Thanksgiving 101 (20 page)
Authors: Rick Rodgers
4 pounds orange-fleshed yams, peeled and cut into ¾-inch chunks
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
½ cup Grade B maple syrup
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, thinly sliced
1.
Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 400°F. Lightly oil an 18 × 13-inch rimmed baking sheet. Spread the yams on the sheet in a single layer. Add the oil and toss to coat the yams.
2.
Bake, turning occasionally with a metal spatula, until the yams are almost tender, about 40 minutes. Drizzle the yams with the maple syrup and mix well to coat. Bake until the syrup has evaporated into a glaze and the yams are tender, about 15 minutes more. Remove the pan from the oven.
3.
Scatter the butter over the yams, and let stand to melt the butter. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Transfer to a serving bowl and serve hot.
Parmesan-Mashed Yellow Turnips
Like succotash, mashed yellow turnips (also called wax turnips, rutabagas, or Swedes) are another Thanksgiving must-have for many people on the East Coast. They are usually served just mashed with milk and butter like potatoes, but they take to this fillip with garlic, onion, and freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Use a sharp, sturdy knife for cutting up the turnips—they can be very hard.
Makes 8 servings
Make Ahead: The turnips can be pared up to 8 hours ahead.
2 medium yellow turnips (about 3¼ pounds total)
1 large, plump head garlic, peeled
1 large onion, chopped
½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Approximately 1 cup milk, heated
1.
Using a sturdy vegetable peeler, remove the thick skin from the turnips. Using a large knife, cut the turnips into pieces about 1½ inches square. Place the turnips and garlic in a large pot and add enough lightly salted water to cover. Cover tightly with the lid, and bring to a boil over high heat. Uncover and reduce the heat to medium-low. Boil gently for 20 minutes.
2.
Add the onion and continue cooking until the turnips are tender when pierced with the tip of a small, sharp knife, 15 to 20 more minutes. Drain well, then return to the warm cooking pot.
3.
Add the Parmesan, butter, salt, and pepper. Using a large masher or an electric hand mixer, mash the turnips, gradually adding enough milk to reach the desired consistency. Transfer to a warmed serving dish. (The mashed turnips can be kept warm in a 170°F oven, loosely covered with aluminum foil, for up to 20 minutes.) Serve hot.
It Wouldn’t Be Thanksgiving Without…Cranberries
No one is sure that cranberries were served at the first Thanksgiving. The cranberry was an important food to the Pawtuxet Indians, so historians assume they offered it as a contribution to the feast. Instinct must have taught the Indians that the berries were an excellent source of vitamin C, because they used them in many dishes. They ate them raw and boiled with maple syrup, but perhaps the most common use was in
pemmican
, a kind of low-tech energy bar made with berries, dried venison meat, and melted animal fat. Pemmican kept well, and went along with the Indians as food on long journeys. It couldn’t be much worse than some of the instant modern food I’ve had on camping trips.
The Pilgrims probably referred to cranberries as “fenberries,” a common fruit in old England that they resembled. However, the cranberry gets its modern name from the Dutch and German settlers, who called it a “crane berry.” When the cranberry vines bloom, the blossom looks like the head and bill of a crane. Eventually, the name became cranberry. Colonial Americans called them “bounce berries,” referring to their bounciness. Bouncing berries are an indication of freshness—bruised, old berries don’t bounce.
A recipe for cranberry sauce is included in the very first printed American cookbook, Amelia Simmons’s
American Cookery
, in 1796. Canned cranberry sauce first hit the shelves in 1912, a product of the Cape Cod Cannery Company, which eventually became the Ocean Spray Preserving Company. The president of the company is a Boston lawyer, Marcus L. Urann. In 1930, Urann organized a merger between his company and two other cranberry canneries to form the Cranberry Canners, Inc., a cranberry farming cooperative. The cooperative, which eventually acquired Urann’s former company’s name after a few months of squabbling, now provides over 70 percent of the world’s cranberries. The world’s supply of cranberries are grown on only about 42,000 acres, which is an area equal to the size of Manhattan. If you’ve ever wondered how many cranberries are in a 12-ounce bag, the number is 360 (give or take a few berries).
