Herbs & Spices

To make baguette breadcrumbs, grind fresh slices, crust on, in a processor.

A good roast chicken is one of my favorite things to cook and eat. Every cook should know how to roast a chicken properly. The stuffing in this recipe contains a fantastic Middle Eastern spice blend called za'atar, which is a combination of sesame seeds and dried herbs such as basil, thyme and oregano.

Any food historian will tell you that trying to track down the origin of a recipe is like chasing tadpoles. There are so many, and they all look alike. Even when you find what seems to be the original source, you can't necessarily believe it because adapting recipes is an age—old industry. Nonetheless, I thought I'd give the hunt a try with chicken Canzanese, an unusual recipe that ran in the Times in 1969. A Google search for "chicken Canzanese" yielded many results, a number of them facsimiles, or slight variations of the chicken dish that appeared in the Times. There's one on Cooks.com that's a close adaptation of the Times's recipe, another by Mario Batali on the Food Network's website and one by Anna Teresa Callen, the cookbook author and teacher, on her own website. Batali's and Callen's, which vary only slightly from the Times's recipe, are nearly word for word the same. Only one recipe that I found sourced the Times's recipe, which itself came from Ed Giobbi, a cookbook author, and was written about by Craig Claiborne. You can also find plenty of turkey recipes done in the style of Canzanese (Canzano is in the Abruzzo region in Italy), which refers to braised turkey, served cold with chopped turkey aspic. But chicken Canzanese, which is not mentioned in important Italian cookbooks like Le Ricette Regionali Italiane (Italian Regional Cooking), is completely different. When you make it, you understand why it's still kicking around after all these decades. After flash-brining the chicken, you throw everything into the pan at the same time—chicken, cubed prosciutto, sage, bay leaves, rosemary, garlic, chile, cloves, peppercorns, and wine—and end up with a dish that has the fragrance of Chinese steamed duck and the succulence of a Bolognese sauce. I sensed that it would be impossible to come to a conclusion about where chicken Canzanese originated (Giobbi's recipe was the earliest I could find), and this was confirmed as soon as I started calling people. Callen said she grew up in Abruzzo eating chicken Canzanese. Batali, who regularly credits people from whom he adapts recipes, said that he must have gotten his from Callen, and was apologetic about the borrowing. Giobbi, whose recipe came from a family friend in Abruzzo, suggested that perhaps Callen was influenced by him. When I asked Callen if there was any chance she referred to Giobbi's recipe when writing about her family's dish, she said, "Could be, very well." I didn't intend this to be an investigation—recipes are adapted all the time, it's one of the primary ways cuisines evolve—so I did not chase down the dozens of sites that appear to have copied Callen or Batali. One thing is clear, though: a good recipe has a thousand fathers, but a bad one is an orphan.

It's hearty and health-helping: Eating mushrooms regularly may help lessen women's breast cancer risk.

Swap that tired casserole (you know which) for this elegant hazelnut version. The string beans help boost immunity with infectionfighting vitamin C. Oh, snap!

Sweet, savory and anti-aging! Just one serving meets more than your daily need for vitamin A, which keeps skin aglow.

The technique: When cooked at a high heat, some vegetables take on a deep, nutty flavor and golden brown color. In this recipe, the sugars in the pomegranate molasses enhance the caramelization process.
The payoff: Caramelized vegetables have that addictive sweet-savory taste and a lovely sheen.

The technique: To show off the tangy freshness of cranberries, don't cook them at all. The payoff: Chopping the berries in the processor gives them a coarse texture, which is great alongside the turkey and the trimmings. Plus, the recipe comes together in 20 minutes.

The technique: On Thanksgiving, do-aheads are key. This super-savory gravy can be made a day ahead. All you have to do before serving is heat it up and stir in some tarragon.
The payoff: No last-minute pan-scraping and reducing required.

The technique: Rub the bird with an herbal, citrusy salt mixture and let it chill overnight. As the turkey sits, the salt draws moisture to the skin. During roasting, the flavorful liquid seasons the meat and keeps it moist.
The payoff: A superjuicy bird with crisp, browned skin.

The technique: Convenience and concerns about undercooking have made baking the stuffing in a pan the default for many cooks.
The payoff: Crispy topping and more stuffing (you can fit more in a pan than in the bird).

The technique: Whole-animal eating is trendy, but using all parts of the bird is nothing new when it comes to gravy. Giblets (the heart, liver, gizzard, and neck) really deepen a gravy's flavor. We recommend using only the neck, heart, and gizzard to make the gravy. The flavor of the liver can overwhelm the rest of the ingredients.
The payoff: You haven't wasted a thing, and you’ve added an earthy dimension to your gravy.

Shelf Life: 2 years Tomato marmalades are the perfect partners for crackers, cornbread, or sourdough. They have a long history in the United States, where they were traditionally seen as a way to use up extra fruit during summer's long tomato season. Like tomato jam, they tended to be heavily spiced with cinnamon and cloves. For this lighter version, I have introduced saffron into the mix. The result is magic.