🦃 Seasonal collection
Thanksgiving Recipes: Pies, Mac and Cheese and the Day After
The pies, the sides and the leftovers. Every recipe is step by step, with the history of where it came from, and most have a version from somewhere else in the world if you want to surprise the table.
🥧 The pies
America's double crust, the Pennsylvania Dutch crumb top, Vermont's cheddar crust, and the European apple bakes they sit beside.
Classic American Apple Pie (Double Crust)
Eight cups of thin-sliced apples tossed with sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice, thickened with flour and cornstarch and dotted with butter, sealed between two flaky butter and shortening crusts, baked at 425°F and then 375°F until the filling bubbles hard through the vents.
Pennsylvania Dutch Apple Pie (Crumb Top)
One flaky shortening crust filled with 2 pounds of apples tossed with sugar, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg, covered with a lumpy brown sugar and butter streusel instead of a top crust, baked at 425°F and then 350°F.
Vermont Apple Pie with Cheddar Crust
A butter crust with grated sharp Vermont cheddar folded in, filled with sliced apples, sugar, maple syrup and apple pie spice, layered with thin slices of more cheddar under the top crust and baked at 375°F until browned. Vermont's 1999 state pie law names cheddar as one way to serve it.
Apple Pandowdy (Old New England Pan Dowdy)
Apples with sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg, molasses and butter baked between two crusts in a square pan at 425°F, then the top crust is slashed and pushed down into the juices in rough chunks, "dowdied", so it turns half crisp, half pudding.
Skillet Apple Crisp (One-Pan, About an Hour)
Apple wedges sautéed in butter in one ovensafe skillet and coated with reduced cider, covered with a pecan, oat and brown sugar crumble made with melted butter, and baked hot at 450°F for 15 to 20 minutes until the fruit is tender and the top deep golden.
English Apple Pie (Cooking Apples Under a Pastry Lid)
Chunks of tart cooking apples with honey, cinnamon and mixed spice piled into a deep pie dish under a single lid of butter shortcrust, glazed with egg and baked hot at 400°F until golden and bubbling.
Tarte Tatin (French Upside-Down Apple Tart)
Apple quarters packed in a skillet and softened in butter, covered with a light amber caramel cooked to 355°F, topped with a chilled disk of butter pastry, baked at 350°F until the edges bubble thick and syrupy, then flipped onto a platter.
Appeltaart (Dutch Apple Pie)
A tall springform pie with a cookie-like brown sugar crust pressed in by hand, packed with precooked Golden Delicious apples, golden raisins and speculaas-style spices, topped with a crisscross of dough strips and baked at 375°F for about 75 minutes. Served "met slagroom", with whipped cream.
🧀 Mac and cheese for the table
Baked, stovetop and the Caribbean macaroni pies, plus the 1824 recipe that started it.
Southern Baked Macaroni and Cheese
Layers of elbow macaroni, cheddar and Jack bound with beaten eggs, evaporated milk, sour cream and butter, then baked until it sets firm enough to cut, with a crusty, browned top.
Virginia House-Wife Baked Macaroni (1824)
The earliest known printed American mac and cheese: macaroni boiled in milk and water, layered with sliced cheese and butter, and baked in a hot oven.
Creamy Stovetop Macaroni and Cheese
Elbows folded into a smooth béchamel cheese sauce made with Monterey Jack and sharp cheddar, with an optional buttery crumb top browned under the broiler.
Trinidad Macaroni Pie
Macaroni bound with eggs, evaporated milk and cheddar, seasoned with onion, dry mustard and a little Scotch bonnet, then baked firm under a paprika-dusted top and cut into squares.
Barbados Macaroni Pie
Tube macaroni baked firm with a lot of cheddar, evaporated milk, an egg, grated onion and the Bajan signature, ketchup and yellow mustard, under a golden cheese top.
New Mexico Green Chile Mac and Cheese
Elbows baked in a tangy cheese sauce of goat cheese, fontina and aged cheddar studded with roasted New Mexico green chile, under a crunchy toasted crumb top.
🍰 Cheesecake instead of pie
For the table that wants something other than pie.
New York Cheesecake (Lindy's-Style, Graham Crust)
Two and a half pounds of cream cheese beaten with sugar, sour cream, lemon, vanilla and eight eggs over a graham cracker crust, blasted at 500°F for 10 minutes, then baked low at 200°F until the center reads 150°F for a tall, dense, creamy cake.
Brooklyn Sponge-Crust Cheesecake (Junior's Style)
A thin, golden sponge cake baked in the springform as the crust, covered with two pounds of cream cheese beaten with sugar, cornstarch, vanilla, eggs and heavy cream, and baked in a water bath at 350°F until the top is lightly tanned and the center still jiggles.
Basque Burnt Cheesecake (San Sebastián Style)
No crust and no water bath: cream cheese, eggs, sugar, a spoonful of flour and cream stirred together by hand, poured into a crumpled parchment-lined pan and baked hot at 410°F until the top is nearly black and the center still trembles.
No-Bake Icebox Cheesecake
No eggs and no oven: cream cheese beaten with sugar, lemon juice, sour cream and vanilla bean, lightened with whipped cream, spread into a brown sugar graham crust and chilled overnight, then finished with whipped cream and fresh berries.
Mini Cheesecakes (Muffin-Pan Cheesecakes)
Twelve little cheesecakes in a muffin pan: a pressed graham crust under a smooth cream cheese, sour cream and lemon batter, baked at 325°F for 15 to 18 minutes, 30 minutes of hands-on work and about an hour start to oven-off, then chilled at least 3 hours and topped with berries or jam.
🍲 The day after
Soup is the easy way through the leftovers: cooked turkey can stand in for the cooked chicken in any of these.
30-Minute Rotisserie Chicken Noodle Soup
Onion, celery, carrots and thyme browned in butter, simmered in store-bought broth, then egg noodles cooked right in the pot, with the shredded meat of a supermarket rotisserie chicken and frozen peas stirred in at the end, in 30 minutes.
Classic American Chicken Noodle Soup
A rich homemade broth from browned chicken thighs with onion and bay, chicken breasts poached in it and shredded, then onion, carrot, celery and thyme simmered in the strained broth with wide egg noodles and finished with parsley.
Pennsylvania Dutch Chicken Corn Soup with Rivels
Chicken thighs and breast poached in broth with the stripped corn cobs, then pea-size egg-and-flour rivels and fresh corn, half cut and half grated, simmered until tender, finished with shredded chicken and parsley and topped with chopped hard-cooked egg.
Avgolemono (Greek Lemon-Egg Chicken Soup)
Chicken breasts poached in stock, rice or orzo cooked in the same pot, and five eggs tempered with hot broth until the soup turns silky and pale gold, then sharpened with lemon juice to taste and finished with the chicken and fresh dill.