The high amount of vitamin C in cranberries makes homemade cranberry sauce a long keeper (and the sugar helps, too). It can be refrigerated for at least one week before serving. To prepare cranberries for cooking, simply rinse them off and sort through them to discard any bruised or soft ones. Cranberries are one of the best fruits for freezing. Just rinse them off and store them in self-sealing plastic bags. Don’t thaw the frozen berries before using. Rinse them before freezing, as it is difficult to rinse off frozen berries.
Acidic cranberries can react when they come in contact with aluminum and pick up the metal’s taste. Be sure to cook them in pots with nonreactive metal surfaces, such as stainless steel or nonstick coating.
CLASSIC RECIPE
Spiced Cranberry–Orange Mold
One of Jell-O’s most requested recipes, it graces countless Thanksgiving tables every year.
Makes 10 servings
Make Ahead: The mold can be made up to 3 days ahead.
1½ cups boiling water
Two 3-ounce packages Jell-O Brand Cherry Flavor Gelatin Dessert
One 16-ounce can whole berry cranberry sauce
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1
/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 orange, peeled, sectioned, and cut into ½-inch cubes
½ cup chopped walnuts
1.
In a medium bowl, stir the boiling water into the gelatin, and stir until completely dissolved, about 2 minutes. Stir in the cranberry sauce, 1 cup cold water, lemon juice, cinnamon, and cloves. Refrigerate until thickened and almost set (a spoon drawn through the mixture will leave a definite impression), about ½ hours.
2.
Stir in the orange and walnuts. Spoon into a 5-cup mold. Cover and refrigerate until firm, at least 4 hours or overnight. (The mold can be made up to 3 days ahead.)
3.
To unmold, dip into a large bowl of hot water and hold for 5 seconds. Dry the outside of the mold and invert onto a serving dish.
CLASSIC RECIPE
Jell-O–Cream Cheese Mold
This two-toned mold combines two Thanksgiving favorites, Jell-O and cream cheese. I love it.
Makes 12 servings
Make Ahead: The mold can be made up to 3 days ahead.
1½ cups boiling water
Two 3-ounce packages Jell-O Brand Cranberry Flavor Gelatin Dessert (or any other flavor red gelatin)
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 medium apple, chopped
1 cup whole-berry cranberry sauce, optional
One 8-ounce package Philadelphia cream cheese, well softened
1.
In a medium bowl, pour the boiling water over the gelatin and stir until completely dissolved, at least 2 minutes. Stir in 1½ cups cold water and the cinnamon. Reserve 1 cup of the gelatin at room temperature. Refrigerate the remaining gelatin until thickened and partially set (a spoon drawn through the gelatin leaves a definite impression), about 1½ hours.
2.
Stir the apple and the cranberry sauce, if using, into the thickened gelatin. Spoon into a 6-cup mold. Refrigerate until set but not firm (it will stick to your finger when touched, and a small spoonful will mound on a plate), about 30 minutes.
3.
In a medium bowl, gradually whisk the reserved gelatin into the cream cheese until smooth. Pour over the gelatin in the mold.
4.
Cover and refrigerate until firm, at least 4 hours or overnight. To unmold, dip into a large bowl of hot water and hold for 5 seconds. Dry the outside of the mold and invert onto a serving dish.
It Wouldn’t Be Thanksgiving Without…Gelatin Molds
In the nineteenth century, cold, jellied aspics and desserts were the height of fashion. They also relied on the talents of a dedicated cook. Most thickeners, such as isinglass (the dried air bladder of sturgeon), agar-agar (a seaweed), and various mosses, weren’t readily available to the home cook. As a last resort, gelatin had to be painstakingly extracted from veal bones or calves’ feet. This was absolute drudgery, and the long simmering, skimming, and clarification procedure took hours and hours.
By the 1880s, technology had advanced enough that gelatin was available in sheets, a version that is still preferred by some professional pastry chefs. But it had to be soaked before use, and it still took a certain amount of guesswork to figure out how much to use to jell the food. In 1890, Charles B. Knox bought a gelatin company in Johnstown, New York. At first, it was business as usual, and the Knox Gelatin Company sold gelatin sheets. Fatefully, Knox met a true innovator in American cooking, Sarah Tyson Rorer, principal of the Philadelphia Cooking School. Mrs. Rorer suggested that Knox granulate the gelatin so it would dissolve easily without soaking. This brainstorm was enhanced with the idea to sell the powdered gelatin in individual premeasured packets. This was the beginning of America’s love affair with the bouncy, jiggly, transparent gelatin salad.
