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Thanksgiving Day Open Q&A with the ChefSteps Team!

grant

Thanksgiving can be stressful, and things often go wrong at the last minute. That's why Chris, Grant, and the rest of the ChefSteps team will monitor this forum thread on Thanksgiving and the day before, to answer any burning questions you may have about preparing your feast. We will do our best to answer as quickly as possible. Please up-vote any questions you find most useful; this will help us surface the most desirable information for everyone. Ready... Shoot!

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prochon123

I would love to do Turkey breast pastrami. What would I have to modify from the short rib sous vide recipe? Do I still need the insta cure #1? How long for curing, smoking and sous vide? I made the pastrami with brisket and it was wonderful. Tender and flavourful. Sliced thin the next day for fantastic pastrami sandwiches. I put some on my pickled mustard seeds into the dijon mustard for some nice texture and pop.

matthew.snyder77

I bought Eden brand Agar at Whole Foods last night and redid the Cran-Apple sauce..... worked fine. Bizarre. Oh well, time for lime jelly!

Samuel_68313

I've used the agar from that kit without problems fwiw.

michaelnatkin

@Matthew Snyder - then I'd have to say it was the agar, hard to envision that both of those recipes are defective. If you wanted to test it, simply disperse 1% agar in water, bring to a boil for a couple of minutes and then chill. It should be set into a very firm gel once it cools.

Leslie_Redd_17326

@Chris

Sweet Potato Puree best ever according to my guests. (Sorry Grandma.) Used a food mill and it was smooooth as silk. Thanks so much!

ChefSteps team and community thanks for all the inspiration and mouth-watering images.

xxoo

matthew.snyder77

@Michael, yup, followed Heston's recipe for the lime jelly cubes to the letter.

The only variation I had from the MC recipe for the Cran-Apple Sauce was when I initially combined the ingredients I used a blender instead of a whisk or immersion blender. All other techniques, times and temps were followed exactly.

grant

@Chris, duh at CS. Conference room? jeeze.

michaelnatkin

@Matthew Snyder - Agar can definitely come in powder form. I haven't used that brand; the one I get is Telephone brand, found in most Asian markets in little blue packets. I've never had a problem with it setting up, and it doesn't have any oceanic taste. Assuming you got the agar properly dispersed and up to a full boil to hydrate?

matthew.snyder77

So, another post mortem question.

I did two gels for my plate, the MCAH Cranberry Apple Sauce, and Heston's lime jelly to go with his pommes puree. After four hours in the fridge, the cran-apple sauce was still the consistency of regular juice, and the lime jelly did not set. In fact, after having been in the fridge overnight, the jelly still hasn't set up.

The agar-agar used was from the Cuisine R-Evolution kit from Molecule-R, which was more of a powder rather than flakey. Is that the culprit? I shudder at the thought of it being an execution problem.

Samuel_68313

All this stuff looks so good, makes me wish I celebrated thanksgiving!

Thanks Chris for the recipes, I completely misread part of your post and definitely read it as broccoli and sweet potato puree, I thought that sounded a bit odd, hence my curiosity. Pretty sure I am going to do a sweet potato puree this Christmas though, and follow a similar method with the carrots, though I am leaning towards using a little bit of maple syrup because, well Canada, you know?

michaelnatkin

The pumpkin pies turned out great; definitely sticking with the CS pie crust from now on. Also did cornbread stuffing using my brown butter cornbread, which I cubed and slow-toasted for a long time so it would develop more flavor and not sog out as much, and made gravy from this umami-packed broth. I added orange zest and juice to the cranberry too, which was good but I didn't think of angostura, that's genius. The fam brought green bean casserole with the crispy onions (love), mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes and a green salad. Since most of us are vegetarian, we just skipped the turkey and didn't bother doing a "main" - with all those delicious sides, who needed it?

Tim_Sutherland_52834

@Grant my green bean casserole was a play on Alton Brown's Best Ever Green Bean Casserole.

I used button and cremini mushrooms, Wondera instead of flour, heavy cream rather than half and half. It was nice and thick, and I must say a good effort for the first green bean casserole I ever made.

prince_of_porcelain

Here's my spread...or part of it anyway. Broke down the supermarket turkey and cooked one breast sous vide in duck fat with sage and thyme, the other was smoked with whiskey-cider glaze, the rest of the turkey went to turkey jus gras for the stuffing and gravy. Sides were basically the traditional ones either my wife and/or I grew up with, because that's what makes it feel like Thanksgiving, and what my folks prefer. Sweet potato bake, halfway green bean casserole with mushroom cream sauce (cause I couldn't do canned soup) and (the shame!) French's fried onions. Strawberry jello salad, Mashed potatoes, Cranberry relish, Rolls, Pumpkin pie and Blueberry pie. Both turkey breasts came out great, so I didn't feel too bad about not plating a whole bird.

