Cooking Hacks, Tips & Tricks

Cook the Turkey in a Crock-Pot

A turkey is a lot of labor to defrost, brine, and bake, and it takes several hours to finish. Plus, you'll have to keep an eye on it all day, not to mention the valuable oven space a large turkey will take up. Allow your beloved Crock-Pot to handle the heavy lifting on Thanksgiving Day, giving you one less thing to worry about. Because your slow cooker is smaller than your oven, you should use little turkeys or even a turkey breast to ensure equal cooking.

To keep the turkey from drying out, place it in the Crock-Pot with a cup or two of chicken broth. Allow it to cook for six to eight hours after adding dry herbs and chopped vegetables such as onions, carrots, sweet potatoes, and celery. Set it to high for the first hour, then low for the remainder of the time.

Lifting the cover of your slow cooker to peek at the turkey can let out the heat and cause the cooking process to take longer. It will be well worth the wait because you will be rewarded with deliciously delicate and juicy turkey. Because you won't be overloaded with leftovers at the end of the day, this is a terrific alternative for Thanksgiving dinners with fewer guests.

Boil Potatoes With the Skins On

Standing over the sink peeling pounds of potatoes in preparation for a batch of mashed potatoes is one of the most tiresome activities in the entire Thanksgiving food prep process. Mashed potatoes are an essential part of any Thanksgiving Day feast, so don't skip them. Unfortunately, it does not work that can be completed the day before, so it'll eat up valuable Thanksgiving morning time.

With this Thanksgiving cooking technique, you may save time (and a lot of pain) by boiling the potatoes with the skins this year. It may seem counterintuitive, but trust us when we say it's the right thing to do. You won't have to peel or cut the potatoes if you boil them whole with the skins on, so you'll have more time to work on the other side dishes and maybe even talk with your guests.

Prepare an ice-water basin and set it aside on the counter for later. Then, in salted water, boil the potatoes until they are all fork soft. When the potatoes are done, swiftly plunge them into a bowl of icy water to shock them. Without even attempting to remove the skins, they will simply slide off. After that, mash them and add ingredients like whole milk, heavy cream, and butter as usual. Finish with a touch of salt and pepper to taste, and you've got yourself a classic side dish.

Easy Homemade Cranberry Sauce

You did yourself a favor if you forgot to pick up the cranberry sauce at the grocery store. When it comes to Thanksgiving, just say no to can-shaped cranberry sauce. It's considerably easier than you might think to make your cranberry sauce from scratch. The only ingredients for this Thanksgiving side are a bag of cranberries (fresh or frozen, depending on what's available at your local shop), sugar, and water.

To begin, make a basic syrup base using equal parts sugar and water. Bring the two to a boil together until the sugar is completely dissolved. Then add the cranberries and continue to cook until they pop in the boiling liquid. Remove it from the fire, mix it well, and set it aside to cool. The natural pectin in the cranberry mixture will turn the soupy liquid into something substantial and gratifying as it cools. Trust us when we say that after you've had delicious homemade cranberry sauce, you'll never go back to bottled cranberry sauce, and neither will your guests. Combine leftover cranberry sauce with a little mayonnaise for a delicious turkey sandwich spread the next day.

Make Your Pie Weights

It's your turn to cook the Thanksgiving dessert pies, but you forgot to get pie weights to pre-bake the dough, and the stores are all closed. Don't be concerned. This is a simple recipe that you can make with items you already have on hand. During the pre-baking phase, pie weights are employed to keep the raw pie crust from inflating up. Look through your cabinets for anything such as beans, rice, or even coins to use to weigh down the unbaked pie dough.

Before covering the crust with aluminum foil or parchment paper, sprinkle it lightly with flour and place it in the pie tin. The flour will keep the foil from adhering to the bottom of the pie crust. Then gently pour in a layer of your preferred weight material and bake for 10 minutes, or until solid. Allow the crust to achieve a good golden-brown color if you're creating a pie with a no-bake filling. If you're going to re-bake the pie, leave it a bit blonde so it doesn't burn on the second time around. Allow for cooling before attempting to remove the foil and weights.

Use a Cup as a Biscuit Cutter

It's wonderful if you're the type of person who has every size and shape of cookie-cutter in their cabinets. If you don't have any fancy cookie cutters, that's fine, too, because you don't need them to make a plate of precisely symmetrical biscuits that will impress your guests.

Simply select a glass cup from your pantry. In a bowl, pour a little flour and dip the rim of the cup into it. After that, just use it like any other cookie cutter. After a few usages, re-dip the cup in flour to keep the dough from adhering to the glass. Also, when pressing down to cut out the biscuits, make sure to keep the cup straight down and up. Do not twist the glass under any circumstances. The twisting motion seals the biscuits' edges, preventing them from rising entirely in the oven.