 (17:42):
I mean, that is the way that I like them.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
I personally for Brussels sprouts like to blanch them and
get them kind of soft and then have them a
little bit fresh with like lemon juice and fresh with butter.
But my family only likes some roasted. There's several people
in my family that will only eat them that way,
including my father, my daughter, So I usually do roast them.
But also a shaved salad is really.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Nice of Brussels sprouts.
Speaker 5 (18:06):
Oh yes, yes, annoying because he has all the Brussels sprouts.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
But Sarah has just shaved the chip of her talking
about that. We don't want any thumb tips in our salads.
Oh gosh, you know, watch out with those mandolins, everybody.
The new Japanese mandolins are so sharp and so fabulous,
oh so good. We just did a segment for our
(18:31):
TV at masa who is who just got three stars?
Three stars from Michelan Yes, and he showed me his
fried potatoes. They're so so tiny, the thinnest, thinnest Julian
to I get potato whatever you want to call it, Julian,
but it's so fine that it's almost indecipherable. It's like
(18:52):
it's like string, little string that just fried in rice oil. Oil. Yes,
oh yes, this is the new this is the new oil.
You need not have to do. Yes, you have to.
If you're going to fry anything for Thanksgiving, it has
to be in rice oil. But I'm going to do
that because I have so many potatoes that we dug.
I am going to do that very fine, as not
(19:14):
as fine as his, but almost as fine. On the
on the new Japanese mandolin that I just got, and
I am going to fry those in rice oil, and
they are deliciously just like crunching your mouth, you know,
really nice, yeah, really pretty, Martha.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
One one thing I think is a great idea that
you do a lot for Thanksgiving is stuffing inside of pumpkin,
which is really impressive. It makes your guests where vegetarians
think that you've gone through the effort of something really special.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Yeah, well really really nice fruit and nut and bread
stuffing stuffed into and you can pre cook the squash
or pumpkin a little bit. I just did it last
week for TV. I've done I think I've counted like
sixteen turkeys already this year. Yes, I mean, if you
want to see the parchment wrapped turkey, the new turkey
(20:03):
one oh two, Yeah, the new turkey. That one O
one was the cheese cloth soaked in white wine and butter.
Now this one is just parchment wrapped around and stapled shut,
and a really good parchment envelope around a turkey that's
been stuffed and slathered with softened butter and salt and pepper.
(20:24):
And boy, the first one I made, when I took
it out of the I took it out of the
envelope of parchment and then it stays back in the
even until the skin browns. It tasted like peking duck.
The skin was so and it was so moist it was.
That was a heritage turkey, fresh killed. Look for your
heritage birds. Look for a fresh killed turkey, not frozen,
(20:47):
if you can. I mean, they're very expensive if you
don't unless you raise them yourself. But they are delicious.
They really change your idea of turkey.
Speaker 5 (20:56):
The heritage ones are really pretty magnots.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Yeah, they really are. And might think that they don't
have as much meat as the great big butter balls,
but actually they.
Speaker 5 (21:04):
Have a lot of meat and it's so tasty.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Yeah, and they're so elongated and one piece of that
is equal to five pieces of sort of dried turkey.
Nobody says about brining. We can't. I can't wait together
for the brining question. So there's so many great vegetarian recipes.
Please just go to Martha Stewart dot com and look
up sides for Thanksgiving. There are wonderful, wonderful sides. So
(21:28):
aside from brussel cranberries, don't forget your cranberry sauce homemade.
Do not open a cant I'm sorry, do not. You
must make your own. It's j Heller of the Black
and Turkey fame. She made three quarts of cranberries for
her bank lunch. She did, and she doesn't cook anything.
(21:48):
So she had one package of cranberries that's a pound,
I guess, and one cup of sugar and one cup
of fresh orange juice. That's it. And you cook that
until the cranberries done. And that's so good. And I
like to then turn that into a turkey mold. I
put it in my beautiful turkey molds and and unmold
(22:09):
the beautiful cranberry turkeys. Oh, corn bread, we haven't even
talked about baking a fresh corn bread.
