Good morning. This is it. We’re in the chute now, inexorably headed toward the Thanksgiving feast. This is a weekend for list-making, for shopping, for firming up travel plans, for pledging that this is the year you’re not going to argue with your sister about nuts in the cranberry sauce.
It’s all going to require patience. I spoke about this the other day on The Wirecutter Show. Everything is going to be all right. Strive for grace.
Some will spend the next two days entirely in the Thanksgiving spirit, baking pies, making an early batch of gravy, experimenting with this new recipe for cornbread stuffing with esquites (above) or this one for roasted beets.
Featured Recipe
Cornbread Stuffing With Esquites
I’ll do some of that, absolutely. But I like a little bit of culinary misdirection amid the preparations. And so I’ll cook up a fiery batch of Guyanese pepperpot, too. It’s a fiery taste of the Commonwealth Caribbean, a rich Amerindian beef stew infused with cinnamon, clove, ginger, thyme and the thrumming darkness of cassareep, and it gets better and better the longer it sits. I’ll cure mine in the fridge for a few days so I can serve it on Wednesday night to early arrivals as a sort of magic trick, over rice, with roti.
Other make-aheads: I’ll get some turkey necks and wings from the supermarket and roast them with vegetables to make the Los Angeles chef Suzanne Goin’s recipe for turkey stock. I like to have a lot on hand during my Thanksgiving preparations, most notably on the day itself to enrich my gravy and to use to dress the carved turkey in advance of serving it — hot stock on sliced turkey adds juiciness and temperature alike.
I’ll make some pie crusts, too. And eggnog because, like pepperpot, it improves the longer it sits in the fridge. Also, caramelized shallots, because they’re a great addition to gravy or, if you cut some white miso into the mix and add a little more butter, a fantastic stand-alone side dish.
Then, on Sunday, I’ll clean my grill, getting it ready after two seasons of cooking bluefish and chicken thighs and corn for Thursday’s session with a turkey, smoke-roasted and golden, the holiday’s greatest feed. (Here’s a recipe for that, and my technique for adapting it for a gas grill.)
And, when I’m done, I’ll order a pizza, dress some baby greens in lemon juice, olive oil, a shake of kosher salt and a few grinds of black pepper, pile it all on the pie and serve the result to my family with a smile. Here we go!
You can find many more Thanksgiving recipes on New York Times Cooking, along with all sorts of deliciousness to get into as we march toward the meal. (Pasta with parsnips and bacon, for instance!)
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Now, it’s a considerable distance from anything to do with citrus-glazed sweet potatoes or salt-baked fish, but Billy Bob Thornton is just great in “Landman” on Paramount+.
David Brooks is in The Atlantic this month with a provocative look at the failure of meritocracy, “How the Ivy League Broke America.”
I wouldn’t watch it with your parents or children, but Ali Wong’s “Single Lady” comedy special on Netflix has a few bangers, as Jason Zinoman noted in The Times a while back.
Finally, here’s a new Shaboozey track, “Good News.” Listen to that while you’re cooking, and I’ll see you on Sunday.
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