The affair heated up in 1897, when a cough medicine manufacturer in Leroy, New York, Mr. Pearle B. White, introduced Jell-O. The name was created by his wife, Mary. White improved the product from a recipe developed in 1845. Initially, his sweetened gelatin product failed as miserably as his predecessor’s, but as Knox Gelatin became popular, Jell-O did, too. By 1906, it was approaching $1,000,000 in annual sales—back when a million bucks meant something.
Fruits and vegetables were not very popular with cooks of the early twentieth century, and were often cooked to disguise their identity. And as refined sugar became cheaper and more available, our nation quickly became hooked on sweets. It was perfectly acceptable to mix savory vegetables in sweet Jell-O. By 1905, when Knox conducted a national salad contest, the third-place winner was Mrs. John Cooke’s “Perfection Salad.” It didn’t contain Jell-O, but it could have, being a sweet-and-sour gelatin salad with shredded cabbage, celery, green pepper, and pimientos. Knox printed the recipe in its popular recipe booklets, and one of the contest judges, Fannie Farmer, put it in the next edition of her cookbook. From this American classic, cooks created endless variations on a theme, and their popularity lives on, especially at Thanksgiving.
Cranberry, Ginger, and Lemon Chutney
This is my most requested cranberry sauce recipe. As a matter of fact, many friends and students now make quarts of this chutney at Christmas time for gift-giving. Crystallized ginger can be purchased inexpensively in bulk at Asian and natural food markets. It can also be found at many supermarkets and specialty food stores, where it gets pricey.
Makes about 3 cups, 12 servings
Make Ahead: The chutney can be made up to 2 weeks ahead, cooled, covered, and refrigerated.
1 medium lemon
One 12-ounce bag cranberries
2 cups sugar
½ cup diced (¼-inch) crystallized ginger (about 2½ ounces)
1
/3 cup finely chopped onion
1 garlic clove, minced
1 jalapeño, seeded and minced
1 cinnamon stick
½ teaspoon dry mustard
½ teaspoon salt
1.
Using a grater, remove the yellow zest from the lemon. Using a small, sharp paring knife, cut away and discard the thick white pith. Cut the lemon in half horizontally and pick out the seeds with the tip of the knife. Dice the lemon into ¼-inch pieces.
2.
In a medium, nonreactive saucepan, combine the cranberries, diced lemon and zest, sugar, ginger, onion, garlic, jalapeño, cinnamon stick, mustard, and salt. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring often to help dissolve the sugar. Reduce the heat to low and simmer until the sauce is thick and the cranberries have burst, 10 to 15 minutes. Cool completely. (The chutney can be prepared up to 2 weeks ahead, covered tightly, and refrigerated.) Remove the cinnamon stick just before serving. Serve at room temperature.
Cranberry-Orange Chutney:
Substitute 2 navel oranges for the lemon. Grate the zest from the oranges, then cut off and discard the thick white pith. Carefully cut between the membranes to release the orange sections. Use the orange zest in segments in place of the lemon zest and pieces. Stir 3 tablespoons orange-flavored liqueur into the chutney just as it is removed from the stove.
Cranberry-Tomato Chutney
Here’s another contender for the cranberry chutney crown. Cranberries and tomatoes may sound like a odd combination, but when you consider that tomatoes are a fruit and take well to sugar and spice, the pairing makes sense. Not only is this a terrific condiment for turkey, I often offer it as an appetizer, spooned over cream cheese and served with crackers.
Makes about 4 cups, 12 to 16 servings
Make Ahead: The chutney can be made up to 2 weeks ahead.
One 12-ounce bag cranberries
One 28-ounce can tomatoes in juice, drained
1 cup packed light brown sugar
½ cup raisins
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tablespoon shredded fresh ginger (use the large holes on a box grater)
1 jalapeño, seeded and minced
1 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds
1 cinnamon stick
1 garlic clove, minced