Speaker 5 (22:16):
This is getting to be very alarid.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
Well, no, but this is mold for I do. I
bake them in those beautiful turkey molds. Who's our maker?
Nordic ware from the from the Midwest, the North Midwest.
They make those fabulous turkey molds. Wedges of acorn squash or.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
Stuffed acorn squash is also another gray, sort of hearty
vegetarian name.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
With grains, nice grains. You could do vulgart weed and
make a nice stuffing out of that with onions and carrots.
That'd be pretty, yeah, beautiful. I'm getting some ideas. Kristen
from Fernandina Beach. I'm a pescatarian do you have any
recipes suggestions for a fish main course? Yeah, there's yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
I mean I love of a beautiful side of salmon
just simply roasted, and then at Thanksgiving because of the seasonality,
like a pomegranate relish is really nice on top of that.
So just fresh and bright. So just pomegranate seeds with
a little olive oil and lemon zest and any hind
of herbs that you like, parsley, mint, dill, and then
(23:21):
just put that over the top of the cooked side
of salmon and you can slow cook it in the
oven at two hundred and fifty degrees. It only takes
about thirty minutes with lemon slices. So beautiful, beautiful.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
That would be great. Yeah, And I'm being into monkfish now.
I just I don't know why munk fish so much.
But Eric Repair from baron Aded just taught us a
really delicious monkfish simply simply cooked in a vinegar brought
kind of a vinegar boon to start and it's so simple,
and then roasted with butter and it was so good
(23:55):
in a few herbs. That's a nice recipes, nice meaty fish.
And he has a new book out. So if you're
a pescatarian, you should really get Eric Repairs New fish books.
Is it called simpimp simply fish or something like that.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
Well, and those recipes, those that rokusho will be airing
and people can see them.
Speaker 5 (24:14):
But they're really incredible.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Not before Thanksgiving. Oh here's Stacy Lottery. Remember Stacy I do. Yes, Yeah,
she's our former alum and she's hosting her first Thanksgiving
this year in her own New York City apartment. And
I thought getting a spatchcock turkey would be best since
I know it will take less time and not overheat
my apartment. So I think that's a good idea. Yep.
(24:39):
But should she put cheese cloth over the top of
the turkey? No, no, you do not have to. My
mom has used that she's got the method forever and
is insisting I do that as well. You do not
have to read our spatchcock turkey recipe. It is so delicious, Stacey,
and it roasts flat quickly. All the vegetables can be
put a round it or even under it, and you
(25:01):
will have a very intentalizing, delicious big turkey. So oh,
have fun. You can call Sarah on Thanksgiving morning everybody
else will be when chesus Oh has anyone ever has
ever smoked a turkey? Thomas Joseph has smoked turkeys perfectly
as I have. And if you have one of those domes,
(25:23):
they work the best, don't you think? Yep, yep, it's
turkey right here? Oh there it is. Yeah, what what
issue was that? This was November one, twenty twenty one
from Martha Stewart Living Magazine Toma pics smoke turkey, but
go to Marthastewart dot com. The recipe is right there,
and you will love that smoke turkey. And we don't
(25:45):
make it too smoky, but we do cook it thoroughly,
and it is a delectable, delectable turkey.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
It just takes time, it does. It's a very low temperature.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Low low temperature. You do not want to burn it.
You do not want to dry it out at all.
Speaker 4 (26:00):
A nice thing about a smoke turkey is the most beautiful,
even golden all over color.
Speaker 5 (26:07):
And it holds up really really nicely.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Oh it does. Yeah, it stays. It stays looking like
it was just yeah, it exactly.
Speaker 5 (26:15):
And it's also nice.
