How scientists do Thanksgiving

To the objective compulsive, Thanksgiving offers great opportunities for exercising our analytical skills. I get to plan out pot and pan usage while selecting a suite of recipes that complement each other in terms of when they all have to be started to finish at the same time but not require more than four range burners and one oven with two racks, fit in the oven at the same time as a turkey and roasting pan, be compatible with the temperatures required of other oven-cooked dishes, etc.

The biggest concern for the anal-retentive is making sure all of the dishes are finished at the same time, and at the time that dinner is intended to be served! Sure, I can make use of a bevy of other techniques like keep food warm in the oven warming drawer (but I never do), and I do boil water in my tea kettle to fill the serving dishes in advance to heat them before adding the food (remember to dump the water first!) But, it is so much more satisfying to have the dishes all finish at the same time, as planned!

The master of ceremonies for Thanksgiving dishes is the turkey, of course. The turkey dictates the cooking schedule and presents the biggest challenge: knowing how long it will take your turkey to cook. If you can accurately estimate this, then it is relatively simple to work backward from the finish time to know when to start the rest of the dishes. Buy yourself a probe thermometer, and this dilemma is solved.

I take my turkey tips from Alton Brown and have been using his roast turkey recipe for over a decade, well before I met him at a book-signing ca. 2005:

Alton's recipe involves starting the brined, patted-dry, oiled turkey on a rack in a roasting pan in a hot oven (he says 500°F, I do 450°C) for a half-hour before dropping the oven temperature to 350°C until finished. The only other (slight) deviation from his plan is that I keep the bottom of the roasting pan covered in a thin layer of water to keep the drippings from burning during roasting. Burnt drippings = horrible tasting gravy later, among other problems. Other benefits: no cooked-on turkey goodness to scrub off of the pan during clean-up, and you produce some turkey stock during the roasting.

A critical component of the process is inserting a probe thermometer into the thickest part of the turkey breast when you introduce Tom to the oven. This is the best way to monitor the cooking of the centerpiece of your meal. Record the temperature at regular intervals, and you can produce the following data set (this year from a 15.4 lb. bird):

Yesterday (as with last Christmas), I was able to fit the increase in turkey temp very nicely (check out that r-square value!) to a 3rd-degree polynomial! It is useful to note that internal temperature has a predictable increase. By two hours into cooking (120 minutes), I had a really good idea that I would be pulling the turkey from the oven (always at 161°F internal temperature) two more hours hence. Let the turkey rest after it comes out of the oven - I plan on 45 minutes between removing from the oven and slicing, and my probe thermometer has revealed that the turkey breast continues to increase in temperature beyond 165°F (the target temp. for properly cooked turkey) in that period of time. I always buy one of the aluminum foil roasting pans for this resting phase. It is a great way to collect any juices that make their way out of the bird and collect them for gravy, and the high walls and lips of the pan make it easy to cover with a sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil (to keep the heat in).

Now that I can predict turkey finish time up to two hours before oven removal, I have 2.5+ hours of lead time before serving to get the rest of the dishes prepped and cooked. This Thanksgiving, this meant:
T-70 m.: two 9x13 glass baking dishes preheat in oven with 2 Tbsp. crisco each
T-65 m.: par-boiled baking potatoes, cut into chunks, go into baking dishes for roast potatoes
T-60 m.: start boiling water and butter for stuffing (used the Trader Joe's cornbread stuffing mix)
T-45 m.: turkey out of the oven at 161°C internal breast temperature
T-35 m.: water for carrots on to boil; stuffing goes in the oven; roasting potatoes stirred
T-30 m.: defat turkey drippings and add to saucepan with 2 bay leaves to reduce to 2 c.
T-20 m.: put carrots on to gently braise; prep roux for gravy
T-10 m.: whisk reduced drippings into roux and bring to gentle boil (gravy!)
T-0 m.: everything is ready to pull, serve, and devour!

After dinner, there are two chores left: cleaning (which I don't mind) and disassembling the turkey. Last night, we only ate one breast, so we have plenty of leftovers this year (as intended). The other breast gets removed whole and refrigerated for later slicing for sandwiches. I pick over the rest of the turkey and chunk/shred for leftover dishes (typically Pampered Chef's turkey wreath recipe, my MIL's turkey curry, and turkey noodle soup). The giblets, neck, and turkey bones go in my largest stock pot, full to the brim with water, and cook overnight at the gentlest simmer (small bubbles lazily, but regularly, breaking the surface) to produce some fabulous turkey stock for the curry and the soup. This always makes extra stock that I freeze to use throughout the year in risottos and other dishes that require really excellent stock.

Salmon origami - a new butterflying (and butter-frying) approach

I enjoy eating fish, but have rarely (that is, infrequently) cooked seafood. In part, I suspected that it might not fare well with my two junior diners. However, about a month ago I bought some salmon filets and decided to pan fry them. It was a hit with the whole family, so I have made this dish just about every other week. It is great served with some rice pilaf and a vegetable.

The recipe starts with three fresh deboned salmon filets (about 0.5 lb each), 

which are liberally salted (kosher) and peppered (fresh ground).

This is where I have deviated from other recipes. One issue I encountered with cooking the filets that I'm buying is that the thickness of the cut varies from a fraction of an inch on the left side to around 1.5 inches on the right. Thus, I decided that some simple butterflying to increase surface area would help cook these filets evenly. Make a single cut as shown, but do not cut through the skin underneath the filet. The intact skin, as you will see, helps hold the two pieces together in increase stability in the skillet.

Add two Tbsp of butter to a nonstick skillet and heat over med-high heat until the butter begins to foam. Add 1-2 Tbsp of vegetable oil to limit the butter browning, and then add each filet, flesh side down (the pan is a bit overcrowded - you want to leave an inch around each filet for even browning).

After about 3-4 minutes of pan-frying, it is time to turn the fish. It would be nice to be able to turn each 90 degrees to balance each filet on one side, but they're so narrow relative to the width of the filet that they normally would just tip over. Instead, fold each filet in half so that the skin side folds together (below). This allows frying what was originally the inside of the filet to allow even cooking.

The inside of one butterflied filet now frying in butter.

Notice how pink the middle of this filet was before folding. Now this side is going to be placed face-down in the skillet. Cook each side of each folded filet until golden-brown.

Three beautiful filets finishing frying.

Unfolding the salmon back into their original filets reveals fish that is as delicious to the eye as it is to the mouth! The meat is now easy to separate from the skin using a spatula or other serving utinsel. I squeeze a little lemon juice over each piece and serve.

Leftovers (if they exist) get combined cold with baby spinach leaves, dried cranberries, sunflower seeds, and maybe some blue cheese crumbles and grape tomatoes for a lunch salmon salad the following day.