Lisa Shock

The coconut oil should be fine as a 1-1 substitution. The applesauce for egg sub of 3 tablespoons should be good, that's pretty much the volume of an egg. This sub relies on pectin to work. NWsFirst points out, you won't get any leavening here. You also won't get as much binding power, that's why the popular vegan books all push cupcakes over whole cakes, an 8" round simply does not have the structural integrity of an egg bound cake. I personally prefer using flax seed puree over applesauce, it binds more firmly. I have had a lot of bad luck with applesauce.

You can get under the skin of the legs if you are really careful and just gently keep going after loosening the skin from the breast area. Start at the top, the widest area of the breast, and gently slip your hand under the skin. As you move down, a gentle upward motion above the thigh should get you in the leg area. This works with chickens, too. Generally, one does not rinse off the salt. If the outer skin is wet, pat it dry or let it air dry in the fridge. Turkeys are so big and thick, seasoning the cavity is really a good idea. Stuffing the bird, not so much. If you insist upon it, you could wipe out the cavity with a moist paper towel just prior to stuffing. That said, stuffing the bird generally winds up with people overcooking the meat in an effort to get the stuffing warm. Plus, there are food safety issues to worry about if the stuffing does not get up to temp. You'll knock about an hour off your cooking time by not stuffing. You can replicate the flavor by making stock with the neck right now (note to future readers, today is the Wednesday before Thanksgiving) and using that as your liquid along with a generous amount of melted or browned butter. You can also make a lot more stuffing in a pan than would ever fit in the cavity. Also note, if you don't use that neck this year, freeze it (if your bird was fresh) and save it for making stock next year a couple of days before the holiday, or, roast it and make stock and freeze the stock. At the very least maybe roast it then freeze for later stock making. Good luck!

Any vegetarians or vegans attending? Maybe bake some falafel patties to be eaten on the rolls?

With so many foods and flavors, I think sometimes it's hard to find a drink to bring harmony to it all. I'm gonna keep it simple and just break open the bottle of Laird's applejack I've been keeping at the back of my cabinet. (we just started getting cool weather last week here in AZ, so I am transitioning from icy-cold drinks to Fall fare)

Look around, even discount stores have decorative boxes this time of year. And, The Container Store always has tons of options. You could put the vacuum sealed items into decorative boxes and make a tower out of them by attaching them to each other and putting a big ribbon on it..

I would be curious to hear more Thanksgiving/turkey stuffing/dressing traditions. I've been fascinated with all of the regional variations. My parents spent their teens and young adult years living in Michigan. Somehow, with my mom's family originally from Italy and dad's from England, our family stuffing was wild rice based. Pretty simple to make, IIRC, butter, sauteed onion and celery, sliced mushrooms, parboiled wild rice, and stock with a raw egg beaten in. Sometimes it was 50% brown rice with the wild rice, probably due to price fluctuations.

Linda, I had wondered about cooking them plain since it's pretty common knowledge that acids turn green vegetables a khaki color that isn't so appealing. I had actually planned on rolling them the night before, baking in the morning, then transporting them plain to the event, reheating briefly, then saucing them during serving. The sauce doesn't appear to do much structurally in this dish; the filling is isolated from it, and the cabbage doesn't need it to cook, nor does the cabbage get infused with its flavor (it's not like a starch). Your pictures really show how beautiful the colors can be in this dish. Thanks for the pine nuts & currants suggestion, I had forgotten about adding nuts -they add a good texture. One other thing I am going to try is fancying up the sauce a bit by making it like a gastrique (caramelize the sugar, add and reduce vinegar, then add tomato juice) rather than just mixing all the ingredients together. Might also add a touch of molasses. Debating about the gingersnaps.

What I find interesting about this thread is that virtually no one uses chopped green bell pepper in their rolls anymore. (They do appear in Pierogi's photo of the old recipe card.) I first tasted this dish when my family moved to Pennsylvania Ducth country when I was 11. I hated them, but loved the sweet and sour sauce. (I somehow only ever got the kind with the sauce made from tomato juice, vinegar and sugar.) I also hated cooked bell pepper. (love them raw, hate them cooked.) It took me a long time to realize that I could cook certain dishes without the bell pepper and that they could be really good. So, this was something I hadn't thought about making or eating for a really long time because I thought I hated it. It's also fascinating how two new world vegetables, tomatoes and bell peppers, became so integral to so many versions of a central European dish. I am going to make some for Thanksgiving this year, as a vegan main dish. I am still debating on how to make my filling (bright tasting: cooking rice and lentils in lemon zest/juice spiked water and adding cauliflower, spicy/savory: lentils cooked in middle eastern spices with brown rice or bulgur, or savory: brown rice, lots of mushrooms, sauteed onion) but, hopefully, this will be a welcome addition to the gathering I am attending. -I am not fond of cooked squashes, and a lot of vegetarian main dishesl for this holiday use squash, so, I was looking for something different that will be easy to serve and hold well.

Thanks! My problem right now is that I am only finding really small sized heads (grapefruit sized) at the store right now. Ironic because about two weeks ago, I got a lovely really large head at the dollar store -which I made into coleslaw for a potluck. I'm gonna be stuck making tiny rolls the size of stuffed grape leaves, or, buying a bunch of small heads and hollowing them out to stuff then serving them cut in quarters.