Speaker 4 (26:16):
You can serve a smoke turkey room temperature, which is
nice if you are into that kind of thing and
you want to have something that's make ahead.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Here's a sophisticated question. When you do a dinner of appetizer,
soup or salad, main course, and dessert, what formula do
you use to balance the flavors so that they compliment
each other. That's a good question, and it's not really
Thanksgiving me, but we can apply it to Thanksgiving. So
soup is so nice at Thanksgiving? I think do you
(26:44):
like serving soup as a first time I don't often
do it, but it's mostly just a matter of service
service in space.
Speaker 4 (26:53):
But I do think that it's really nice to be
one of your very simple vegetable puree soups that are
are like a very light puree is really nice.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
Like a squash soup or a carrot soup, or a
fennel soup, or a celery root. And I have the
best celery roots this year. I have never grown such monsters.
But the flavor should be different. If you're looking for
four different kinds of flavors, don't repeat yourself, So don't
don't have roasted pumpkin or a roasted orange squash. If
(27:24):
you're going to have a pumpkin pie for dessert, and
that pumpkin merangue miileheigh merangue. That's a nice nice or
a pumpkin breulet tart would be nice. But don't have
squash drink for the meals. Have other vegetables, greener vegetables,
mashed potatoes better than squash. And the turkey should be
(27:44):
you know, stuffed appropriately depending on what you're not having
in the other courses. What kind of what's your favorite stuffing, Thomas,
My favorite stuffing.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
I just like a lot of flavor in my stuffing,
so I'd like a lot of onions, leaks, celery. I
think it's really important that you Most often I add
more than a recipe calls for I'm not a big
fruit person in my stuffing, and I don't really love
nuts that much.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
But something sausage. It depends.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
I think it depends on who's going to be I
never with us. Yeah, my nephews. They don't really like
a lot of stuff in their stuffing, so I try
to avoid that. But sometimes I'll actually put in a
little bit of heavy cream. So it's kind of a
hybrid between a stuffing and almost like a bread pudding,
but not as wet, yeah, richness, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
That's so interesting. Look at these questions. One hundred and
fifty questions came in. We are skipping the bird and
just slicing up pre cooked turkey brists. Ah, please don't
judge us. We're going to judge. You. Roast your own
(28:57):
turkey breast. I mean, it's so easy to roast and
so so far superior to buying a cooked turkey breast.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Don't you think I do.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
It's so easy to roast a turkey breast. And is
there anything they can add to the broth or breasts
itself to add extra flavor? I mean, I don't think
you really can improve it too, too terribly much. It's
really easy just buy it. It's going to take you
how long to cook a turkey breast, like an hour
and a half an hour?
Speaker 3 (29:24):
If that, it depends on the size, and there are
you know, smaller turkey breasts. I would say get bone
in because it will give you more flavor and also
it will give you the foundation to make a gravy too,
which you can put over your slice turkey.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
If that's we only cook a Kira yosha. Oh do
you know this? Akira Yoshima? Yes, this is a very
good friend of all of ours, a colleague and a friend,
and he's we only cook the dark meat part of
the turkey thighs and wings on a baking sheet and
cook cranberry sauce on the side. What kind of salad
would you recommend so the entire meal will be balanced? Also,
(30:00):
can you recommend an alternative sauce to gravy? So only
the dark meat? What does he do with the rest?
I wonder can you just buy You.
Speaker 4 (30:10):
Can buy thigh You can buy any of the pieces, right,
so you probably just buy turkey thighs.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Sometimes I like to make gravy and then I'll also
make like a salt of air day, like an herb
sauce that I think helps to compliment all the rich
foods on the Thanksgiving plate. So I think you could
try that.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Malized onions would be nice on dark meat of turky.
Can that be good?
Speaker 5 (30:33):
That would be delicious?
Speaker 1 (30:34):
There's so many good things to make the salad. I
love butternut squashing, a salad that you can roast little
thin slices and put that in your salad with pomegranate
seeds and celery. And what else would you put in there.
