Turkey Trouble? At Butterball, Operators Are Still Standing By

As Thanksgiving looms, no algorithm can comfort hordes of harried cooks like the 38-year-old Turkey Talk-Line.

At the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line, outside Chicago, the calls start at 6 a.m. Thanksgiving Day and end only when the experts leave at 6 p.m.Credit…
By KIM SEVERSON

FOOD MATTERS

How Spices Have Made, and Unmade, Empires

From turmeric in Nicaragua to cardamom in Guatemala, nonnative ingredients are redefining trade routes and making unexpected connections across lands.
By LIGAYA MISHAN

How Jell-O Molds Claimed Their Spot on the American Table

All aquiver for the holidays, festive molds and gelatin salads are a Thanksgiving staple with deep origins.

This modern holiday Jell-O mold is a bit less sweet and has more natural fruit juice than the classics, but is still extravagantly festive.
Ashley Baker is a law student in Colorado who holds an annual potluck Friendsgiving feast, for which she does all the desserts. This year, instead of pumpkin pie, she’s making pumpkin spice Jell-O shots with Kahlúa, vodka and cream. “P.S.L. Jell-O shots go really well with other desserts,” she said. (P.S.L., or pumpkin spice latte flavor, doesn’t necessarily include either pumpkin or coffee; it’s a mix of cinnamon, ginger, vanilla and nutmeg that used to be called pie spice.)

“This way I don’t have to make pumpkin pie,” Ms. Baker said. “No one ever ate it anyway.”

By Julia Moskin

A Few Words of Thanksgiving Advice

A mantra for the next 24 hours: Everything is going to be all right.
By SAM SIFTON

How Six Different Cooks Set Striking Thanksgiving Tables

We asked holiday hosts around the country to show us how they serve the feast.

By CHRISTINE MUHLKE

C.D.C. Reports More E. Coli Illnesses Linked to Romaine Lettuce

The agency said the outbreak had affected 19 states and resulted in 39 people being hospitalized.
By ABDI LATIF DAHIR

MONTREAL DISPATCH

A Montreal Bagel War Unites Rival Kings

A culinary symbol of Montreal has become ensnared in a battle pitting environmentalists against bagel-loving traditionalists.
By DAN BILEFSKY

Welcome to Redditsgiving!

Interacting with guests you invited online can be less stressful than being with family.
By ALYSON KRUEGER

EAT

What Do You Do With an Unripe Mango? Pickle It

Traditional recipes for amba take days. But this hacked recipe delivers the condiment’s hot, sour, salty tang in less than an hour.
By TEJAL RAO

Red Tacos Ride in from the West Coast

Tortillas dipped in chile-stained fat combine with Tijuana-style birria de res to make the year’s most talked-about tacos.

OUT THERE

In Praise of Lumpy Gravy From the Cosmic Kitchen

Without that texture, there’d be none of us.
By DENNIS OVERBYE

FRONT BURNER

New Scissors Reporting for Kitchen Duty
By FLORENCE FABRICANT

FRONT BURNER

Seedless Lemons Make Squeezing a Breeze

Wonderful Seedless Lemons, from the producer of Pom Wonderful, are available from November to May.
By FLORENCE FABRICANT

FRONT BURNER

These Cocktail Cherries Have More Holiday Cheer

Bathed in American whiskey, these cherries from Dirty Sue work well in a manhattan or alongside holiday meats.
By FLORENCE FABRICANT

FRONT BURNER

Learn to Make Vegan Sushi

“Sushi Modoki,” a new cookbook, offers insights for creating nigiri, rolls, chirashi and molded sushi without meat.
By FLORENCE FABRICANT

Get Ready!

Thanksgiving is almost here: Keep it simple in advance of the big push with one-pot spaghetti, or loaded nachos.
By SAM SIFTON

Our Best Thanksgiving Recipes: Turkey, Mashed Potatoes, Pumpkin Pie and More

We have every recipe you need to host the best Thanksgiving yet.
By MARGAUX LASKEY

Our Best Vegetarian Thanksgiving Recipes

We have main dish ideas and all of the classic Thanksgiving recipes you need to host a fantastic meat-free feast.
By MARGAUX LASKEY

Turn back-of-the-package recipes into a memorable Thanksgiving meal with these simple upgrades

By Becky Krystal

The No-Turkey Zone

We’ve got all the sharp, bright flavors you need to make sure all your other meals next week taste nothing like Thanksgiving.

1. French Onion Macaroni and Cheese

2. Quick Lamb Ragù

3. Coconut-Lime Shrimp

4. Vegetarian Bean and Cheese Enchiladas

5. Roasted Salmon Glazed With Brown Sugar and Mustard

By EMILY WEINSTEIN

Leftovers Never Tasted This Good

Gabrielle Hamilton’s latest recipe is for risotto al salto, a pancake made with day-old risotto Milanese.
By SAM SIFTON

A GOOD APPETITE
Your Thanksgiving May Be Classic, but Your Leftovers Don’t Have to Be
There are no rules to making turkey sandwiches: Pack them with bright flavors, and salty pickles.