I know this is an older thread, but, anyone have opinions about freezing the cabbage vs blanching for the purpose of making the rolls?

Much like FN, the PBS shows don't much more than break even on their own. The real money is in selling cookbooks, branded cookware, foods, and promoting restaurants. I learned this from watching a biography of Rick Bayless and his empire.

I should point out that a rating system was not my suggestion. My original suggestion was to allow recipes to be moved to a newly created section, maybe called 'curated recipes', if a certain number (maybe 3) members tested and confirmed a recipe. This would hopefully elevate the good stuff out of the current slushpile which has some subpar content. Chris pointed out that we don't have staff to curate such a section and suggested the star system and comments, both of which are parts of the new software which we could use. (samples on the test site)

Right now, comments are disabled in Recipe Gullet.

The conversation started with me commenting that I'd like a way to indicate that some of the recipes (notably by people who post 2-3 messages and are never seen again) are really terrible, from any cultural perspective. Then some that won't give consistent results due to vague measurements or instructions, like "add two handfuls of pasta." The opposition poses the question of who is anyone to be rating a recipe, particularly one from a culture of which one is not a native? And, how does anyone know what would be served in the best restaurants, again outside of one's cultural circles.

The software allows for and asks for a review along with a star rating. Under each recipe is also a tab for comments without stars. I see the comments as being useful both ways. Without stars the comments allow someone to ask about substitutions, or how well the dish freezes. We got into a discussion about some guidelines I wrote for the star system. I have found guidelines for such systems to be useful in other places. Here is what I wrote, I meant it as a framework, a place to start. This wasn't a fully finished masterpiece or anything. And, it has drawn comments. 5 Stars The recipe has clear instructions for consistently reproducible results. The food made by following the recipe is of the highest quality overall: in taste, aroma, texture, and appearance. The world’s finest restaurants would gladly serve this item. 4 Stars The recipe has clear instructions for consistently reproducible results. The food made by following the recipe is generally of exceptional quality. Most restaurants would be proud to serve this item. 3 Stars The recipe has clear instructions for consistently reproducible results. The food made by following this recipe is of good quality. Many restaurants may serve this type of item, it would be considered respectable while also being fairly basic. 2 Stars The recipe may have minor consistency or clarity issues. The food made by following this recipe is edible but unremarkable, or inherently flawed in some way. A restaurant might serve this food, but customers are not flocking to buy it. 1 Star The recipe may have several issues. The food made by following this recipe is substandard by most common measures, and would not be featured in a cookbook for home use nor served in a restaurant.

For many people, white can be difficult. I tend to use a lot less fluid with it. The best place to warm a ganache piping bag and keep it warm is your front pants pocket, if the tip is already cut, put it into a sandwich baggie. (chef pants are baggy for just this kind of reason)

I just remembered, on that brussels sprouts recipe, I managed to find toasted hazelnut oil at Home Goods, but it's also reasonably priced at Amazon, anyway, I used that instead of olive oil.

BTW, the big-box liquor stores sell styrofoam shippers for bottles. There are singles, doubles, triples, and six-packs. For shipping, I would put strong packing tape over the tops of the bottles. These styrofoam containers also take the worry out of traveling with liquids.

Norm, you might want to try this Brussels Sprouts recipe. I have made it for several gatherings of different people and everyone seems to really like it.

I am going to a potluck group gathering, bringing three items: Old: bread stuffing (made with my own bread), lime cheesecake New: stuffed cabbage rolls as the vegan entree I am still worrying about the filling for the cabbage rolls. Yeah, I am making something I've never really made before. Why this item? I wanted something with a harvest feeling that did not involve squash and could be made vegan without fake meat. Sauce will be the sweet/sour Pennsylvania classic tomato juice with vinegar and a little sugar. Filling might wind up being cooked a day or two in advance: brown rice and lentils together, 2/1 ratio, in vegetable stock spiked with lemon juice and grated lemon peel. Then, after cooking and cooling, tossed with brunoise celery and white onion and maybe some bread crumbs as a binder and rolled into cabbage leaves to heat through. Sauce added at the last minute in an effort to preserve cabbage color. I am nervous about making the filling lemony, with the sweet/sour sauce. Might make the filling more earthy by adding chopped mushrooms and spicing with allspice, nutmeg and sumac. -Can't decide!

I like it, you can even deep fry in it!

Not hardboiled eggs still in the shell. Not even unshelled, I'd keep egg salad for a week maybe it depends, I like putting in brunoise celery and carrots in my egg salad and if the celery seems to be giving off water, I toss the egg salad. I meant things like leftover frittata or quiche. -Or if for some crazy reason you saved runny-yolk poached eggs.

I am probably not going to remember it all correctly, but, it went something like this: Toss after 3 days: custards, cream fillings, whipped cream based desserts, cooked eggs, fresh juice, fresh fruit puree, prepped meat, ground meat Toss after 5 days: cooked fruit compote, raw meat in larger cuts, raw fish (other stuff I am not remembering) Toss after 7 days: everything else that is prepared onsite unless it's some sort of pickle or a brined or fermented product

To be really indulgent, 8oz butter to 5lbs flour.

With the vinegar botulism isn't such a concern. However, general decay and growth of other organisms would be of concern. The rule in ServSafe is that things get tossed after a week in the fridge. I originally learned a 3-5-7 day set of rules, under those, you would also be at 7 days. try making something else with the mix, like rice pilaf.