We were making water cooler talk at the office and someone joked a Prime Rib will be $30 a pound this Christmas. We all laughed then immediately went silent because the reality of food prices set in. I will not be cooking a $600 prime rib.

I do love cooking this time of year, all throughout Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years.

I have tried many recipes off of this board and enjoyed them. My holidays are usually the same things. Time to adjust.

Go ahead and post anything - Main dish side's - desserts drinks- whatever:

It is definitely not too early!

I plan on smoking a stuffed deboned turkey.

Any suggestions on stuffings are appreciated.

Not too early at all to start talking about holiday recipes. We've never done prime rib because I'm one of the few people in this family that eats beef at the appropriate temperature and I'm not going to cook one to medium well and defile it. For me I really just crave cajun food at that time of year. I just want to eat gumbo, jambalaya, etoufee, etc. I want something filling, and full of flavor. I'm not big on just a straight up roasted turkey, I just think it's boring. Turning turkey leftovers into turkey and sausage gumbo is not, especially if you take the carcass and make a nice stock out of it.

I've thought about doing this turkey porchetta from Serious Eats before. https://www.seriouseats.com/sous-vide-deep-fried-turkey-porchetta-recipe

Previously I've purchased a deboned stuffed turkey from Heberts in Houston and it was a big hit. I paid to have one shipped before, not cheap, if you live in the area then all the better. https://hebertsspecialtymeats.com/product-category/deboned-stuffed-turkey/

Holiday drink wise it's the only time of year when I drink anything with cream or half and half. A nice eggnog is always welcome, as is a white russian. You can also do the same drink with bourbon, scotch, rum, or brandy.

I like to do an old fashioned with a quarter ounce of maple syrup and walnut bitters, I refer to it as a canadian old fashioned even though I still stick with bourbon as I don't keep any canadian whiskey in the house.

In fact it's time to get your eggnog in the fridge

Max Power said:

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I've thought about doing this turkey porchetta from Serious Eats before. https://www.seriouseats.com/sous-vide-deep-fried-turkey-porchetta-recipe

Previously I've purchased a deboned stuffed turkey from Heberts in Houston and it was a big hit. I paid to have one shipped before, not cheap, if you live in the area then all the better. https://hebertsspecialtymeats.com/product-category/deboned-stuffed-turkey/

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I've done that "turchetta" before and it turned out awesome. Highly recommended.

And thanks for sharing that site! Something to consider for sure.

Last few years I've bought a Prime tenderloin from Costco. I cut about 2 lbs center cut for Christmas and vacuum seal the rest to sous vide whenever I want.

I sous vide the filet and finish in the cast iron. My MIL doesn't eat beef, so I dry bring a turkey breast and either smoke or roast that.

Sides are usually roasted mushrooms, brussel sprouts with bacon, potatoes au gratin loaded with gruyere cheese and probably a salad with some candied walnuts.

Christmas Eve is Dungeness crab and garlic bread.

Benny watched some video and has asked for Christmas Eve lasagna instead of the clam chowder we usually had.

I am cool with it.

This won't break the bank but will taste like it did...

https://www.seriouseats.com/the-food-lab-deep-fried-sous-vide-36-hour-all-belly-porchetta

Thank everyone.

Everything looks good. I may have to start gaining my Christmas weight early and start trying these out now.

Thanks to this post I decided to do my own dirty rice stuffed deboned turkey. Again, thanks for sharing the ideas!

My only concern now would be the smoke flavor being too much with the dirty rice flavor. Or am I just overthinking it?

You are overthinking it. There is only one way to know if it too much. You need your baseline, so start somewhere.

I hear you. I am not a regular baked turkey fan either. I have been doing a spatchcock turkey for the past few years and it has been great. I use my offset but cook at oven temps.

Max Power said:

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I'm one of the few people in this family that eats beef at the appropriate temperature and I'm not going to cook one to medium well and defile it.

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My wife always complains that the prime rib is too pink. She doesn't want any pink. The ends are great for those who want parts a little more done. But those pieces people fight for. Everyone else is really happy for the prime rib.

I usually do a whole prime rib, ham, and turkey for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I spatchcock the turkey on the offset at high heat. I do love traditional gravy and mashed potatoes. So, I buy turkey wings, and necks. Then make the gravy from that a day or two before. I got that Idea from Chef John.

I wanted to try this one today, but HEB didn't have any fresh turkey breast.
https://food52.com/recipes/31989-torrisi-s-turkey

I've cooked a couple of decent turkey breasts and a bunch of bad turkey breasts. W/turkey there is such fine line b/w cooking a good one and a bad one. If any part of it is overcooked that's all I taste.

I keep trying though. The very first whole bone-in breast I did was in the oven and it miraculously was incredible. I put garlic, white wine, and extra chicken broth in the roasting pan that cooked with all of the drippings. We'd soak our plates in it, turning the mashed potatoes into vessels to carry the gravy.

Tried twice again and always came out very meh. Overcooking in the slightest gives the bird a gamey flavor that I taste moreso that many other people.

