Some Thanksgiving dishes are best prepared ahead
Peter Kelsch, a third-generation farmer in southeastern Idaho, kills Kelsch Farms’ russet Burbank potato plants three weeks before harvest. Once the plants are dead, the potatoes’ skins harden and cure over time, leading to less starchy potatoes and, ultimately, better mashed potatoes.
“If you dig a green potato, it won’t mash as well,” Kelsch said. “Once they’re off our farm, they’re in your hands.”
There are countless ways to turn those scratchy, brown potatoes into a mash, and one trick to serving them soft and creamy on Thanksgiving is to prepare them ahead of time. In fact, many Thanksgiving standards actually improve in taste and texture when prepared in advance. There’s the added benefit of reducing stress on the holiday, leaving more time to spend with family and friends, and, just maybe, making it effortless to get everything to the table hot and all at once.
Mashed potatoes
Chilling creamy mashed potatoes stiffens and dries them, but also retrogrades their starch, which helps prevent them from becoming pasty. (You can’t save potatoes that start gluey. Shearing cooked spuds with any blade — food processor, blender or hand mixer — releases enormous amounts of starch and turns the mash into spackle.) When good, chilled mashed potatoes (and sweet potatoes) are gently reheated over a pan of hot water with more cream and butter, they become even silkier.
Gravy
Waiting until your turkey is done to start stirring gravy is stressful, to put it mildly, and it doesn’t give the starchy thickening agent time to cook out its chalky flavor. Gravy that’s been frozen for up to three weeks tastes especially rich when it’s reheated. With a second simmering, the starch’s taste disappears, but it makes the gravy extra thick, perfect for adding a ladle of freshly roasted turkey juices.
Pie dough
Bakers know that the flakiest crusts come from dough that’s been chilled, ideally for a few days (or frozen for up to a month). Nicole Rucker, a cookbook author and the head chef and owner of Fat + Flour pie shop, said that this effectively “ages” the dough, improving its flavor by giving its floury rawness time to dissipate.
Cranberry sauce
Matt Stoner Fehsenfeld has preserved tens of thousands of jars of fruit, including bay leaf-scented cranberries and apples, for the Quince and Apple Co. in Madison, Wisconsin, which he founded with his wife, Clare. He suggests refrigerating cooked sauce for at least a few days to help round cranberries’ tart edges and to allow them to meld with the other seasonings. The result ends up more “like rolling hills rather than spiky mountains of flavor,” he said. Letting the sauce come to room temperature before serving heightens its complexity.
Stuffing bread mix
If you attempt to make stuffing with freshly baked loaves or tender hot-from-the-skillet cornbread, you’ll end up with a gummy casserole because the breads’ starches still have moisture. Drier bread bakes into a light and fluffy stuffing even as it soaks up more liquid, which yields more flavor. Whether you’re using stock, milk or custard, start with stiff bread. Leave cubes out at room temperature or toast them in the oven before storing them in the refrigerator to further dry them out.
Green beans
If you prefer the snap of string beans to the slouching sweetness of long-cooked ones, blanch fresh
beans a day or two before Thanksgiving by dropping vegetables into salted, vigorously boiling water and then transferring them to a bowl of ice water the moment they brighten and approach tenderness. This preserves their vibrant color and crispness, and doing so ahead gives them time to dry. The blanched beans need only a quick turn in a hot, oiled skillet with seasonings to soften past squeaky to just right.
Planning ahead for Thanksgiving isn’t only for planners, but also for anyone who prefers tastier sides and desserts with fewer day-of dishes to wash. Refrigerate or freeze what you can now, slap on don’t-eat-me labels and await the big day.
MAKE-AHEAD MASHED POTATOES
By Genevieve Ko
It’s not just that mashed potatoes can be made ahead; they actually end up creamier and fluffier when prepared in advance. When mashed potatoes chill, their starches firm up, and when reheated gently, they relax into a mash with an even silkier texture. But you can’t save potatoes that start out gluey. Shearing cooked spuds with any blade — food processor, blender or hand mixer — releases enormous amounts of starch and turns the mash into spackle. Here, you break up the potatoes by hand or with a stand mixer’s paddle attachment for an airy smoothness. If you have a ricer or food mill, you can use that instead.