Chris_Young_80640

Glazed carrots:

Peeled, cut 1/2 inch thick on the bias. Glazed in strained deeply browned butter. Seasoned with coarse ground coriander seed. When about 3/4 of the way to al dente, I added enough fresh squeezed orange juice to just cover the bottom of the pan. When done, pulled from the heat, transferred to a cooler bowl to avoid over cooking. Seasoned with very fine kosher salt and about 1mL of orange essential oil.

Broccoli blanched to al dente, strained, let drain, then season with fine salt and fresh ground white pepper.

Sweet potatoes peeled and sliced about 1/4in thick. Cooked sous vide at 95C until very soft. Sieved for a smooth purée and mixed with about 30% salted butter by weight. Brown butter solids strained from the butter for the carrots were folded in, along with picked and washed young thyme leaves.

Samuel_68313

Any chance of basic recipes for the glazed carrots and the broccoli and sweet potato puree?

Chris_Young_80640

We're eating at ChefSteps!

grant

Where did you guys eat!? so much food! I wish I was there.

Chris_Young_80640

Ben Johnson and me just finishing our dinner. Two ultimate roast turkeys, turkey jus gras, Heston's roast potatoes, glazed carrots with orange and coriander, broccoli, sweet potato purée, stuffing, green beans with shallot cream sauce with whole grain mustard, cranberry relish, and Hawaiian sweet rolls.

Ben_Johnson_34605

I love wrecking ball too!!!!

grant

My mom is so trad. But she does loves Wreckingball by Miley Cirus.

grant

@ Tim - I love green bean casserole. Is yours thick or what style is it. Bread crumbs? My mom used to make it with canned mushroom soup base as the casserole base. Trashy but very good.

grant

@ben you better show us finished photos.

grant

a lot of that really depends on the bird and I hate to say it but 140f is a bit low in temp, a lot can happen with just a few degrees addition. If you salted the skin, that would also have contributed to the toughness in the skin. FRY it before its too late.

ajcampelli

This is more of a post-mortem question, but here goes: I followed the turkey confit recipe in MCAH (140 for 24h). The legs were still relatively tough, and even after frying the skin was quite chewy. I used a heritage bird, which I've cooked sous vide (albeit at higher temps) with no problems in the past. Any others have a similar experience?

Ben_Johnson_34605

Turkey day turkeys!

Tim_Sutherland_52834

I made a lot but it was for other people (except all the bits that stayed home for my wife and I)

Apps:
SV Brisket with centrifuged BBQ sauce
Goat cheese balls with herb bacon crust
MC deviled eggs
Mini corn bread with blue Stilton and beets

Main:
PiSMO
Horseradish cream
Turkey breast on the bone brined in milk and apple juice
Gravy
Grilled vege
Mashed spud (really should be called butter with a small amount of potato)
Green bean casserole (from scratch)

Cheese:
Date wrapped goat cheese with pistachio and ginger

Dessert:
Creme Anglaise with fresh fruit
Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Pie
Coco Mochi

The rest of the guests provided other sauces, sides and dessert.

DiggingDogFarm_65362

I threw caution to the wind and overindulged on sugar and starch....oh well...a day or two off plan won't kill me...I hope!! LOL

Here's what I made:

Cup of creamed sun-dried tomato and basil soup.

Hearts of romaine Caesar salad.

Scratch-cured and hickory smoked Cottage ham with bourbon glaze.

Charcoal-grilled, dry-brined and spatchcocked broad-breasted bronze turkey.

Cast iron skillet baked onion bagel, hickory nut and apple dressing.

Savory oyster bread pudding.

Stuffed baked sweet potatoes topped with maple hickory nut crumble.

Creamed Monnopa spinach.

Blue cheese broccoli casserole.

Mashed taters and turkey jus gras.

Cranberry-Chipotle sauce.

Butter and egg cloverleaf rolls.

Pumpkin cheesecake with gingersnap crust...topped with a dollop of bourbon whipped cream.

New York Finger Lakes Riesling.

Jack_Mayer_85396

@Grant, sounds terrific! Happy thanksgiving to you and your family and thanks for all you do to make ChefSteps the special place it is.

grant

Dinner at my parents on the ocean. It's Neah Bay and the whales are out.

Lets eat:

Huge ass Turkey my mom got from a neighbor, 21lbs dressed weight! YESSSSSS, neck and back please! oysters the size of U-10 scallops!

Homemade cranberry with orange zest and Angostura

Hawaiian sweet rolls(store bought).

Veg with fresh spinach dip

Mashed potatoes

Chunky gravy

Dungeness crab( fingers crossed-pulling up pots in 2 hours)

Stuffing( my favorite)

Mashed carrots and parsnips-my favorite(my real favorite)

Pecan Pie(CS)

Apple Pie(CS)

What Ive had so far:

Rum and eggnog(serious favorite)

Another Rum and eggnog

Darby redwine

Cheeze-its

double Darby redwine

dang, I love this holiday.

grant

190f for the pumpkin pie.