This take on the Cubano substitutes sliced turkey for pork, but retains the cheese, ham and pickles
By Melissa Clark

THE T LIST

The T List: What to See, Drink and Wear This Week

A nonalcoholic aperitif, Mike Kelley’s “paintings” and more ideas from the editors of T Magazine.

When ‘Drinks’ Is the Only Box Left Unchecked

Last-minute decision-making for Thanksgiving beverages does not have to be an ordeal. But you do need to make a few choices.
By Eric Asimov

THE POUR

The Best Wine Books Are Not Always About Wine

The top picks from 2019 include volumes on cider that have a lot to teach wine lovers, along with stories about sommeliers and essential new texts.
By ERIC ASIMOV

The Trick to Hosting a Better Holiday Party

Batch drinks let you make a perfect drink for every single person in the room simultaneously — including yourself.

Make big batches of cocktails like martinis and Boulevardiers for a holiday party and you’ll barely have to think about drinks all night.
By REBEKAH PEPPLER

It’s easier to make cheese when you have cows, goats, or sheep with a constant stream of milk available to dip into.

When I was a youngin, my mother would, from time to time, railing at the high cost of dairy products in the grocery stores, make cheese and butter. The butter was always salted, but I don’t remember if it was frozen or just stored in the fridge.

One set of grandparents had a glass and electric butter churn which the three of us kids thought was just great, and the other set had the wooden churn my mother grew up with, and preferred, as long as there was somebody around to turn the crank.

The cheese always ended up as cottage cheese. In those days of yore, the cream that was not consumed or turned to butter, was put in cream cans and sold to the creamery. The leftover milk went to feed the farm cats and the pigs when we had pigs. When we didn’t have pigs, the skim milk was waste product.

The skim milk would be warmed in a large pot and rennet slowly stirred in. The ritual involved a glass-encased red alcohol thermometer to measure the temperature of the milk before the rennet was added. Then the curd was cut with a knife and poured into a colander lined with cheesecloth. It would be hung to drip for a period of time and then refrigerated.

At some point, the creamery closed, and for a short while, we sold whole milk. That entailed buying a bulk tank to hold the milk, and a once or twice a week pickup by a milk truck. Eventually, the state health department started upping the requirements for milking cows and storing milk, and the cows went off to the hamburger factory. The barn stayed around for quite a few years after the cows left, but it’s long gone now.

Here’s a link to the cheese story: Making Cheese with the Romans: Caseus Fumosus Velabrensis (Smoked Velabran Cheese)

Thanksgiving at War

We asked readers to share their memories and photographs of their time spent in harm’s way, when all was turkey and gravy at home.
By SAM SIFTON

The Era of Fast-Food Toys Begins to Melt Away

As environmental concerns grow, chains like Burger King and McDonald’s are rethinking what to offer with children’s meals.
By DAVID YAFFE-BELLANY

Dread the Holidays? Feasting Together Might Actually Help

Sharing a meal with loved ones, co-workers or friends may seem like a chore, but research shows it has real benefits. Stick with us here.
By SIMRAN SETHI

Nestlé Says It Can Be Virtuous and Profitable. Is That Even Possible?

The world’s largest food company is trying to show it can be environmentally sustainable and still make money. Activists are skeptical.
By JACK EWING

Apple sleuths hunt Northwest for varieties believed extinct

By GILLIAN FLACCUS

Chinese Roast Duck, but Make It Turkey

With juicy meat and extra-crisp skin, Thanksgiving turkeys cooked in the manner of ducks are keeping Chinatown barbecue restaurants busy across the United States.

Roasted turkey hangs next to char siu in a barbecue case at New Yee Li in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn. New Yee Li is one of several shops and restaurant across the United States that offers Chinese barbecue-style turkey for Thanksgiving.
By Cathy Erway

SHOPPING GUIDE

Shopping for Cutting Boards

The cutting board — an all-in-one chopping block and serving platter — may be the most useful item in your kitchen. Why limit yourself to just one?
By TIM MCKEOUGH

Thanksgiving tips to keep everyone happy and sane at your holiday gathering

By Becky Krystal

Meatballs! Squash! Pasta!

They’re all here, in an Italian wedding soup, a delightfully simple sheet-pan sausage dinner and a white bean piccata pasta.
By EMILY WEINSTEIN

The Best Roast Potatoes Manage to Get Even Better

How do you improve on perfect potatoes? J. Kenji López-Alt coats them with Parmesan for a crisp cheese crust.