Maybe sliced apple also, I.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
Think that would be nice, so you get some different
textures and flavor and.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
A beautiful ridicio. I love all the ridicios that people
are serving salads now with so many different Yeah, it's
so beautiful, all those different triviso riduicuios. So Akira, have
a nice lunch. It's gonna sounds good. High Gurly, this
is from a Monique or Tegas. She's saying, Hi, Gurly,
(31:15):
been a big fan house snoop. Anyways, I'm throwing a
drags giving. If the drag show starts at five pm,
when should I put the turkey in? Well, it depends
on what size.
Speaker 5 (31:27):
Your turkey is, and also they're planning on eating.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Drag show is dinner.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
Yeah, it depends on the size of your turkey and
how you're gonna cook it, right, I mean, if you
spatchcock a turkey, it really would only take like an
hour to maybe an hour and a half to.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Do your backwards. Monique, you have to work backwards. So
if you're when you want everything ready at five, uh,
check the size of your turkey the number of minutes
it takes to roast that particular size turkey or shape
of turkey, and all your vegetable size and everything and
have a real good time. Girly, what's the tip for
(32:02):
staying organized when having Thanksgiving company? Well, it depends how
organized you are as a person. It is hard to
manage the guests, manage the table, manage the drinks, manage
the food itself, and have a little bit of help.
Try to have somebody helping you with the drinks so
you don't have to think about that. And also maybe
(32:24):
have somebody else think about the dessert so you don't
have to think about that. But you have to be
very neat. But you have to pay attention to your
friends and your family on Thanksgiving Day.
Speaker 5 (32:37):
I have one thing to add to that. In terms
of prep.
Speaker 4 (32:40):
What I like to do is keep everything prep to
buy recipe in my refrigerator. So I try to clean
my refrigerator a couple of days ahead, clean it out
so it's as empty as possible. And then, if your
refrigerator can accommodate this, put things on little pans or
sheet pans or something, buy recipe and then I take
them out and I make and make them as I
(33:01):
need them, and then i'm I know I'm not missing it.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
So that's called mees on. Please. That is a very
good way to stay organized for something like this. In
the same vein this is low law mark seventy seven.
How can I keep the kitchen consistently clean throughout Thanksgiving Day? Before?
It should be impeccable and after you can do the
final big cleanup after your guests leave, But don't take
(33:27):
out the broom while they're there. Yeah, but you can
wipe the counters down a little bit with a damp rag,
but don't. Don't be sweeping and vacuuming while people are
still around.
Speaker 4 (33:39):
Clean as you go, yes, and ran as you go
that way. When you get to that point, you don't
need to. You won't be thinking about it because you'll
have a pretty clean space already.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
Yes. Oh for pie crusts here, this is chicksimaw. Is
there really a difference in the outcome when using unsalted butter?
Speaker 5 (33:56):
Oh, that's such a great question, because we were just
we were just talking about that.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
I will tell you.
Speaker 4 (34:04):
So, we have a little bit of an abundance of
salted butter here right now and a shortage of unsalted
So we discussed this and we're making our pie crust
with salted butter. Our recipe the Martha's pat prese uses
about one and a half teaspoons of kosher salt or two.
I actually usually use two, which is about one teaspoon
(34:25):
of fine salt. What we're doing is using salted butter
and then getting rid of almost all the salt except
about a quarter of a teaspoon, just to sort of
enhance the flavor slightly. I think that's a good amount
for many people. They might just leave the salt out altogether.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
I have to make at least twenty five pies on
the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, to be picked up starting at
four pm. So I have a very and Tuesday I
have to work all day. Well, I made you a
little gift through some piecrust, thank you so much. And
I'm making the rest of the pie crist tonight and
(35:04):
putting it in the freezer. Nice disks of pie crest,
and those will all be rolled out this weekend and
put into and frozen. What I did today was send
out the questionnaire with I think they have five or
six choices of pie. There's a lemon pie, there is
a cranberry charge, there is a pecan chocolate or plane
(35:24):
pecan tart. There is a pumpkin meringue, and there is
what other pies?
Speaker 5 (35:31):
App you're not doing apple.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
I'm doing apple for myself, but you know how long
it takes to peel and cut up the apples.
Speaker 5 (35:38):
It also doesn't hold up as well as the other one.
