The Bitten Word

Thanksgiving 2011 Recipe Index: What the Food Magazines Are Recommending

Our Fakesgiving + Our Favorite Holiday Dishes

A little more than a week ago, we had Thanksgiving.

Or really, we had Fakesgiving, our annual tradition with friends and family where we pack as many seats as possible into our apartment, make a bunch of new dishes from November food magazines, and see what everyone likes and dislikes. This year, there were 13 of us. Zach's mom and sister came and helped cook the day before (we literally could not have done it without them), and we made 17 new Thanksgiving dishes. 

(This year's Fakesgiving crowd, minus the two of us.)

Below, you'll see the initial list of recipes we started with: more than 250 Thanksgiving recipes from 10 magazines. To be included in the index, the recipes had to be part of the magazine's Thanksgiving coverage. So this is not meant to be comprehensive -- there are many more recipes in this month's magazines. If the recipe is hyperlinked, it is available online. If not, it's not there yet. 

In preparation for this year's Thanksgiving coverage, we've also created a page of Our Favorite Holiday Recipes. There, you'll find a collection of dishes from Thanksgivings, Fakesgivings and holiday dinner parties past. We'll be updating it as we introduce new content and recipes on the site.

Enjoy the index! 

Thanksgiving 2011 Trends in Food Magazines: Pies, Pecans, Ginger and Green Beans

Thanksgiving is coming! Thanksgiving is coming!

And we're ready. We've scoured the magazines, tested recipes, and we're eager talk turkey, recommend dishes, and answer any Thanksgiving-related questions you might have.

We're kicking off our Thanksgiving coverage by looking at the trends in this year's crop of magazines. As in previous years, we've indexed every single one of the November Thanksgiving recipes from the magazines in our rotation. We'll share that list with you on Monday. There are some really exciting (and bizarre) dishes among the more than 250 recipes.

But today we're going to talk about trends. 

As we pored through this year's Thanksgiving features, some clear trends emerged. To illustrate many of the trends in this year's T-Day recipes, we created word clouds, like the one above, which illustrate how frequently certain words popped up. You can click on all the word clouds to enlarge them, so you can take a closer look. 

What's the general theme for this year? Well, for a lot of our magazines, the theme seemed to be, "Thanksgiving 2011: We're Just Not That Into You." Food & Wine and Saveur seem rather light on their coverage. Even Martha Stewart Living, which we would sort of hold up as the grande dame of Thanksgiving entertaining, seemed scaled back. (We hasten to add that we're not saying that's a bad thing -- Lord knows there are plenty of great autumn recipes out there that don't involve sweet potatoes or cranberry sauce.)

But there was one magazine that blew us away this year. You guys know we tend not to single out particular magazines or issues as favorites, but this must be said: Bon Appétit BROUGHT IT this Thanksgiving. Buh-ROUGHT. IT. From its "Feast from the East" feature, which showcased marvelous ideas for an Asian-inspired Thanksgiving, to the "Down South" feature on a Louisiana Cajun Thanksgiving feast, we were enthralled. Four turkeys, a host of awesome side dishes, and drool-worthy desserts (we need that Grape-and-Apple Pie) -- the November 2011 Bon Appétit is a pleasure. Even if you're set on your Thanksgiving menu, consider picking up a copy just for fun.

Anyway, trends.

As you can see from the word cloud above, the usual suspects are, well, the usual suspects. So here's a word cloud showing all the recipe words, minus "turkey," "gravy," "cranberry," "stuffing," "potatoes," "dressing" and "roasted" (a.k.a. the saddest Thanksgiving ever):

The Rye Witch Cocktail and No-Cook Simple Syrup

Bon Appétit (October 2011)

When Clay first mentioned that he wanted to try this Rye Witch cocktail, Zach thought he was saying "wry" witch. Naturally, that evoked images of a haggard old crone making witty, dry asides, which actually sounds like a pretty great costume... 

We're always intrigued by the Halloween recipes in food magazines. Halloween is one of the few times during the year when the magazines go out of their way to have a little fun with their food. Martha dons crazy outfits, and we start to see recipes like "Broken Glass Cupcakes" from Martha Stewart Living, Spicy Cheddar Witch Fingers from Food & Wine, Ghastly Meringues from Food Network Magazine, and "I Scream" Graveyard Pie from Everyday Food.