Extra-crispy Parmesan-crusted roasted potatoes.
By J. Kenji López-Alt

The Real Heart of Thanksgiving

Long relegated to the stockpot and the crudité tray, celery is the holiday’s unsung hero — and deserves a special spot on your menu.
By Alexa Weibel

A GOOD APPETITE

A Brilliant Thanksgiving Strategy: Make Sides Quickly, or Ahead

The turkey and potatoes may be sacred, but when it comes to the vegetables, you can break from custom. Make them to your convenience.

This cumin cauliflower side can be prepared long before the guests arrive.
By Melissa Clark

Rice at Its Finest

To elevate rice to the center of the holiday table, Yotam Ottolenghi bakes it in fragrant stock, with mixed mushrooms.

Sweet spiced mushroom and apricot pilaf.
By Yotam Ottolenghi

Our Best Vegan Thanksgiving Recipes

Everything you need to host a delicious meat-free, dairy-free feast.

Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s vegan pumpkin pie.
By MARGAUX LASKEY

The Shortcut to Crisp, Tender Pie Crust

Once the chef Clare de Boer learned the grating trick, she never went back to rolling.

From left, three pies made with buttery, crisp shortcut pie crust: hazelnut, pear and cardamom tart; walnut and molasses pie; and a British bakewell tart with cranberry sauce.
By Clare de Boer

EAT

This Breathtakingly Crisp Risotto Cake Is Italian Perfection

Repurpose creamy risotto Milanese as a crispy, golden disc. No garnish needed.

By GABRIELLE HAMILTON

The Weekend’s Best Beef Stew

Make David Tanis’s braised beef stew with Vietnamese flavors tonight, let its flavors meld into excellence and eat it all weekend.
By SAM SIFTON

WINES OF THE TIMES

And Now the Easy Part: Selecting Thanksgiving Wines
By Eric Asimov

Gulf Oysters Are Dying, Putting a Southern Tradition at Risk Cheap and plentiful, they’ve long been a menu staple in New Orleans and beyond. But recent months have brought a crisis that worries fishermen and chefs.

Thomas Stewart, a veteran oyster shucker at Pascal’s Manale in New Orleans, is known to customers as Uptown T. He and other shuckers are finding themselves spending more time in the kitchen, as restaurant managers redeploy employees idled by the oyster shortage.
By Brett Anderson

The Zagat Guide Is Back in Print
After a three-year absence, the New York City survey will return on Tuesday with the same cover and pocket-size dimensions.
By Florence Fabricant

A Milk Giant Goes Broke as Americans Quit Old Staples
Dean Foods filed for bankruptcy protection on Tuesday. It’s not the first food giant to be caught off guard by a shift in tastes.
By David Yaffe-Bellany

Handcuffed for Selling Churros: Inside the World of Illegal Food Vendors
On the male-dominated black market, a permit for mobile food vending can easily cost $25,000.
By Sharon Otterman

UPDATE
At Museums Around the World, a Focus on Food
The new Cité Internationale de la Gastronomie de Lyon in southeastern France is one of a growing number of museums and centers devoted to food.
By Vivian Song

On Hawaii, the Fight for Taro’s Revival
The root vegetable was a staple food for centuries until contact with the West. Its return signals a reclamation of not just land but a culture — and a way of life.
By Ligaya Mishan

The Chefs Growing Vegetables for Paris’s Best Restaurants
As they prepare to open their own ambitious farm-to-table project, James Henry and Shaun Kelly have discovered a sideline as sought-after producers.
By Alice Cavanagh

36 Hours in Barolo, Italy
Sleepy villages, hillsides blanketed in grape vines, pasta dusted with shaved truffles, and wine that tastes of violets: just a few reasons to visit this gastronomic paradise in the Piedmont region.

By Ingrid K. Williams

Slideshow

Your Thanksgiving Helper? The Sous-Vide Machine
The kitchen tool can make preparing the big meal much easier, whether you’re stressing over the turkey or looking for a way to cook and reheat potatoes.
By Melissa Clark

FOOD MATTERS
I’ll Have What She’s Having
A new crop of restaurants is embracing family-style, communal eating, creating a necessary spirit of communication and collaboration for our fractious times.
By Priya Krishna

Lasagne 3 Ways — Quick, Vegan, & Slow Cooked

WHAT TO COOK
Alison Roman’s Big Thanksgiving

YouTube

By ALISON ROMAN

On the Hunt for Mushrooms in Central Oregon
Photographs and Text by Stephen Hilktner

WINE SCHOOL
Champagne-Style Sparklers, Made in America
By Eric Asimov

Scandinavian Wine? A Warming Climate Tempts Entrepreneurs
Hotter weather is fueling efforts to create a commercial wine industry in Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
By Liz Alderman

Star Sommelier Resigns After Accusations of Sexual Assault

Anthony Cailan in July at the Usual.
By Julia Moskin

Narayana Reddy, YouTube Star as ‘Grandpa Kitchen,’ Has Died
Mr. Reddy, a cook in India, started a YouTube channel in 2017 featuring videos of him preparing huge portions of food for children. His channel has more than six million subscribers.

