Expediting the Thanksgiving meal

Is there any skin left? I’ll take it.

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Keep your paws off that turkey skin, it’s mine! :wink:

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Nooo!! :disappointed: :disappointed:

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Not this year, but in the past when we’ve had company (always a small bunch), I always make the cranberry sauce or cran orange relish at least a week in advance and freeze it. I generally make chicken stock that I’ll use for stuffing, gravy, moistening the bird, and whatever else, a week before and freeze it. Tuesday is always chop and prep. Usually veg for roasting and any veg that goes into the stuffing. Also, bread - baguettes generally - gets cut on Tues and sits to dry out. Stuffing is made on Tues night and refrigerated in the pyrex, that will go straight into the oven. On Thursday, only the desserts and turkey are made from start to finish. Unless you count dry brining, which usually starts on Sunday.

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This has been great, and I will refer back for Christmas. It’s not as food centric a holiday, but it will be my DIL’s first Christmas (she is from Turkey) , and she likes to cook.
Son has been living in Turkey for 2 years, and there is not much if any pork on the menu there, and he is really missing it.

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Sasha, your Thanksgiving prep schedule sounds like my Passover one. Two weeks ahead I make pasta sauce for Matza Pizza (and freeze it). A week ahead I make a batch of chili and freeze it. A week ahead I also start pulling out the dishes, silverware, glasses, Haggadot, etc. Three days ahead I make the pickles. Two days ahead I make the charoses and cranberry relish. The day before I boil the eggs and roast the chicken, which we cool and carve.) The actual day I make the farfel stuffing and the soup with knaidlach. The next day I collapse from exhaustion. :slight_smile:

(It takes a couple of days for the dishwasher to catch up with all the dishes.)

My sister-in-law used to do all sorts of Passover desserts as well, so she started baking at least a week in advance and baked every day.

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I’d like to hear more about the pickles. Fermented foods are a growing interest. We make refrigerator pickles sometimes, have a family recipe for water-bath canned (adjusted the NCHFP guidelines), and make pickled onions. Is three days ahead long enough for fermentation or are your pickles quick pickles?

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I trim the ends off Kirby cucumbers and cut them into spears, then put them in a jar with warm salt water (1 tablespoon kosher salt per pint, scaled to how many cucumbers you have). Cover loosely and put in a warmish spot for three days, then put in a regular jar in the refrigerator.

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Ah. I’m heading down this path https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_06/dill_pickles.html for next summer when cucumbers are back in season and I can buy them by the crate. My wife is not as excited as I am. grin

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Yes! I love spacing it out. I’ve made Thanksgiving before at my mom’s and my sister’s, and they both rely on me to do most of the cooking. Especially my sister. So in those years, it is almost all the dishes on the day of, and it is way too much work!!

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The results are in! Another vote for "dry brining ".

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I think you chose the best word - to expedite something just means to speed it up, or to do it right away. Barking orders is definitely a separate thing.

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Thank you! You are so kind.

This seems like the idea I had in mind.

“They fire dishes – signalling cooks exactly when to push ahead and finish a dish – and they keep time, continuously planning the next move.”

Of course, I am all the “cooks”.

Ah! As the article claims, I had never known there was such a job. It’s a job that I would hate to have, and I would hate to be expedited by these expediters too. I learned something today, namely how glad I am that my only “expediter” just says “Daddy, are you making noodles for us?” :slight_smile:

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And always remember @DavidPF, you aren’t only making noodles, but memories!