Mostly, it's a whole lot of "cute" food. Which is great for Halloween, if that's what you want. Us? We thought this Rye Witch cocktail was more our speed. Rye whiskey and orange? Yes sir, bartender!

Plus, this recipe has a fantastic twist that we love.

Read About Us in Two Recent Interviews!

If you hang out with stylish and smart people long enough, people may start to think that you're stylish and smart just by association.

Which is why we're very excited to have been interviewed recently on one very stylish blog and one very smart one: West Elm's Front & Main blog and the PBS Food blog.

Want to find out what our dream project is, or which chef we'd most like to face off against on "Iron Chef"? Read our interviews to find out!

Now if we could just get an interview with an ESPN blog, people might think we're sporty...

 

Apple-Fennel Sauerkraut with Caraway (Part 2)

You may remember that we've been making our own sauerkraut for the past few weeks. Following a recipe in the October Martha Stewart Living, we've been fermenting a cabbage-fennel-apple sauerkraut, duly opening the jars every five days to release the pressure.

It's been 30 days, and we finally sampled the sauerkraut this weekend.

What was the verdict?

Garden Update: Closing Up for the Season

An Update on Our Backyard Garden

The first frost is a-comin', and our garden seems ready for it. 

Our okra has lost the will to live, our tomatoes are sagging, and our prolific basil has finally given out. Only the peas are hanging on, trying desperately to produce pods before the first frost hits.

As the gardening season comes to an end, we thought we'd share our plans for the garden this winter. 

First, though, let's look at how the remaining plants are doing. 

Pickled Shrimp

Saveur (October 2011)

Back in the summer, on one of those steamy, swampy, oppressively hot evenings that Washingtonians know so well, we went to our friends' Trevor and Owen's place for a potluck dinner. The air was thick as velvet, and all the guests arrived sweaty and bedraggled from the heat.

Then, a lifeline: Our friend Jen had brought a bowl of pickled shrimp.

We all dove in. The lemony, pickly, vinegary shrimp was the perfect antidote to the sweaty summer night. The sharp flavors of the chilled shrimp instantly cooled things off for everyone. (A libation or three didn't hurt, either.)

So when we saw this recipe for Pickled Shrimp in the latest issue of Saveur, we knew we wanted to try it out ourselves.

Braised Short Rib, Stout and Potato Potpies

Martha Stewart Living (October 2011)

Question: What do Pauly D's hairstyle from Jersey Shore, an Olivia Newton-John movie night, and these short rib potpies all have in common?

Your Questions: Picking Just One Magazine Subscription

We recently received a question from a reader who has to make a tough choice when it comes to food magazines. Here's what Laura wrote us to ask: 

Hi boys!

I'm a university student and have a 'back to school poor but not so poor university student' question for you.
 

My iPad is being delivered soon and I'm super excited to start reading magazines and getting subscriptions on it rather than picking them up at the bookstore or having them delivered. The only problem is now that I'm leaving my comfortable family home I don't have the luxury of stealing my mom's magazines from the mail. I, of course, can't afford to subscribe to all the amazing magazines out there but I'm thinking I'll start with one and work my way up! So my question for the two of you is, if you had to pick one food magazine to subscribe to, which one would you choose? 

I'm preferably looking for one that I'd be able to cook from in my well stocked and supplied student kitchen and one that I could actually put to use; I don't have the need to roast a whole turkey or cook a 9x13 of anything. In my kitchen I have more than the basics but don't have access to everything I would in my normal kitchen.
 

Thanks for your help!
 

Laura

Our answer?

Soy and Cola-Braised Pork Shoulder

Cooking Light (October 2011)

If you follow us on Twitter, you know we just got back from a weekend in Memphis.

We were there to celebrate the wedding of Zach's best friend from college, Whitney. We had a marvelous time! Also? Every single meal we ate included pulled pork barbecue. Yes, even the breakfast omelet. (Oh, and that fried chicken doesn't count -- that was merely a snack.)

We're not complaining. We love Memphis BBQ, and pulled pork in particular: slow-braised so it's meltingly tender, and slathered in a smoky-sweet sauce. Actually, in Memphis, the sauce tilts decidedly toward sweet.

If Memphis pulled pork took a semester abroad in China, it just might come back as this Soy and Cola-Braised Pork Shoulder. With subtle Asian accents (soy, ginger, hoisin sauce), this is a little like BBQ by way of Beijing.