Roast

Maple syrup and apple brandy lend a delicate flavor to the turkey and gravy. The New England Sausage, Apple and Dried Cranberry Stuffing is an especially nice accompaniment. Watch how to prepare and carve your bird with our streaming video demonstration.

An elegant main course that's ready in 40 minutes.

Janet Fletcher, food writer, says,"My grandmother could never seem to make enough of her creamy giblet gravy; everyone always wanted more. We poured it over the mashed potatoes, dressing and turkey, then over open-face sandwiches the next day. Of course, it's great with this turkey, too: The bird gets its incredible moistness from being soaked overnight in a brine enhanced by thyme, garlic cloves and honey."Because of the brining process, we don’t recommend stuffing this turkey.

My grandmother made a great Friday night dinner in her two-story limestone in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. She might as well have run a restaurant. There was lots and lots and lots of stuff—kreplach, gribenes, gefilte fish, blintzes, homemade noodles, roast chicken, glazed carrots, egg barley with dried Polish mushrooms. In 1918 during an influenza epidemic my grandmother was 20 years old with two children. First her husband died and two days later her mother died. With eight younger siblings and two of her own, she took care of ten kids in the family. Then an aunt caught the flu and died leaving eight or nine children. My grandmother then married her uncle and raised 18 kids. The secret to her roast chicken was to cook it long enough to render the fat from the chicken and make it crispy. —Eddie Schoenfeld, New York restaurateur

(Poulet aux Echalotes de Mme. Lascourrèges) This is an interpretation of a recipe given to me by Denise Lascourrèges, whom our son christened "Madame Châtaigne." It was she who revealed to us the marvelous Gascon woods, which were so full of chestnuts we had to dodge those falling from the trees. Mme. Lascourrèges raises her own chickens and ducks, and the appear frequently on her table. At her house I found ways of preparing chicken that departed from the norm. This recipe, which relies on the sweet heat of shallots and the bite of vinegar, intrigued me most of all, and I've made it often since I returned from her farm. I use the oven most often, though occasionally I cook it on the grill, which is the way Mme. Lascourrèges usually makes it. In general, French farm cooks use a lot of shallots, which here turn dark and caramelized — some turn almost black — but they don’t get bitter. Instead, their flavor intensifies. The vinegar adds a pleasant tartness; the oil smooths all. At the last minute I like to add parsley, which scents the whole dish with its slight anise flavor. Consider it an option — it is my addition to Mme. Lascourrèges’s recipe. Try this with a lightly chilled dry red Bordeaux, or a Chinon. Watch how to cut a whole chicken into parts to use in this recipe.

Veal chops from a butcher are usually about 1 1/4 inches thick and weigh 12 to 14 ounces each. The supermarket variety of chop is thinner and smaller, ranging from 8 to 10 ounces each, and would only need to be roasted 12 to 15 minutes in this recipe.

As American cities filled up in the early part of the twentieth century, new urbanites learned to make the most of small apartment kitchens by using recipes that yielded a lot of food with little bother. Roast beef with vegetables filled the bill. Cattle, raised on enormous western ranches, and beef were moved efficiently around the country on the transcontinental railroad system, so the meat was cheap and plentiful. A spice rub and cilantro make this roast especially appealing.

Grapefruit zest stands in for lemon peel in the gremolata, an aromatic garnish.

Even though turkeys are rarely stuffed in the South, cooks usually tuck a few flavorful ingredients—like apple and onion—inside the bird before it goes into the oven. In this recipe, the outside of the turkey is rubbed with bacon drippings so that the skin will be golden, crisp and delicious.

Ask your butcher to make a "pocket" in the veal breast for you.

These crumbs are used in both the <epirecipelink id="106249">clams oreganata</epirecipelink> and the <epirecipelink id="106281">stuffed baby bell peppers</epirecipelink>. Leftover crumbs are delicious sprinkled over pesto pasta .

My Grammie Ethel was best known for her cookies and fudge. But she also made a mean chopped liver. What was remarkable about Grammie Ethel's chopped liver was how mild, light and fluffy it was—it didn't taste too much like liver. (This is important when you're eight years old and a finicky eater.) Her secret was the high proportion of hard-boiled egg whites to liver. And the hand-cranked metal meat grinder my grandmother used her whole life to grind the ingredients into a chunky purée. Low-fat chopped liver might seem like an oxymoron. After all, liver is one of the fattiest and most cholesterol-laden substances known to man. By replacing most of the liver with mushrooms (keeping just enough liver for flavor) and by roasting the ingredients in a hot oven instead of sautéeing them, we create a chopped liver that explodes with flavor and is mercifully light on fat. I'm sure my grandmother would have approved. Note: To be in strict accordance with the kashrut, you would boil, not roast, the chicken liver. (This is considered a more effective way to remove the blood.) Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes

We think all turkeys are improved by brining (soaking in salt water), but it's a cumbersome task that few holiday schedules can accommodate. We find kosher turkeys, which are salted during the koshering process, to be just as flavorful and succulent as brined ones, without all the fuss. However, if you'd like to try brining, stir together 8 quarts water with 2 cups kosher salt in a 5-gallon bucket lined with a large heavy-duty plastic garbage bag and soak your raw turkey, covered and chilled, 10 hours. *Note: The Spinach, Bacon, and Cashew stuffing for this turkey is contained in the Stuffed Onions recipe.

Baking the potato adds an interesting depth of flavor to the salad and lends a mouth-pleasing texture.

The roast is cooked along with beef short ribs, ham hocks and sausage for a hearty meal. Offer with polenta, mashed potatoes or the Roasted Root Vegetables with Green Onions . Begin the veal the day before cooking to allow the garlic-herb rub to flavor the meat.

These flavors and aromas transport me to Marrakesh, where our friend Latif, son of the late imam of the great mosque there, guided us through the bustling and mysterious spice markets. Here's how I've recaptured the memory: a boned leg of lamb is stuffed with intensely flavored dried apricots, high in beta-carotene and potassium, then rubbed with aromatic cumin. Buy your cumin from a Middle Eastern market or spice store for the most flavorful results.