Cook's Country October - November 2017

I’M GOING TO say something shocking. Ready? The food is not the most important part of Thanksgiving. There. I said it. And I swear it’s true. The more Thanksgivings I experience, the more I believe it. Sure, your guests will gush over your turkey and its crispy, brown skin and juicy meat. They’ll ask for seconds of that soft, savory stuffing with a crunchy golden top. And who doesn’t go weak in the knees for a perfect slice of holiday pie? With the recipes featured in this issue, you’ll have all of the above and then some at your table this year. We hope they’ll add something memorable to the holiday. But when you give thanks, remember the people—friends, family, and even strangers—who bring richness to your life. I remember…

Buttermilk Substitute I love the tang of buttermilk in biscuits and pancakes, but my husband can’t eat dairy. What’s the best substitute? –Emily Hughes, Missoula, Mont. Buttermilk adds a tangy flavor to foods such as pancakes and biscuits. But its high acidity also influences texture; it helps give baked goods lift when combined with a basic (or alkaline) ingredient such as baking soda. The acidity also helps tenderize baked goods. To find a good substitute, we tested several unflavored nondairy milks (rice, oat, soy, almond, and coconut) to which we added lemon juice, white vinegar, and cream of tartar—all acidic ingredients meant to mimic the natural tang and pH of buttermilk. We tried these substitutes in our recipes for buttermilk biscuits, buttermilk pancakes, and Boston brown bread. For good measure,…

Smashing Results Anya Sadler, Buffalo, N.Y. I mistakenly bought a tub of unpitted olives at the grocery store. I quickly found pitting them with a paring knife to be tedious and messy. Luckily, I came up with a better way to pit them: I put a handful of olives on my cutting board, covered them with a lid from a plastic storage container, and pressed firmly on the lid to flatten the olives. The pits cleanly released from the flesh so I could easily pick them out. As a bonus, the flattened olives stayed put while I chopped them. Better Shredder Ben Golden, Woodstock, Ill. Tacos made with poached chicken breasts are a weeknight staple in our house. To take the work out of shredding the meat, I transfer the…

4 Electric Knives 7 Tests 1. Slice 1 loaf of challah bread 1/2 inch and 1/4 inch thick 2. Slice 1 loaf of Japanese milk bread 1/2 inch and 1/4 inch thick 3. Slice 1 loaf of Francese bread 1/2inch and 1/4 inch thick 4. Slice 1 rotisserie chicken 1/4 inch and 1/8 inch thick 5. Carve 1 whole roasted turkey into 1/4 -inch-thick and 1/8 -inch-thick slices 6. Use top-rated model to slice 10 loaves of Francese bread 1⁄2 inch and 1⁄4 inch thick to test durability 7. Measure noise level using decibel meter ELECTRIC KNIVES MAY seem like relics of the past, but some home cooks (and professional chefs) swear by their ability to effortlessly carve poultry without ripping the skin and to slice delicate breads without crushing…

HOLLY RICCIARDI GAZES lovingly at a slightly imperfect shoofly pie on the counter. The molasses filling has bubbled up and broken through the top crust. “Shoofly, she has a mind of her own.” Ricciardi refers to her pies as “she,” like a doting mother, and she’s not upset with this pie; she’s just remarking on its quirks. She knows it’ll be delicious Growing up in a Pennsylvania Dutch household in the rolling countryside west of Philadelphia, Ricciardi watched closely as her mother baked pies year-round from scratch—shoofly, butterscotch, mixed berry, Dutch apple. Decades later, after building a successful design business, Ricciardi felt the tug of the apron strings drawing her back to the kitchen. “I wanted to bake.” Ricciardi also wanted to share those childhood memories with her adopted city…

WHAT IS DUTCH apple pie? For starters, it is not Dutch. (It’s sometimes called Pennsylvania Dutch apple pie—still not Dutch but getting warmer.) The name comes from a modern-day misnomer for the early German settlers of Pennsylvania and their descendants; the word “Dutch” most likely grew out of Deutsch, the German word for “German.” Now about this pie. It has a bottom crust only and is topped with a generous sprinkling of sweet streusel. The filling (apples, sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon) contains vanilla, cream, and sometimes raisins, and the result is a pie that holds its shape when sliced. Some existing recipes I tried overdid the cream, so the filling looked curdled. Others called for thickeners such as flour or cornstarch to set the filling quickly, but tasters found these…