Thanksgiving

Hearty greens like escarole or kale shine in this fall or winter salad, thanks to tangy kumquats and a vibrant, apple-laced dressing. You can prepare the greens and kumquats in advance, making this an ideal choice for holiday gatherings.

Be sure to use Deglet Noor or another firm date variety; Medjool dates are too soft and sticky for this recipe.

Braising the fennel and simmering the potatoes in cream before assembling the gratin infuses them with extra flavor.

No more dry bird! Goin prepares the breast and legs with distinct cooking techniques, resulting in unbelievable flavor and texture1 for each part: The breast is brined overnight before roasting, and the legs are cooked in duck fat and left to confit until fall-off-the-bone tender. Ask your butcher to remove the legs and thighs for you.

You can use rich stock, made from the turkey carcass, for risotto or soup of the long weekend, or freeze it for the new year.—M-F.H.

Swiss chard, olives, raisins, and pine nuts make this dressing irresistible.

Use store-bought or homemade cornbread; we love Jiffy mix (you'll need two boxes).

These tender-crusted little pies are filled with orange-scented cranberries.

Crispy around the edges and soft in the center, this side dish—laced with fennel, onions, and slow-cooked kale—will please everyone at the table.

"When it comes to cranberry sauce, I'm no fan of the back-of-the-bag recipe: It's too sweet and offers little in the way of texture. That's why I've made this raw, tangy, refreshing relish ever since I started hosting Thanksgiving. It's my new classic." —Andrew Knowlton, restaurant and drinks editor

This is a good option for cold-weather Thanksgivings eaten under threatening skies, since the combination of herbs and citrus provides a house-filling aroma that speaks to sunniness. Garnish with some remaining sprigs of sage and thyme, but be careful with the rosemary, as a little goes a long way.

The first Thanksgiving I took part in cooking was when I was 20, a college kid in Boston, living in a big, rambling house. The apartment was a kind of clubhouse devoted to a shifting list of priorities that included music, books, girls, beer, and food. On Thanksgiving we cooked a turkey. The recipe was my pal John Patrick Montaño's, and I still use it today: a roast bird glazed with a rosemary-infused teriyaki butter. The piney herb melds beautifully with the butter and sweet caramel of the mirin browning on lacquered skin. It results in flavor of astonishing depth.

This classic gravy recipe includes options for jazzing up your gravy with a bit of white wine, Worcestershire, or apple cider. 

Grilling a turkey is one of the great dark arts of holiday cooking. It is an excellent choice for those who like to spend time outside, tending a fire and keeping away from family. It requires no skills beyond patience. The turkey ends up with a slightly more rustic flavor, smoky and rich. Two notes: First, use a brine to keep the bird moist, since opportunities for basting are hard to come by. Second, do not stuff the bird. Smoky turkey is excellent; smoky stuffing is not.

At the first nip in the air, I start looking for fresh butternut squash at farmers' markets, just so I can make this soup. Considered a Thanksgiving classic, this versatile and universally loved soup is simply too tasty to enjoy only once a year. Now that peeled and precut butternut squash is available in grocery stores year-round, you can make this easy three-step—roast, blend, and simmer—soup anytime you like. Like apple or pear butter, pumpkin butter is gently cooked with some sugar until it's smooth and has a buttery texture. Look for pumpkin butter near the jams and jellies in your grocery store.

This super-simple shortbread gets festive thanks to a tart cranberry-grapefruit compote. Use a five-hole zester to form ribbons of grapefruit zest.

"When I was a little girl, my mom imparted her joy of baking by letting me help with my grandmother's pumpkin pie. It's the perfect starter recipe: Just measure, whisk, and bake. I passed this tradition on to my daughters when they were kids, and they've been in charge of making the Thanksgiving pie ever since." —Janet McCracken, deputy food editor

Dusted with flaky sea salt, these buttery Parker House rolls are folded, making them perfect for late night leftover turkey or roast sandwiches.

A gravy is made by thickening juices from a roast with flour. Making a generous amount of well-flavored turkey jus or gravy involves a paradox; if the turkey is properly cooked or if it is stuffed, it will release little in the way of juices. When overcooked, as most turkeys are, it will provide plenty of juices for your gravy. If the turkey has released an abundance of juices—a couple of cups (500 milliliters) or more—serving the jus is a simple matter of skimming off the fat and serving the juices as they are, as a "jus." To convert them to gravy, make a roux and add the juices to that. To make giblet gravy, roast the giblets in the pan along with the turkey, chop them fine, and add them to the gravy.
If you've cooked your turkey just right, you won't see much in the bottom of the pan and what there is won't have a whole lot of flavor. To get the most flavor out of a small amount of juices, boil down the juices until they caramelize on the bottom of the pan, pour out the fat (or leave a few tablespoons in the pan if you're making a roux), and deglaze the pan with water or broth. Use only as much broth as you need to serve the guests at hand—about 3 tablespoons (45 milliliters) per person—because the more broth you add, the less flavorful the juice will be. If you're a fanatic, you can bring up the flavor of the jus by adding a little broth at a time and caramelizing after each addition. To stretch a small amount of jus without diluting its flavor, consider swirling in 1/2 ounce (15 grams) of butter per serving.

Order your turkey far enough in advance to make sure you get a fresh, rather than frozen, bird. Buy it from someone whom you trust, as lying about whether a bird has ever been frozen is common. It makes sense to buy a bird that's larger than you need so you'll have plenty left over for sandwiches, creamed turkey, soup, and the like. Take the bird out of the refrigerator 3 to 4 hours before it is scheduled to go in the oven. A room-temperature turkey will roast more quickly and evenly.