Still plan on trying the Kenji recipe linked above however!

I did a test run of this a few weeks ago.


I learned a few things I will do differently for thanksgiving.

So let's say I want to do a test run of a prime rib for the holidays

Can you have decent leftovers? Or can I buy a small one since it is only 3 people? Although my now teenage son eats like 2-3 people most days.

Not for the holidays, per se, but as the weather cools, I'm looking forward to making beef bourguignon, chicken pot pies, homemade bread, goulash, French onion soup, and butternut squash bisque.

AggieBarstool said:

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Not for the holidays, persay, but as the weather cools, I'm looking forward to making Beef Bourguignon, chicken pot pies, homemade bread, goulash, French onion soup, and butternut squash bisque.

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Last week, I made this awesome chicken and chorizo pot pie I got from this British cooking magazine
Really good.

Tanya 93 said:

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So let's say I want to do a test run of a prime rib for the holidays

Can you have decent leftovers? Or can I buy a small one since it is only 3 people? Although my now teenage son eats like 2-3 people most days.

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Go find a good deal on a whole packer rib, ask around at you favorite grocery meat counters, Costco, or a local butcher. You can cut this into a small prime rib for testing, a larger prime rib for a holiday meal, and a number of steaks to eat whenever Benny is feeling fancy. Vac seal, or wrap well, and freeze the steaks and larger prime rib for later use.

SpiderDude said:

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This won't break the bank but will taste like it did...

https://www.seriouseats.com/the-food-lab-deep-fried-sous-vide-36-hour-all-belly-porchetta

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Oh, I've thought about doing this and bringing it to thanksgiving as our dish, but I'm pretty sure no one in my wife's family has any idea what porchetta is, let alone an all belly porchetta. Minds would be blown to the point I might not be allowed to bring stuff anymore. I've already outdone the host a couple of times, but let's face it, outdoing a bland turkey isn't hard.

Hell, if I had access to enough cooking vessels at once I'd show up with Thomas Keller's fried chicken.

If we aren't hosting all I really need are high quality sides like mashed potatoes, cornbread dressing with chorizo or andouille, roasted broccoli, homemade rolls, homemade gravy, etc. That's really what I try to do these days if we are a guest, make a dominating side dish. Don't underestimate the value of homemade desserts either. I'm not big on pumpkin pie, I gotta have pecan pie though for thanksgiving, my wife makes an awesome chocolate pecan pie. Or I'd consider bread pudding, hell even tiramisu would be a nice change of pace.

Tanya 93 said:

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So let's say I want to do a test run of a prime rib for the holidays

Can you have decent leftovers? Or can I buy a small one since it is only 3 people? Although my now teenage son eats like 2-3 people most days.

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Dinner party with friends. I'd rather give it away to friends at its peak than eat it as leftovers. If you still have leftovers, slice it thin and leave it cold. Use it to make a spinach and steak salad with blue cheese vinaigrette or steak sandwiches with gruyere cheese and horseradish mayo.

HTownAg98 said:

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I wanted to try this one today, but HEB didn't have any fresh turkey breast.
https://food52.com/recipes/31989-torrisi-s-turkey

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I found some turkey yesterday, so I made this tonight. It turned out really, really well, although it took longer because of what I did to alter the recipe. Here are the mods I made.
1. I hate wet brines, so I used an equalization cure of 2% salt and 2% sugar. That worked really well.
2. When it came time to wrap the turkey in plastic wrap and foil, I wrapped it really tight, making it into a sausage shape. This is probably why it took longer than I thought. If you go this route, count on it taking the full three hours, if not longer.

If you want to do this with dark meat, use turkey thighs, bone them out and skin them, and proceed with the recipe, cooking them to 165.

My grandma's sweet rice is one staple that I make for Thanksgiving and Christmas every year.

Hilma's Sweet Rice

Ingredients

1 Cup White Rice
2 Cups Water
1/2 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Milk
1 Tablespoon Butter
1 Dash Ground Cinnamon

Bring water to boil, add rice and reduce heat to low, cooking for 20 minutes or until rice is cooked. Remove rice from heat. Stir in the butter. Add the milk. Add the sugar. Put rice over medium heat, stirring frequently to prevent burning. Do not cover. Cook the milk down until the rice is nice and creamy. When finished, pour the rice into a bowl to serve. Sprinkle some cinnamon on top and serve.

Is this served hot? Or does it matter?

I've made similar recipes, and either works great. I personally prefer warm. I tend to add a little vanilla, and a little dash of nutmeg, but whatever you do, don't leave out the salt. It makes a big difference.

Koko Chingo said:

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Is this served hot? Or does it matter?

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We serve it hot, but it's good cold for breakfast the next day.

Bulldog73 said:

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I've made similar recipes, and either works great. I personally prefer warm. I tend to add a little vanilla, and a little dash of nutmeg, but whatever you do, don't leave out the salt. It makes a big difference.

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I will add a dash of salt this year.

Just don't blame me for ruining Grandma's special recipe.

Sauerkraut. Can't have a Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner without it.