Thanksgiving Traditions

The beauty of Thanksgiving is how many different ways one can choose to celebrate a glorious concept – gratitude -- with food. Everyone has traditions and favorites. My friend, Didier, is making beef tenderloin for his guests. Steve’s Louisiana-born boss will be deep-frying his family’s turkey. Friends on the East Coast will be firing up their grill for the bird. We’re going the standard oven roasting route. There’s something I love about the fragrance of a roasting turkey wafting through the apartment. I will tell you that years ago, we cooked two turkeys – one on the grill and one in the oven, and the grilled bird was picked clean at the end of dinner, while there were plenty of leftovers from the oven version.

Sides are what makes the meal, in my book, and the week before Thanksgiving, I have my nose buried in “research”: back issues of Gourmet, Cook’s Illustrated and, yes, Martha Stewart Living to see if there’s anything new to put in the rotation. I have a tried and true stuffing recipe, which I stray from every so often, much to the dismay of family and friends. There was the sad oyster stuffing experiment, one year. (Hmm, stuffing with bits of chewy something…the oysters, lost and overwhelmed by bread. Not good.) Then a cornbread stuffing another year.... (Too bland and well, kind of Puritan in style.) So, I stick with a Savory Apricot-Sausage stuffing cobbled together from two different recipes…it’s perfect according to my loved ones.



The one thing everyone seems to crave, and the item that is simply delightful to have around to accompany leftovers is Golden Pear Chutney. Years ago, Jeffrey Steingarten published a recipe in Vogue after a visit to Charleston with John Martin Taylor, a talented local cook. It prompted me to buy Taylor’s book, Hoppin' John's Lowcountry Cooking, and fed a fascination I’ve had with all types of Southern cooking. About the chutney, Taylor writes, “Lowcountry cooking is full of ideas that seem foreign to outsiders.” To this outsider, the chutney is the perfect companion to roast turkey. The tang of crystallized ginger is what I think gives a warm, mysterious sort of depth to this sweet and spicy relish and served with warm, or cold, turkey, it is out of this world. He recommends sealing the chutney in sterilized jars, etc.., which I did one year when I was giving pints of chutney as Christmas gifts, but for Thanksgiving I just put it in a large mason jar and keep it in the fridge, where it keeps perfectly well for at least a week.



It’s funny…the chutney has become a Thanksgiving tradition at our house, and more often than not, in the week or so before…my mother will call and ask me, a worried tone in her voice, “did you make the chutney?”
Yes, Mom, I made the chutney.

Happy Thanksgiving.



Golden Pear Chutney
adapted from Hoppin' John's Lowcountry Cooking

NOTE: I tend to use light brown sugar most of the time, and the resulting chutney is a gorgeous amber hue. This year I used dark brown sugar instead and the color is a deep golden mahogany. I can't detect any difference in flavor.

makes about 5 pints

3 pounds hard, underripe pears, peeled, seeded, and chopped (about 6 cups)
3 cups light or dark brown sugar
3 cups apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
1/4 pound crystallized ginger, chopped (about 2/3 cup)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Quatre-Epices (oooh, that sounds so Southern!)
(I used a pinch of each of the following: white pepper, grated nutmeg, ground cloves, ground cinnamon and ground ginger)
1 cup dark raisins
1 cup light, golden raisins
2 cups chopped Vidalia, or other sweet onion
1 lemon, peeled and thinly sliced

Cook the pears in a large, non-reactive pot, in water to cover until they are medium-soft. (They should still have some firmness when you slip a knife through. Don't overcook, otherwise they'll fall apart and turn into mush further along in the cooking.)
Strain out the pears and toss in a large bowl with remaining ingredients.
Boil the cooking water down until thick -- about 20 to 30 minutes.
Return pear mixture to the pot with syrupy water and cook for about 30 minutes, or until the raisins are softened and the onions are transparent. You want the chutney to have a nice, thick consistency.

Let cool and then store in a mason jar or glass bowl with a lid in the refrigerator. Keeps at least a week.
Also can be transferred to sterilized jars and sealed; process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.