Thanksgiving, the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

by Tory Miller, Executive Chef & Co-Owner

Thanksgiving is fast approaching; there are only a few shopping days left! This may come as a shocker, but Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  Food, football, and family, what else could you want? I know that many families have their own unique and celebrated traditions: how you cook the almighty bird, what side dishes you make, what you must have or must never have, and what time you eat and take a nap.  Holidays are about these traditions; maybe what makes the holidays what they are, is always going to the same person’s house, sitting around that table and enjoying those same dishes that our families have enjoyed from generation to generation. We wait all year for these gatherings, to get a chance to experience the same giddiness as we did years past, the smells alone evoking all of the previous year’s and memories, that one magical time when we get to eat as much turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes and yes, green bean casserole as we can fit on our plates. So with all of this in mind, I write to share just a few of my favorite things to fill my table with on Thanksgiving.

Let's talk turkey. I start with the farm. There are many great farmers out there raising many a great tasting bird. L'Etoile has had a long standing relationship with our friends, the Smith family from Blue Valley Gardens in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin. Matt and Susan raise a heritage breed bronze turkey. Full-flavored and great white-meat-to-dark-meat ratios give these birds a great appeal for me. I love dark meat, but many like white, so we can all get what we like from one bird. Heritage breed and heirloom variety of everything you can think of have become a very popular way of marketing and selling vegetables and meats for the better part of the last decade. But like any ingredient, pick the best you can find, at the price you can afford, don't get caught up in labels, and try to think about its source. We all know the philosophy − local, small, fresh, all that business − so regardless of what bird you get, farm-raised or 12-cents-a-pound-frozen from your local grocery, I recommend a brine. Brining is like mixing a marinade with a cure; it adds seasoning and flavor, as well the all important moisture factor. (I know, no one has ever experienced a dry turkey, right?) The brine that I use is 2 parts kosher salt (4 cups) to 1 part sugar (white or brown 2 cups), 15 bay leaves, 2 cinnamon sticks, equal parts coriander, black peppercorns, cloves, all spice, star anise.  For one turkey I use a five gallon pickle bucket (you can also try a cooler in the garage, or someplace that will keep the brine at 41 degrees or below, not freezing though) and about 3 gallons of liquid.  I usually bring the liquid to a boil with all the ingredients and then chill it down to 40 degrees and then drop the turkey in. (Tip: bring about half the liquid to a boil, then add ice to make up the difference in volume, saves on cooling time and makes sure that the brine is cold enough.) The turkey should brine for at least 2 days, if you can do more that's awesome. I did one once for 2 weeks; it kind of tasted like ham, delicious but a different animal for sure. The reason for the brine is not only for flavor, but also for moisture. The salt naturally pulls moisture out of the bird, but the laws of equilibrium replace that moisture with the brine liquid. This continues to happen for the duration of the brining time, until the bird reaches equilibrium, basically equal parts moisture inside as outside. This changes the way the turkey is going to taste as well as how it is going to cook. If you can let the turkey sit under refrigeration for a day before cooking to allow the outside to dry, that is awesome. If not, do your best to towel that bad boy off before putting it in the oven.  When I cook turkey, I heat the oven as high as it can go, rub all over the skin with vegetable oil (I know you want to use butter, but that burns the outside. If you must use butter, slide some at room temperature under the skin of the breasts. That will give you all the butter love but none of the butter burn), put the bird in and cook it for 30 minutes. This jump starts the turkey, searing the outside and trapping the moisture in. Then reduce that oven temp to 325 and cook it for about another hour. Do not open the oven to check on it; all that does is cool the oven down and slow down the cooking. (This is for like a 20 pounder or less, obviously the bigger the turkey, and depending on oven, it may or may not take longer.  Get a instant read thermometer. After an hour, take the temp. According to the health department it needs to be 165 to be done. I pull it out at 155-160 and let it rest up.) Why does it cook so fast you might ask?  The added moisture in the meat from the brine help "simmer" the meat from the inside out, reducing the cooking time and the searing of the skin in the initial heat blast helps trap in all those juices, resulting in a super delicious, extra juicy turkey. (Extra bonus, the leftovers are juicy too!) The final turkey tip I can give you is: Let it rest! When it comes out of the oven all those juices are moving around in there, if you leave it alone they'll calm down and settle into the meat, if you cut into it, they'll only have one place to go: out of the meat, leaving it dry and considerably less delicious.

Alright, on to the sides. I can waste time talking about recipes and methods for stuffing, sweet potatoes, squash, gravy, red cabbage and green bean casserole...but we all have our own traditions, and I know that people will still use the canned cream of mushroom soup and French's fried onions regardless of what any chef, fancy magazine spread, or blog tells us is the newest and best way to make it. So it goes back to sourcing for me. The Dane County Farmer's Market may have just had it’s last outdoor market for the year, but that doesn't mean all the delicious treats are done for the season and we have to flock to Whole Foods or the Co-op to get our locally grown, sustainably raised, and organic ingredients.  The Market moves into the Monona Terrace until after Christmas and is still quite amazing. There is an incredible selection of mushrooms, squashes, sweet potatoes, Brussels sprouts, cabbages, pumpkins, cheeses and everything else you would need to complete your celebrations.  (It kind of sucks that green bean season was over like a month and a half ago though.)  Unfortunately, our cranberry farmers, the Wetherby's, typically only come to the outdoor market, so if you were thinking ahead this week and have cranberries staking out territory in your freezer, kudos to you. If you weren’t as prepared (and your tradition doesn’t involves needing to see the ridges from the can of cranberries in order to feel complete), you may have to look into another option to get local cranberries. Other than that, all of these great things should be in pretty bountiful supply at the indoor market at the Monona Terrace.

The reason for this meal is to celebrate what it is we have to be thankful for, as families, individuals and as people in general. I would like to take an opportunity to say that this is that one time of the year where it isn’t about what you’re eating, or who made it, or how they made it, where it was raised or how it was treated in the growing process, or all of those other things that are food politically correct. It should be about celebrating that you actually have a meal to sit down to, that you have family and friends to share this time with, and that your family culinary traditions should always live on, even if it is only for one meal a year. 

Happy Thanksgiving everybody, and of course Bon Appetito.