Chris Amirault

More information would be helpful, too. For example, what did you do with that turkey confit? Did you cure it first? Use duck fat? Temps? Etc.

I'd like to read that argument, as it doesn't seem to reflect the realities of most mise en place in either a restaurant or home kitchen. Anyone who preps mise before putting a pot onto the stove to boil water doesn't understand the concept.

Can you give us more details? Brand of oats? Ratio of water to oats? Salt or no?

A post on eG Forums asking Society members about the importance of Julia Child is a bit like a participant on a gamer forum wondering what the big deal is with Pong, Donkey Kong, and Myst. What once was groundbreaking, complex, and compelling can appear, three decades later, as routine, simplistic and boring. History does that sometimes.

We've been fiddling around at home with a slight modification: using lardon-sized pieces of bacon instead of full strips. The bacon bites can be structure-destroyers if you're not careful.

I love my Japanese knives, but I'm a big-handed lefty, so that excludes the majority of Japanese knives unless I want to pay premium for a left-handed single bevel. So I have my two (double-bevel) nakiris for the bulk of my prep, which involves vegetables and boned proteins, and grab my 25-year old Wusthof 10" chef's knife or cleaver for the dirty work. Now, whether there is a better alternative out there for that knife I'm not sure, but a quarter century into its use and it's still a workhorse.

Just grabbed a bottle of the 2009 McCarthy's Oregon Single Malt Whiskey (at Town Wine & Spirits in E Prov, RI/SE MA residents), and it's even better than the first bottle I got (not sure of vintage). This stuff is remarkable.

Prepared with the porridge setting as discussed above (3.5 cups water to 1 cup oats), they have no slime.

Unlike you, Steven, I've never been a big hash fan, but I cured and SVed the dark meat in a confit style, and it is now perfect for hash. So: hash & eggs for dinner tonight.

As I just mentioned, the cure & SV method above worked very well for me. I several of my vegetables in advance SV at 85C with butter, seasonings, etc., chilled them down and kept them in the fridge, then reheated in a 300F oven. Worked like a charm with carrots, Macomber turnips, and parsnips.

Along the hummous lines, there's a white bean dip that was made popular here in RI at Al Forno: cook white beans in salted water with rosemary, a few garlic cloves and peppercorns, and olive oil; process the beans and garlic with a bit of the water and more fresh olive oil. It's really tasty and you can adjust to your desires with herbs and seasonings.

I'd estimate less than that -- but given that thickness and not weight is the determining factor, you should definitely go by temperature. For my turkey breast, I'm going to remove it from a 325F oven at 140F to rest for ~60 minutes (Robuchon's "rest half the time of the cooking" rule). Given that you'll be removing from a far hotter oven, you may want to aim a bit lower, as your exterior will be 100F higher than mine.

No such thing as "too basic"! There are a lot of ways to keep your brisket moist, the main two being: (1) you want the meat to be enclosed somehow -- wrapped in aluminum foil or a tightly sealing, shallow dutch oven -- so that it warms in a moist environment, and (2) you want to heat it to a very low temperature, just above the USDA meat holding threshold of 140F. That's a lot lower than most ovens at Thanksgiving, so be careful!

From the website, it sounds like you are ok but on the edge: You may be courting an unset interior. Can you cut back on other liquids? What's the recipe?

Boned and cured overnight the skin-on turkey thighs and legs. Rinsed them off and SVed them with duck fat last night at 80C. After 10h, picked them apart, removed the tendons, and have the meat cooling in the fridge in strained bag liquid. It is astoundingly good, confit in texture and taste, very rich and supple. BTW, this method for crisping skin works like a charm. I'll serve the rewarmed meat with the skin cracklin's for texture -- unless I eat them all first.

No limes?!? When are you moving?

There is much work to do on this subject. For example: what rum? A friend brought us two small limes from her tree in LA, and thus I made an "equal parts" Daiquiri tonight, finding a very good balance with the r(h)ums: 3/4 oz Appleton 12 rum 3/4 oz La Favorite blanc rhum agricole 3/4 oz demerara 2:1 syrup 3/4 oz lime

When I was a kid (and there were serious football fans around), it was midday. When I was in my 20s, living in Milwaukee for grad school, and eating Thanksgiving meals away from the brood back east, it was late. When I moved back east and had a kid, it went back to midday, where it has remained. For now.

Following a sort of amalgam of ideas. Boned out the thighs and legs, keeping skin on. Cured them last night with salt, thyme, black pepper, shallots, and some applejack; rinsed them off this afternoon. Just sealed them in FoodSaver bags with a few Ts of duck fat. I'll cook them at 82C overnight (~9-10 hrs), take them out of the bag, remove tendons and discard, remove skin and crisp it up in the oven. Still thinking about service....

With this turkey confit, I'm keeping the skin on for fat & flavor.

How are you doing the skins?

It's a salad with parsley, lemon, olive oil, and parmigiano reggiano. About how much oil do you need to coat in the vacuum bag?

Maybe as a cooking medium?

Here's my question: can I slice the fennel up for the salad a day in advance?

Alex and Aki at Ideas in Food just tweeted, "Apple cider is like instant stock when cooking thanksgiving dinner."