Much Ado About Stuffing: Thanksgiving Vocabulary: Words to Know Before You Defrost the Bird

Your guide to the year’s most important meal, with our best recipes, techniques and tricks.

Your guide to the year’s most important meal, with our best recipes, techniques and tricks.

We’ve broken Thanksgiving dinner down to its essential elements.

For all the attention we lavish on Thanksgiving turkeys, the truth is more work does not necessarily yield a better bird.

Instead of a messy wet brine, I use a dry rub (well, technically a dry brine) — a salt and pepper massage that locks in moisture and seasons the flesh.

Pat turkey and turkey neck dry with paper towel; rub turkey all over with 1/2 teaspoon salt per pound of turkey, the pepper and the lemon zest, including the neck.

This popular recipe from our archives gives you an especially tender and juicy bird — if you can forgo the Norman Rockwell carving moment.

You can maximize efficiency by applying dry-brine mix to your turkey while it’s still completely frozen.

The turkey will roast faster and be less awkward to maneuver.

Plan to have both reds and whites, wines that are fresh and lively rather than heavy and brooding.

Most likely, you will have leftovers.

You need gravy to lubricate the turkey, moisten the potatoes, douse the stuffing.

Cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is translucent, about 5 minutes.

(If all the cranberries pop, the sauce may be too liquid.)

Whisk until sauce is the consistency of honey, adding more water or a tablespoon of olive oil if necessary.

The addition of drippings fortified with wine then allows you to build flavor.

Add the flour all at once, whisking until incorporated.

Cook, whisking occasionally, until the roux begins to look grainy, 3 to 4 minutes.

Skim off the fat with a spoon, or put in the refrigerator or freezer until the fat has congealed on top, then remove fat.

Make the gravy: Bring the broth to a simmer in a covered saucepan, then slowly add 3 cups of the broth to the roux, whisking constantly.

Slowly add the reserved drippings, starting with a few tablespoons; taste, then whisk in more a little at a time until the gravy tastes right.

But the turkey pan drippings, with all their browned goodness and concentrated turkey flavor, are what will make your gravy great.

When the liquid is nearly all evaporated, pour the deglazed brown bits and the reserved drippings into the gravy.

(It will keep everything submerged and it’s easier to skim the scum; however, it’s not necessary.)

Note: If you want to use your leftover turkey carcass to make stock, use it in place of the meaty bones (but do not brown it).

Mash a pile of potatoes in the morning, then slide the casserole dish in with the turkey as it finishes cooking.

To many Americans, gravy without mashed potatoes is like jam without toast: a condiment with no consequence.

“But we’re having sweet potatoes and squash,” the cook laments.

Our essential recipe, an archival one by Melissa Clark, is simply the best mashed-potato recipe we know, adapted to serve a large number of people and to eliminate any last-minute work.

Mix together until it forms coarse crumbs.

There is an annual color war in our household, with one faction demanding sweet potatoes with marshmallows, the other countering with a potato gratin.

Choose large potatoes to minimize peeling and save small or waxy potatoes for roasting or salad.

Cold temperatures make them heavy and gluey (food scientists say that the cold permanently alters the starch molecules).

Cold temperatures make them heavy and gluey (food scientists say that the cold permanently alters the starch molecules).

Cold temperatures make them heavy and gluey (food scientists say that the cold permanently alters the starch molecules).

Julia Child wouldn’t even cover her mashed potatoes; she believed that they tasted “smothered” afterward.

Nothing beats its puckery-sweet jolt, a sharp knife that cuts through all the starchy food on the menu.

Our essential recipe, from David Tanis, is modern and fresh; it underscores the usual sour and sweet flavors with the thrum of fresh ginger and chile heat.

Every year, I come up with a kicky condiment, usually made with cranberries, to offset the neutral (read: bland) yet rich nature of the meal.

This time around it is going to be a hot red-pepper cranberry relish with jalapeños and cayenne.

Dice, toss in oil and roast at 400 degrees.

Reserve ¼ cup grated cheese for topping.

Stir with a wooden spoon to dissolve sugar, and simmer 2 minutes.

Add ginger and cranberries, stir to coat and bring to a brisk simmer.

This quivering ruby mass has an unexpected dash of orange and spice.

But if you’d rather avoid alcohol, substitute orange juice or a combination of apple cider and lemon juice.

Strain the sauce into a bowl through a sieve, pushing on the solids with a rubber spatula to extract all the liquid.

Strain the sauce into a bowl through a sieve, pushing on the solids with a rubber spatula to extract all the liquid.

Strain the sauce into a bowl through a sieve, pushing on the solids with a rubber spatula to extract all the liquid.

(A funnel or liquid measuring cup with a spout can be useful for transferring without splashing the sides.)

Note: Two cups of red wine, port, Madeira or orange juice can be substituted for the Lillet and the liqueur.

Brown sugar turns the mixture murky.

This bright and bracing mixture doesn’t need a recipe — just a food processor.

Put half of a navel orange (peel, pith and all) and a cup of fresh cranberries in the bowl and pulse together until everything is finely chopped.