So these are the new one.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
The new one that I just created, the apple sauce
just top of the tart that has the apple sauce tarts.
It really holds up beautifully. Second day it's just as good.
Speaker 4 (35:51):
And apple pie doesn't hold up as well. And so
those are such great options.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
These all holds. Yeah. I learned that from Joanne from
up in Boston from Join Chang, Yes, because she said,
you know, they don't they do not hold up in
the bakery. And so she has her little tips for
making things last longer. And that pear tart that yeah, yeah, oh,
that was so good, and she poaches the pears first
(36:18):
right then layers them into a pre baked crust. She
gave me one unbaked for and I froze it and
it was delectable.
Speaker 5 (36:27):
Yeah, you baked it directly from frozen.
Speaker 4 (36:29):
So that's actually a great tip for people if they're
nervous and feel overwhelmed.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
They can make some of their tarts ahead of time
and freeze.
Speaker 4 (36:37):
Them, especially with the pre cooked fruit. But that's what
we were talking about this morning, that the roasted or
poached pears are really nice because they don't exude liquid.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
That's right, So Jennifer Moore says this Thanksgiving, my daughter
is sixteen, fourteen and twelve and myself will be at
home for Thanksgiving. Oven broke this year Gus thermostat, and
as a single parent, replacement is too costly. We have
been able to get along fine with just the stovetop,
air fryer and microwave. Do you have any dinner planning
(37:08):
suggestions aside from Thanksgiving carry out? Well? Okay, well, you
can do a lot of stuff on the stovetop. I
have not used an air fryer for any turkey, have.
Speaker 5 (37:18):
You, No, It depends on what kind they have.
Speaker 4 (37:21):
If it's big enough, they could do turkey breast in
an airy fryer.
Speaker 5 (37:25):
I don't know what sid like. There are a lot
of different kinds.
Speaker 4 (37:27):
The drawer versions don't work quite as well for something
like that, but if they have the sort of toaster
oven kind, I feel like that would work right now?
Speaker 1 (37:35):
Tim, you used airs?
Speaker 3 (37:37):
Yeah, oh yeah, lots of different models. I live in
a small apartment, so I don't have a room for
a lot of appliances. But there are a lot of
great quality air friers that are large enough to accommodate
a turkey breast.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
But Jennifer, you are challenged this year with your lack
of an oven, but you can do such great things.
I think the idea of doing a nice turkey breast
skin on would be very nice in the air fryer exactly.
And you can also microwave is not good for a
turkey breast. You would not be cooking. But many of
(38:08):
the vegetables can be cooked very successfully if you know
how in the microwave. And your stovetop is great for
most things.
Speaker 4 (38:15):
Mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, any green vegetable. We didn't
talk about cream spinach, should we?
Speaker 1 (38:22):
Oh? Cream spring spinach so good? And she says ps.
My autistic daughter Marin loves Big Martha's mashed potatoes and
enjoys helping to make them each holiday. Thanksgiving Blessings to
you all.
Speaker 2 (38:35):
Isn't that nice?
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Oh? I wish I could send you a pie? Say
hi to your to your lovely girls, and I'm sure
you'll have a delicious dinner.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
Yeah, she could.
Speaker 3 (38:44):
I mean also if she has a grill, right, you
could also spatchcock a turkey and cook it on the grill.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
Lisa Wagner. I believe she does that every year.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
She makes such a good turkey, so very slow, grill covered,
covered grilly. Yeah. Maybe if you don't have one, maybe
somebody could borrow one. Peta sushi. How can I serve
pecan pie warm without it melting?
Speaker 5 (39:05):
We've experienced this.
Speaker 4 (39:07):
I think you have to bake it, cool it and
then just warm it gently in the oven once it's
been fully Yeah, you can't cut a warm pecan pie,
but you can warm it.
Speaker 5 (39:20):
We've done this, right.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
I don't like warm pie.
Speaker 5 (39:24):
Yeah, I hate to say. I don't really love warm
pie either. I never I never warm.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
I do not like warm apple pie with ice cream
melting all over it.