By Daniel E. Slotnik

Popeyes Sandwich Strikes a Chord for African-Americans

In a Facebook post in August, Nadiyah Ali, a nurse from Katy, Texas, compared the sandwich to a rival’s: Chick-fil-A’s version, she wrote, tasted as if it were made “by a white woman named Sarah who grew up around black people.” The Popeyes sandwich, she added, tasted “like it was cooked by an older black lady named Lucille.”

By John Eligon

What Could Come Between These Two Allies? A $100 Jar of Honey

New Zealand producers, in the face of protests by their Australian counterparts, want to trademark manuka honey, a costly nectar beloved by celebrities.
By Jamie Tarabay

The World’s Best Cheese? It’s Blue and Comes From Oregon

Rogue Creamery, which took the top prize at the World Cheese Awards with its Rogue River Blue produced in Oregon, has seen sales and interest jump.

Cathy Strange, vice president of specialty foods at Whole Foods, with the winning cheese at the World Cheese Awards in Bergamo, Italy.
By Laura M. Holson

‘After His Death, I Didn’t Cook Anymore’: Widows on the Pain of Dining Alone

Readers share poignant stories of the pain and comfort that food can bring after a loved one dies.
Compiled by Aidan Gardiner

How to Eat Alone (and Like It)

Table for one? It’s not as bad as it sounds. Here’s how to dine by yourself and enjoy every bite.
By Jess McHugh

FOOD VISIONARY
After Rehab and Loss, a Restaurant Leader Helps His Colleagues

Steve Palmer is a food industry success story. But he is most proud of his efforts to reach workers in the hospitality business who struggle with addiction.
By Kim Severson

SCRATCH
What Does It Take to Stand Out at a New Orleans Seafood Market? (Hint: Worms)

An illustrated look at how fishmongers diversify. It’s a tough business — especially when the competition includes your own sisters.
By Julia Rothman and Shaina Feinberg

Sean Sherman’s 10 Essential Native American Recipes

The founder of The Sioux Chef, a company devoted to Indigenous foods, created recipes to showcase tribal diversity across the lower 48 states.

The following links are to NYTime’s Cooking, which is a firewall within a firewall. (It seems to be accessible through the NYTimes phone app, but don’t tell no one.)
01. Bison Pot Roast With Hominy
02. Roasted Turnips and Winter Squash With Agave Glaze
03. Roast Turkey With Berry-Mint Sauce and Black Walnuts
04. Tepary Beans With Chile-Agave Glaze
05. Rocky Mountain Rainbow Trout With Trout Eggs
06. Chia Pudding With Berries and Popped Amaranth
07. Seared Salmon With Crushed Blackberries and Seaweed
08. Wild Rice and Berries With Popped Rice
09. Three Sisters Bowl With Hominy, Beans and Squash
10. Crawfish and Shrimp Pot With Spiced Sweet Potatoes

A GOOD APPETITE
These Ingredients Deserve Your Attention

This sheet-pan chicken dinner stars two ingredients, paprika and parsley, you may be taking for granted.

Bell peppers and jammy cherry tomatoes round out this simple roast chicken supper.
By Melissa Clark

A Pastry Chef’s Book, and Life, Start Again

Claudia Fleming’s cult, out-of-print cookbook, “The Last Course,” is being reissued as she emerges from a dark decade.
By Julia Moskin

EAT
The Pork Chops You’ll Make Again and Again

Pork chops in lemon-caper sauce.
By Sam Sifton

FRONT BURNER
A Farmed Striped Bass Worth Roasting

This fish, raised in Pacific waters off Baja California, makes a worthy substitute for wild striped bass.
By Florence Fabricant

FRONT BURNER
A Japanese Sweet Tradition a Thousand Years in the Making

Yokan, a jellied confection, will be celebrated this week in New York.

By Florence Fabricant

A Celebrity Sommelier Is Accused of Sexual Assault

By Julia Moskin

Pour at Your Own Risk: America Warms to a Spill-Prone Wine Jug

Passé in its native Spain, the porrón has become a popular bar accessory among patrons who don’t mind possible wine stains.

A growing number of restaurants and bars in the United States are using porróns, including Bar Celona at Mercado Little Spain in New York.
By Robert Simonson

FRONT BURNER
Curious About Orange Wine? There’s a Subscription Box

Orange Glou will send you bottles of these funky wines from around the world.
By Florence Fabricant

THE POUR
In Napa Valley, Winemakers Fight Climate Change on All Fronts

Wine producers are grappling with a maelstrom caused by a warming planet: heat waves, droughts, cold snaps, wildfires and more.
By Eric Asimov