Yield: 8 to 12 servings (10 cups)
Total time: 40 minutes, plus 30 minutes’ reheating, if desired
Salt and pepper
5 pounds russet potatoes
10 tablespoons butter, sliced and at room temperature, plus more for reheating
1 cup whole milk, warmed, plus more for reheating
1. Fill a large pot with 8 cups cold water and 1 tablespoon salt. Peel and quarter the potatoes, adding each to the cold water as you cut to prevent them from discoloring. The potatoes should be immersed. If they’re not, add enough water to cover them, along with a pinch of salt.
2. Bring to a boil over high heat and continue boiling until a knife slides through the potatoes very easily, 15 to 20 minutes.
3. Drain well, then return the potatoes to the pot. Some should be falling apart. Heat over low, shaking the pot occasionally, until the potatoes are mottled and very dry, 2 to 3 minutes. Turn off the heat.
4. Mash in the pot, adding the butter a few pieces at a time, until smooth, then stir in the milk and season to taste with salt and pepper. Or transfer to a stand mixer and beat with the paddle on low, adding a few pieces of butter at a time, until smooth, then add the milk with the machine running. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
5. You can serve the potatoes right away or hold them for up to 3 hours: Transfer the hot potatoes to a large, wide metal bowl and evenly smooth the top. Set the bowl over a large saucepan of steaming water (or in a skillet of steaming water) over low heat. Add just enough milk to barely cover the potatoes and partly cover the bowl. Stir gently but well before serving so they’re evenly hot and creamy.
6. You also can transfer the potatoes to an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 3 days. To reheat, use the setup in Step 5, but add an ⅛-inch layer of milk over the cold, flat top of the potatoes and stir the potatoes every 10 minutes to help them reheat evenly. The whole batch should be steaming hot within 30 minutes. If the mash is still stiff when hot, stir in more milk (or butter, if you’d prefer). Season to taste with salt and pepper again before serving.
MAKE-AHEAD GRAVY
By Mark Bittman
You need gravy on Thanksgiving to aid the turkey, moisten the potatoes, douse the stuffing. But traditionally it’s made at the last minute, after the turkey has been removed from the roasting pan. Here’s a secret: There’s no need to make gravy right before serving. You can make it up to five days ahead. Then, as you reheat it, whisk in the turkey pan drippings for extra flavor. The result is every bit as good as last-minute gravy — and far less crazy-making.
Yield: 5 to 6 cups
Total time: 20 minutes 1 stick butter ½ cup chopped onion ½ cup flour Salt and pepper 4 to 5 cups rich stock, warmed Turkey drippings and giblets (optional)
1. Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat, then add onions. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are translucent, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle the flour on the onions, stirring constantly, and cook until flour is golden to brown. Adjust heat so mixture does not burn.
2. Gradually whisk in 4 cups stock until mixture thickens and is smooth. If it is too thick, add liquid. Cool, cover and chill.
3. When ready to serve, reheat mixture over low heat, stirring. Scrape bottom of turkey pan and add drippings or giblets to gravy. Taste and adjust seasoning, then serve.
FOOLPROOF PIE DOUGH
By The New York Times Vodka is essential to the texture of the crust and imparts no flavor — do not substitute. This dough, which was developed by a testkitchen team led by J. Kenji Lopez-alt for “America’s
Test Kitchen,” will be moister and more supple than most standard pie doughs and will require more flour to roll out (up to ¼ cup).
Yield: 2 pie crusts
Total time: 10 minutes, plus chilling
2 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour (12 ½ ounces)
1 teaspoon table salt 2 tablespoons sugar
12 tablespoons cold unsalted butter (1 ½ sticks), cut into ¼-inch slices
½ cup chilled solid vegetable shortening, cut into 4 pieces
¼ cup vodka, cold
¼ cup cold water
1. Process 1 ½ cups flour, salt, and sugar in food processor until combined, about 2 one-second pulses. Add butter and shortening and process until homogeneous dough just starts to collect in uneven clumps, about 15 seconds (dough will resemble cottage-cheese curds, and there should be no uncoated flour). Scrape bowl with rubber spatula and redistribute dough evenly around processor blade. Add remaining cup flour and pulse until mixture is evenly distributed around bowl and mass of dough has been broken up, 4 to 6 quick pulses. Empty mixture into medium bowl.
2. Sprinkle vodka and water over mixture. With rubber spatula, use folding motion to mix, pressing down on dough until dough is slightly tacky and sticks together. Divide dough into two even balls and flatten each into 4-inch disk.
Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 45 minutes or up to 2 days.