Thanksgiving and …

By now, grandmothers everywhere have been watching turkey prices fall and younger families have been kicking themselves for buying the same bird two weeks ago for another 50 cents per pound.
Family recipes written down on all manner of lined paper, the backs of envelopes, and carefully trimmed from magazine pages during the Kennedy administration have been reviewed, shopping lists tweaked, and Black Friday plans laid.  The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is getting ready and all over the country, families are preparing to travel in celebration of Thanksgiving and the beginning of the Christmas season.
In the next week, hundreds of “new” recipes will be tried and a lot of them will be quickly discarded in favor of “the good ones…”
Which brings us to this week’s thought…
There is no substitution for quality and – I’ll say it – love – in the kitchen.  The flashy chef on the television with oddball ingredients and combinations is no substitute for the care that you put into a dish.  I’d rather have ten people in one of my classes who want to craft something delicious than one person who equates how spicy a dish is with whether or not the food is “good.”
Scoville Units don’t make food taste good any more than over-the-top haircuts make a band sound good.  Spiciness might contribute, but it can’t make bad food any better.
The bigger point in this post and in everything that I do and teach as a chef is this – if you rely on quality ingredients, common sense, and (dare I even say it?) time-tested processes, you can create truly magnificent dishes in the kitchen.  Take the centerpiece of the American Thanksgiving table – the turkey.  Buying your bird from a quality producer, taking the time to thaw it properly (which could be up to 72 hours in a refrigerator, depending on the weight!), and then seasoning and cooking it – under even heat, with plenty of basting and, if need be, a “tent” of loose-fitting foil – until the internal temperature is 165 degrees (not 180!) will give you a moist, succulent turkey.
No strange stuffings, no mysterious marinades, and no “deconstructed” cooking methods!
I love to Brine my turkey for up to 48 hours in a mixture of water, salt and sugar and some herbs and spices.  For example, in my Thanksgiving Dinner classes this year, I got a 15 pound turkey and used 2 gallons of water, a cup of brown sugar, a cup of salt, 1 bunch of thyme and 1/2 bunch of sale and a cinnamon stick.  I made the brine by bringing the water to a boil then adding all the ingredients and stirring until the salt and sugar have dissolved.  Then I cooled the brine completely and put my turkey into the brine for 48 hours. The most succulent turkey ever!
No strange stuffings, no mysterious marinades, and no “deconstructed” cooking methods!
Food Safety at Thanksgiving
Now, given the time of year, as an expert chef, I think that many times people don’t practice anything like food safety in the home kitchen and with family in town for the holidays, we should revisit some of the basics to make sure you keep it safe in your kitchen this year by following these little tricks…

• Have a “real” thermometer. Everything in the kitchen depends on temperature and if you have to guess, then you will struggle.  Remembering that certain proteins are best cooked to certain internal temperatures (your turkey, for example, needs to be 165 degrees Fahrenheit) is critical to your success at every meal.  I know, I know, “Grandma didn’t have one, why should I?”  These little gems could easily save you hundreds of dollars in wasted (read “burnt”) ingredients.
• Keep your refrigerator cold. Most home refrigerators simply don’t get cold enough.  While my commercial coolers must be under 40 degrees, chances are, your refrigerator at home might only hold temperature at 45.  Now is a great time to check and ensure that your refrigerator is cold enough and remember, if you are constantly opening and closing it, that average temperature is going to go up.  Get what you need and keep the doors shut!  At the same time, cramming 30 pounds of leftovers into your refrigerator and blocking up the vents can cause the refrigerator to not cool at all, so think about how you store all the delicious items you’re cooking.
• Sanitize those surfaces! In the Classroom kitchen, we use a 5% bleach solution diluted in water.  A capful of bleach in a pot of cool water and a towel to wipe down your surfaces can keep your kitchen as sanitized as a professional kitchen.
• Leftovers aren’t forever. As much as we love our Thanksgiving leftovers, they do have a shelf life.  Anything older than 4 days is probably best discarded and if you heat something up a second time, you really shouldn’t put it back in the fridge.  If you have the feeling that you are going to freeze some of those leftovers, the best time to do it is within 24 hours of preparation – they’ll taste fresher when defrosted.  If you’ve frozen something, though, when you defrost it, you need to use it right away – and no, you cannot refreeze it!

You’re already paying for a kitchen…
Nobody was born knowing how to drive, or walk, or use an iPhone, so why do we so often think that we can’t learn to cook?  Certainly, my love and experience in the kitchen is vast, but I find that anyone, with a little coaxing, can learn to create many wonderful things  – from a side item to sushi.  You might not become Julia Child or the next Wolfgang Puck, but there is no reason you can’t have fun in the kitchen – besides, you already have one at home, why not learn how to use it?