Oh, shoots. I should have started earlier, because now I'm out of time to devote a post a day to each part of the Thanksgiving feast.

Here is what I'm thinking today.

Stuffing

My dressing/stuffing is ready to assemble. Yesterday I sauteed celery, onion, and diced apples together in a stick of butter with about 1 strip worth of diced bacon. I thought I was buying Italian parsley, but came home with cilantro, and didn't realize it was different until I had minced it and added it to the onions etc. So now my stuffing has a slightly funky twang, that with the bacon isn't all bad. Tomorrow, I'll warm it up in the big saute pan, stir in the herbs (poultry seasoning, powdered thyme, fresh minced sage, salt and pepper), and some broth made from cooking the turkey neck, wing tips, tail, and gizzard, and stir it into the bread crumbs. My mother never added raw eggs to her dressing, so I may or may not. If you look on the Internet, there is debate about it, but I think most people do. There are a few people who add chopped hard cooked eggs, and I saw one recipe calling for just the egg whites, but I don't think I'm going to do that. Someone on the Internet pointed out that it's not stuffing if you cook it outside the bird. Technically true. Travel note: the last time I was in England, stuffing/dressing was always served in balls, not quite tennis ball size, but close.

The Turkey

It's all about the bird, isn't it? I hate eating in the middle of the afternoon, so I'm putting it in the oven pretty early. I'm going to try a cooking bag, mostly because my dad used to work in a turkey plant back in the 1970s and he brought home oven bags on industrial-sized rolls. It's like a box of foil, but it's oven bags, and you just cut off how much you need. I decided I need to use them up, so this is a trial this year. Turkeys cook faster in a bag, and since they are essentially steaming in there, generally stay moist. I know, purists will cringe, but I don't care. Just in case it won't be soggy enough, I'm going to brine the turkey in a mixture of salt water and apple juice with sliced oranges and a little brown sugar. Not too long, though, because the meat will be soggy and the other dire consequences.

Mashed Potatoes

Now I know there is a difference between mashed potatoes, smashed potatoes, and whipped potatoes, I'm thinking about what I want to do. Smashed potatoes are where you roast whole small red potatoes and then smash them flat, put butter on them and bake them until the edges are crispy. Until last year, I thought it was just a childish name for mashed potatoes.

I thought whipped potatoes are what you get with TV dinners, just another fancy description to make instant mashed potatoes more glamorous. But no, there is more to it than that because they actually involve being beaten with a mixer for minutes sometimes. Back in the 1960s, the worst thing in the world was to have lumps in your mashed potatoes, so women took to using electric mixers to go beyond what they could accomplish with a potato masher.

Then, in the 1980s, lumps in the potatoes became fashionable to prove that they were real instead of made from instant potato flakes (as if the flavor and texture weren't a dead giveaway).

Alton Brown has this very fancy recipe for whipped potatoes that I might try someday. It makes 8 to 10 servings and calls for a whole gallon of whole milk because the potatoes are cooked in milk before being whipped. I would save the extra milk to make potato dinner rolls.

Whipped Potatoes

4 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, washed and rinsed
1 gallon whole milk
4 ounces unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon kosher salt

Peel the potatoes and slice as thinly as possible on a mandoline directly into a large, 8-quart container filled with 4 quarts of cold water. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Drain the potatoes and rinse with clean, cold water; spin dry in a salad spinner. Transfer the potatoes to an 11-quart pot, cover with the milk and set over medium heat. Bring to a simmer, about 35 minutes. Reduce the heat in order to maintain a simmer and cook, uncovered, until the potatoes are fork tender and beginning to fall apart, 25 to 30 minutes.

Reserve 1 cup of the cooking milk. Drain the potatoes thoroughly in a colander and return them to the pot. Press the potatoes through a ricer into a large mixing bowl. Add the reserved hot milk, butter and salt and use an electric hand mixer to whip on low speed for 15 to 30 seconds. Do not overwhip.

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Here is how I make mashed potatoes most of the time, but sometimes I use the potato masher if I want some of those genuine lumps.

Mashed Potatoes

Potatoes cut into even sized pieces (peeled or not)
Salt
Water
Butter
Milk or cream or half-and-half or chicken broth
Salt and pepper
2 - 3 pats of soft butter

Start the potatoes in cold water. Cook soft and pour into a food mill. While they are draining, melt the butter with the liquid in the saucepan you cooked the potatoes in. Crank the potatoes through the mill into the saucepan. Take a fork and stir them together with the butter and liquid until well-combined. Add more liquid if you want. Season with salt and pepper. To serve, pile into a nice bowl and make a crater in the top to hold pats of butter that will melt and dribble down the sides.

Here is a food mill, in case you don't know. It is easier to use for potatoes than a potato ricer, and has more uses than potatoes, such as applesauce.



Now I'm all worn out. Need to conserve my energy for tomorrow. Have a great Thanksgiving dinner, everyone.