Hello!
Bet you’ve never read this one through in its entirety:
THANKSGIVING DAY
Over the river and through the wood,
To grandfather's house we go;
The horse knows the way
To carry the sleigh
Through the white and drifted snow.
Over the river and through the wood--
Oh, how the wind does blow!
It stings the toes
And bites the nose,
As over the ground we go.
Over the river and through the wood,
To have first-rate play.
Hear the bells ring,
"Ting-a-ling-ding!"
Hurrah for Thanksgiving Day!
Over the river and through the wood,
And straight through the barn-yard gate.
We seem to go
Extremely slow--
It is so hard to wait!
Over the river and through the wood--
Now grandmother's cap I spy!
Hurrah for the fun!
Is the pudding done?
Hurrah for the pumpkin-pie!
By the way, I'm Bruce Cole, Publisher of Edible San Francisco. Welcome to all the new subscribers this week! But if you'd like to hop off anytime, simply unsubscribe. I appreciate you reading (and sharing) this newsletter.
Here we go.
The Countdown To Thanksgiving Is On: Have you ordered a turkey yet? Here are three convenient online sources (disclosure: both BiRite and Gus’s are Edible SF advertisers):
🍗 BiRite Family of Businesses Holiday Turkey
🍗 Gus’s Community Market Holiday Turkey
The Dry Brine Method: aka, the Judy Bird, so named after the technique chef Judy Rodgers (Zuni Cafe) used to season her famous roast chicken. Russ Parsons (former LA Times food editor) popularized the technique in 2014 and we’ve been using it ever since. No fuss, no mess, the Judy Bird method delivers an exceptionally succulent, well-seasoned turkey. LA Times
The Wet Brine Method: If you insist on drowning your bird, you may as well do it in buttermilk: Samin Nosrat’s Best Thanksgiving Turkey. YouTube
Spatchcock Is The Word: We used to cut our turkey into pieces, brown and braise each separately, and then finish with a roast to crisp up the skin. Yeah, time-consuming. Now we spatchcock the bird by cutting out the backbone with poultry shears and roasting it flat on a sheet pan. The advantage is the entire surface of the turkey is exposed to the same level of heat, which reduces the cooking time by about 75 percent. Here’s a detailed step-by-step with photos, on how to spatchcock a turkey from Plays Well With Butter
On The Other Hand: If you aren’t up to spatchcocking your turkey, Padma Lakshi’s Slow-Roasted Turkey with Apple Gravy. New York Times (paywall)
Carve It: Whatever you do, be sure to remove each breast from the carcass in one piece and then slice across the grain. How to carve a turkey for beginners with photos and video. The Kitchn
This incredible resource from Edible Boston should cover all your recipe needs, from appetizers and cocktails to soups, salads, and desserts, not to mention the big bird.
All The Thanksgiving Recipes You Need, All In One Place. Edible Boston
Five Things To Help Put Veg At The Centre Of Your Plate: “If I had a pound for every time someone asked me where I get my protein as a vegetarian I would be a very rich lady.” Anna Jones Newsletter
Free The Vegetables: “So that's the spirit of Diet for a Small Planet, really, to free us and to—because when I first moved into the plant-centered eating world, people thought, ‘Oh, you're sacrificing? Oh, how do you make that big sacrifice?’ And I said, ‘Oh, no.’ It was discovery. “ Frances Moore Lappe, author of Diet for a Small Planet, in From the Desk of Alicia Kennedy
Do These Look Good Or What?
Baked Japanese Sweet Potatoes (Yaki Imo) 焼き芋: Perfectly tender, fluffy, and sweet. Just One Cookbook
#Protip: Now is the time of year to find Japanese sweet potatoes at farmers markets.
Want To Write A Cookbook? David Leibovitz interviews Kate Leahy, on her journey to becoming a recipe developer and cookbook writer. “I have also learned the hard way that calling for things like Champagne vinegar or muscovado sugar instead of white wine vinegar and brown sugar can mean a lot of people will never make the recipe. It’s always better to be flexible as long as it doesn’t compromise the end results.” David Lebovitz Newsletter
🤔 If You Build It Will They Come? “With $1.5 million, a celeb investor, and star chefs, Foody launches today and tackles the sticky internet issue of “free recipes.” Evan Rich shared that often at his restaurant diners will ask for recipes; now he has somewhere to send them, potentially with a QR code popped into the menu. The hope is that once readers start browsing the site, they’ll discover other content.” Eater SF
Belcampo: The Neverending Story. “Fernald gained a reputation for being a “force of nature,” (David) Budworth said, a “person who gets things done.” It was “like a cult of personality,” said (Aaron) Rocchino. “She was very much the face of the company. What is Belcampo? Anya Fernald is Belcampo.” SF Chronicle (paywall).
More Lies: The Great Organic Food Fraud. The New Yorker
We Take Cauliflower For Granted: “It is one thing to be able to find and afford a head of cauliflower. But it is another to want to buy that cauliflower, to choose to spend one’s money on that cauliflower (at the expense of other purchases), to have the time and tradition to cook that cauliflower, and to possess the patience to weather one's child’s complaints and pleas for macaroni and cheese and soldier on to feed that cauliflower to one’s child. Only a handful of parents I met had all of these things.” From Priya Fielding-Singh’s How the Other Half Eats: The Untold Story of Food and Inequality in America. A must-read for anyone who has ever wondered why Americans don’t eat more healthfully. Marion Nestle’s Food Politics
👀 SPOTTED
That’s all for this week.
This sublime cover of the Sade classic Paradise, by Brazilian singer Ceu, is at the top of our playlist lately:
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We’re outta here. Be well and take care,
–Bruce
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