5 Ingredients or Fewer

These sausage-studded cheese puffs are a Cajun take on a classic French appetizer.

This addictive sauce is also incredible with beignets or ice cream.

A simple toasty and buttery treat.

This clubby Scotch drink was created at the old Waldorf Astoria in New York City.

This zesty combination makes a lively snack or tasty addition to salads and grain dishes any time of year.

Even if you're not an oyster person, you'll love this buttery, broiled approach.

Using miso on the turkey is a great way to get wonderfully moist meat — always a challenge at Thanksgiving. The skin doesn't get as crisp as it would without, but we think the succulent results are well worth the trade-off. The miso won't give the turkey an Asian flavor, but it will add a rich meatiness to the gravy. Don't use a brined or kosher turkey for this recipe or the bird will be too salty (miso has a high sodium content).

Almonds were brought to Spain by the Moors, and they've featured in Andalusian cuisine ever since. Typically they are used as a thickener for sauces and, most famously, as the base of ajo blanco. Whole Marcona almonds are roasted with sweet or hot smoked paprika–I prefer to use sweet paprika, introduce a little heat via cayenne, and round it out with cumin and salt. In the event of a crippling Marcona almond shortage, regular blanched almonds will do the trick.

This is our hands-down favorite way to make mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving.

Tart, sour, and just as refreshing as ye olde cranberry sauce.

Don't have a spice mill? You can use a blender or food processor for this one.

Too-cold doughs can crack and split when rolled; let this sit at room temperature for five minutes first.

These knobby-looking tubers (a.k.a. sunchokes) are sweet and nutty when browned. Balsamic vinegar smacks some sass into them.

This dark-red mixture will bubble and spit like a vat of lava as it cooks. Okay, slight exaggeration, but really: Cook this in a deep pot, and use a long whisk.

You will fight your own relatives for the bits of cheesy goodness stuck to the bottom of the pan.

One day when I was working at River Café in Brooklyn, I smelled an unfamiliar odor coming from the pastry kitchen. I opened the oven and saw charred pieces of orange wedges. Thinking something was wrong, I took them out of the oven and chucked them into the garbage. I recut fresh oranges and put them in the oven, saving the day. I was wrong—I got yelled at for the one-hour setback to the pastry chef's special that night. By roasting oranges and their peel at intense heat, you toast the essential oils, changing their flavor. It brings out the appealing natural bitter elements in an otherwise sweet fruit. This ice cream is amazing with almond, chocolate, vanilla, and other neutral-flavored desserts that could use something to jazz them up.

Roasting white chocolate was a popular technique a few years back in a lot of pastry kitchens. I don't use white chocolate a lot because it is so sweet, but roasting it first caramelizes the sugar and toasts the milk solids to give it a nutty flavor, like brown butter, that balances its high sugar content.

When you go to Europe, virtually every bakery has at least ten types of dried meringues. American bakeries don't have them, and I don't know why. Crispy, chewy, crunchy meringues are satisfying on their own and can also be used in countless ways: You can sandwich jams or icings between them, top them with whipped cream and fruit, or crumble them over finished desserts to add great texture. This is a simple French meringue with confectioners' sugar folded in to fortify it and make the cookies even lighter and crunchier. You can form these into any shape you want using a piping bag, spoon, or spatula.