Speaker 5 (39:33):
No, I don't either.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Do you have a present movie you watch in the
evening after Thanksgiving?
Speaker 4 (39:40):
Well, we used to watch the Wizard of Us because
that would that would be on every Thanksgiving. This is
gonna sound super boogey, but now we get the screeners
because Mary's and the producer's guilt, So we usually just
watch the new movie.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
No, I think we play cards now. Cards are a
big after dinner. It's nice activity, yes.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
To keep you awake and engaged.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
Right, to make good drinks, nice fourbon sours with cider. Yeah,
there's all kinds of good things to do after dinner.
Or scrabble and then have a sandwich late. Yeah, I
can't wait for my sandwich. Turkey cranberry stuffing and gravy
has to be my gravy thickens in the pan, but
(40:24):
thin's back out as it cools. Nor am I doing wrong?
Speaker 2 (40:30):
It's a good question.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
Yeah, let's see chemistry lessons In chemistry.
Speaker 3 (40:35):
One would think that it would actually thicken as it cools. Right,
So I mean my advice would be, we have a
great gravy one O one recipe.
Speaker 2 (40:42):
I would say, look at that.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
Follow to Martha Stewart dot com and look up gravy
one oh one and you will not have a watery gravy.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (40:51):
And another thing I would add is if you ever
do have a thin gravy, Wondra right, the instant flower
that is available at all grocery stores.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
It comes in a blue cylinder.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
Right, mixed with a little bit of broth.
Speaker 3 (41:04):
Broth, Yeah, and it thickens up almost immediately with heat.
So if you can, you can easily whisk it and
it doesn't clump up right at all.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
It's a it's a great tip.
Speaker 1 (41:12):
I love wonder. I use it for several things. Oh,
here's a good one. Joseph Dale Pats asks what side
of aluminum foil should face the food, the shiny or
the dull? Does it matter? Yes, it does matter. No
side of the aluminum foil should face the food. I
line all my aluminum foil that I'm using for anything
(41:34):
with parchment paper by yourself, some sheets of parchment or
a roll, and do not let the aluminum foil really
touch your food. Well, it's a bad habit, first of all,
I think. And if you're say cooking something with acid
like tomatoes or lemon, the illuminum foil actually deteriorates onto
your food and you can see little holes in the foil,
(41:57):
so you're ingesting that. Remember, just use just use foil.
There's nothing wrong with using foil. Is a nice cover
like a blanket, but line it with parchment please. Oh,
this is a nice one dap Bert asks what is
an easy and unusual hostess gift for friends giving?
Speaker 5 (42:17):
Oh, that's nice.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
We did that cranberry cordial, which was very delicious, lovely. Yep,
that recipe is available and you just it's vodka with
cranberries and a little bit of sugar and in a
pretty decorative jar and wrapped with a nice red ribbon.
That's a nice gift. What else would you be giving?
Speaker 3 (42:39):
I love to give like a dessert wine, so kind
of skipping over a table wine that you know you
could serve for dinner. Just something special for after dinner
I think is really nice.
Speaker 4 (42:49):
Something for breakfast I think is always nice if you're
going to someone's home, Like if you make a homemade
granola or you know someplace that makes amazing croissants, you
can bring those to your posts and they can have
a nice relaxing breaface the next day, or a great
loaf of bread for their sandwiches the next egg that's
a nice gift.
Speaker 1 (43:07):
And I always take like a dozen eggs, or if
you have chickens. I have chickens, and this year I
might be taking celery roots because I have so many
celery roots that are like they weigh about nine pounds each. Martha,
what's your favorite Thanksgiving food? Oh, dear, this is that's
such a hard I love a really good pumpkin pie,
(43:30):
and I love a really good stuffing, and I love
a perfectly roasted heritage turkey. Just I mean, those are
so traditional, and they might sound boring to you guys,
but they're awfully good classics for a reason. Oh you
had a chip last year from mahoosh Oh seven for
getting rid of garlic smell? What about onion smell? I
(43:53):
stuff my turkey and now my hands stink. Well, onion
is basically soap and water. But garlic is rubbing your
hands on something stainless steel, a stainless steel bowl running
under hot water, and with a little soap it takes
every evidence of garlic off your hands. You can use
a stainless steel knife, just don't cut yourself, And that
(44:16):
is so good. How to repurpose turkey? What do you
do with leftover turkey? Thomas?
