With Thanksgiving around the corner, foodies and novices alike are already getting prepared the day of gluttony. You’ve come to the right place. No belching, please.
It’s difficult to say what we liked best about the Food Network Magazine. It covered just about everything you can think of even before it gets to the turkey and dressing recipes. While brining the turkey is everywhere, Food Network’s own survey found that 70 percent of its readers don’t brine; 91 percent like their turkey roasted. The bird isn’t everything, of course. As lovers of all things cranberry, we were overjoyed to find new cranberry desserts we’d never thought of: Cranberry clafoutis! And like so many of the recipes here, clafoutis are easy to make. Therein lies the magazine’s real distinction: being practical without sacrificing quality. For those raised on green bean casseroles a la Campbell’s soup, there’s a new made-from-scratch version to suit the times. What we found particularly useful was a small pullout of recipes for 50 vegetable side dishes, which we’ve already stashed in the kitchen.
Food and Wine takes the artisanal, hip route to America’s biggest eating marathon. It doesn’t ignore it, exactly, but it’s not the focus of this month’s issue. And when Food and Wine does delve into Thanksgiving, be prepared for something strange. Instead of turkey, why not have soy-ginger-lacquered Cornish hens? Or how about sour-cherry stuffed duck breasts with thyme? For those who can’t master the fine art of making pie crust, why not pie bars instead? Why not, you ask. Well, because it’s Thanksgiving. Call us traditionalists, but such ideas seem a little sacrilegious. Still, the magazine has a lot to recommend, like a fantastic article on Chef Sean Brock’s search for the roots of Southern food all the way back to West Africa — from Charleston, SC, to Dakar, Senegal.
It is hard to stand out from the crowd in the foodie mags at this time of year, but we expected Bon Appétit to win hands down. Unfortunately, it’s a mixed verdict. Bon Appétit doesn’t have the sheer quantity of the Food Network’s issue or the hipster appeal of Food and Wine. What it does have are a few brilliant standouts like pumpkin seed brittle. Pomegranate mint relish stood out as a welcome addition to homemade cranberry sauce. We will skip the chile-rubbed turkey (it’s probably good, but what kind of dressing goes with that?) and the pear pie with wine and rosemary. Malted walnut pie and bruléed maple pumpkin do seem like innovative twists on old standards and just the kind of class we’d expect from Bon Appétit.
Cooking Light is probably the least interesting of the Thanksgiving mags, and maybe it’s because even if you skip the marshmallows on top of the sweet potatoes (please do!), there is just no dietetic version of this holiday. For example, the best feature of the issue is about pies. Maybe it’s the lighting. Whereas Bon Appétit’s pies are photographed on a dark background, Cooking Light’s full page cranberry-raspberry pie spread on white just jumps out with red lusciousness. But a quick read of the recipe disappoints. We’re fussy about our pie crusts. Cooking Light’s sweet potato and pecan pie looks tempting too — but a quick read of the recipe shows a dearth of spices for our baking needs, especially since the recipe calls for low-fat milk. The editors should know better than that.
David Remnick’s New Yorker is as unpredictable as the fall weather. This week’s flimsy issue features a cover story on “Can Wall Street Be Fixed?” that is little better than a profile of SEC boss Mary Jo White, which does not answer that important question. This follows last week’s insightful cover feature on the city’s homeless problem. There are also six pages on how a computer program can help US farmers predict droughts — a pretty dry idea for a feature. A story on Doctor Who at 50 is worth a read for those who like that kind of time traveling.
New York, meanwhile, offers a national exclusive that is a page- turner. Mark Halperin and John Heilemann bring us into President Obama’s inner circle as he prepared for his second presidential debate against Mitt Romney with his re-election in jeopardy. A profile on David “Look Better Naked” Barton, who just resigned from his self-named gym/night club chain, effectively shows how times in the Village have changed. We do have to question the judgment of running a story revisiting Newtown, Conn., and not showing pictures of the elementary school being demolished. The town destroyed the school Oct. 25.
Time does not make that mistake, showing the poignant shots. A cover story on the US military-designed Deep Web where you can anonymously sell commerce for bit-coins is sharp. Who knew about this parallel Web universe that is free to access? Time, too, flexes its tech muscles with an interesting profile of Evernote, which allows customers to store personal items in the cloud. A pictorial of a mountain gorilla refugee camp also grabbed our attention.