Put half of a navel orange (peel, pith and all) and a cup of fresh cranberries in the bowl and pulse together until everything is finely chopped.

Put half of a navel orange (peel, pith and all) and a cup of fresh cranberries in the bowl and pulse together until everything is finely chopped.

Discord swarms around the issue of stuffing.

Call this recipe the peacemaker, because it’s adaptable enough to make everyone happy.

The mushrooms allow vegetarians to nix the bacon without sacrificing all the flavor.

INGREDIENTS
3 tablespoons melted butter, more as needed for greasing pan
1 1/2 pounds sliced white bread or corn bread
1/2 pound thick-cut bacon
2 large leeks, trimmed and sliced (3 cups)
1 1/2 pounds mixed mushrooms, cut into bite-size pieces
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
3/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped sage
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 1/4 cups chicken stock, more as needed
1/4 cup apple cider, if using white bread
3 tablespoons chopped parsley

Trim the crusts from the white bread and cut into 1-inch cubes; if using corn bread, coarsely crumble it.

Crumble bacon and stir it in.

Cook, tossing frequently, until mushrooms are tender and most of their juices have evaporated, 10 to 15 minutes.

Bread stuffing is classic, but it isn’t the only choice.

Bring to a simmer and cook gently until rice is soft but not mushy, 15 to 20 minutes.

Rinse cranberries, picking them over and discarding any that are spoiled.

But you can compensate for this by topping your stuffing with some extra turkey skin.

The fat renders out of the skin, flavoring the stuffing.

You need the warm glow of Something Orange on your table; it will help brighten the monotonous brown of turkey, gravy and stuffing.

Garnish with fresh herbs, chopped nuts or even a crumbly cheese like blue or feta.

FOR TAHINI SAUCE (OPTIONAL)
1/4 cup tahini paste
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 small clove garlic, crushed

Peel onions, leaving root ends intact.

Mr. Flay came through in spades: The sweetness of the potatoes is amplified by maple syrup, then taken in a completely different direction by the addition of fiery chipotle sauce.

Sour cream knits the dish together perfectly.

You can use packaged baby carrots, but since they are not actually babies — just large carrots mechanically chiseled into that little peg shape — they are not as appetizing.

Delicious varieties of edible winter squash, like kabocha, buttercup and turban, are showing up at farmers’ markets now.

The lineup cries out for something zippy and tart to cut through the richness.

The combination of citrus and cruciferous in this archival recipe makes it essential, but any winter green with a bit of tang, spice or ginger will do the job.

INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice, more to taste

Grated zest of 1 lemon
2 to 3 pounds brussels sprouts
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons black mustard seeds, cumin seeds, or poppy seeds
1/4 cup dry white wine or vermouth

This dish has the virtue of being punchy at any temperature.

Whether you serve it right out of the pan, or not until an hour later, the fistfuls of ginger and garlic don’t care – they wake up your palate just the same.

And any leafy green can get the same treatment.

Add half the beans, half the ginger and half the garlic, and cook, stirring and tossing constantly, until beans are heated through and ginger and garlic are softened and aromatic.

In a toaster oven or skillet, toast almonds until golden brown and fragrant.

Add garlic cloves and set aside to steep.

Working in batches, cut the kale into thin ribbons: gather a large handful of leaves, bunch together tightly, and use the other hand to slice into 1/4-inch-thick pieces.

This need not be done very precisely or neatly; the idea is to end up with a kind of slaw.

The steam from the water ensures the vegetables won’t dry out and become leathery before they cook through.

A slab pie is nothing more than a regular pie writ large.

The filling was inspired by an e-mail from Pete Wells, our restaurant critic, who mused about his ideal Thanksgiving dessert; the brown sugar, ginger and rum give it a complex and more autumnal flavor than most apple pies.

The filling was inspired by an e-mail from Pete Wells, our restaurant critic, who mused about his ideal Thanksgiving dessert; the brown sugar, ginger and rum give it a complex and more autumnal flavor than most apple pies.

FOR THE FILLING: 6 3/4 pounds apples, preferably a mixture of Gala, Golden Delicious and Granny Smith, peeled, cored and sliced 1/4-inch thick (21 cups/about 3 kilograms)

Arrange dough cutouts on top of apple mixture, overlapping it slightly and making sure several cutout edges touch sides of pan.

(The exceptions are the whole egg and the tablespoon of cream for the egg wash; use the same amount as you would for the slab pie.)

The ultimate pumpkin pie recipe is smooth and custardy, scented with brandy and plenty of warm spices.

The ultimate pumpkin pie recipe is smooth and custardy, scented with brandy and plenty of warm spices.

The ultimate pumpkin pie recipe is smooth and custardy, scented with brandy and plenty of warm spices.

Fudgy and wonderfully sticky, this pie is the most decadent of the lot.

And I’d played around with cheese pumpkins, sugar pumpkins and acorn and butternut squashes, but I hadn’t been very methodical about it.

By the way, you can use this substitution in any booze-spiked pie recipe you like.