Speaker 2 (44:22):
I'd love a turkey sandwich.
Speaker 1 (44:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (44:24):
I usually will roast a separate turkey or turkey breast
so that there's enough. With five little kids running around,
they all want a turkey sandwich.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
The next day. So I really I'm kind of a purist.
Speaker 1 (44:34):
And that's that's good. Yeah it's Sarah.
Speaker 4 (44:36):
I almost every year make a turkey leftover pie. So
all the things that you described in your sandwich, I
put into pie crust and I bake into a pie
with the gravy, even with the mashed potatoes, anything that
we have left, even if there are roasted vegetables, I
layer everything in there.
Speaker 1 (44:55):
Sarah is a pie maven. So this is what I
never told you that a right it. You did that
with your pie.
Speaker 4 (45:01):
But I also do you know, I tend not to
love turkey broth, but last year I also don't like
to throw things away, so I always make a broth.
So I made my turkey broth with the carcass of
my turkey, and I made a really spicy soup with
chilis and lime and lime juice and cilantro and lemon
(45:24):
grass so it was and ginger. So it was very,
very flavorful. It could be less spicy if you don't
like spice, just.
Speaker 1 (45:29):
The ginger and the herbs beans in it or anything
like that.
Speaker 5 (45:32):
I didn't do that.
Speaker 4 (45:33):
I just ate it as a broth, and it was
really really nice. But also I was sick lass Thanksgiving,
so it's very nice. If you're not feeling well, you
can freeze it. I really loved that as a great
use for the turkey carcass.
Speaker 5 (45:47):
It was nice.
Speaker 1 (45:49):
So here's something, Martha. Is there a ceramic paint that
is food grade to cover the lead based paints and
old dishes. Don't go there. It's just not worth it.
Put those plates on a shelf, and consignment shops have
so many stacks of beautiful plates right now. I went
(46:09):
to some consignment shops last weekend. I found such beautiful
things very inexpensively. So don't go painting your chipped or
worn plates. It's not a good IDEA. Need help with
an easy beginner pie crust recipe? Please? The easiest recipe
and the most flavorful and delicious is pie crust like
R one oh one, which is two and a half
(46:32):
cups of flour, two sticks of unsalted butter, a teaspoon
and a half of salt, and ice water. I also
sometimes put a teaspoon of sugar and ice water, and
I do it in the food processor. Mix your flour
and salt, add butter, cut up into like quarter inch
cubes icy cold butter. My rule is make it cold,
(46:56):
bake it hot, and you add ice water by tablespoon
until it just comes together. Roll it into a disc
between two sheets of plastic wrap. Chill it, roll it,
form it into a pan. Couldn't be easier. Look it
up Marthastewart dot com. I think we've answered an awful
lot of questions a question, but I just wanted people
(47:16):
to also know that our complete, no Failed Guide to
Thanksgiving Turkey. It is a like a six page story.
This is the November twenty seventeen issue. You know what,
I'm going to put this on my Instagram. H Jocelyn Joscelyn,
who helps me with all things blog and Instagram, et cetera,
(47:37):
et cetera. Let us post this, Okay, our complete, no
failed Guide to Thanksgiving. We're going to do that. I
promise you all. Just go to Martha Stewart forty eight
has essential tools that you need, how to prep, how
to select a turkey, how to carve and plate, and
how to cook. It's really great. Thank you Thomas, thank
(47:58):
you Sarah, and thank all of you for your questions.
And I hope our conversation has helped you I have
a really beautiful and friendly Thanksgiving
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