Thanksgiving Food Part III: Of Broth and Challah

Last entry I described my technique of treating poultry with concentrated tea to give it extra moistness and flavor. I soaked the capon we are having for Thanksgiving for over 24 hours in the tea, turning it over mid way through to expose both sides.

Today I transferred the capon to a more traditional pre-cooking treatment: a salty broth. In its basic form, brining means to soak a bird in salt water for at least 6 hours (I usually do it 12-24 hours). The brine adds flavor and moisture to the meat. I first heard about this method from Alton Brown on the Food Network. I was impressed with the results. As a white meat fan, dryness is an issue. Brining definitely helps.

But I am never content to follow a recipe. So I immediately decided to use a salty broth instead of brine. So I usually take salt, pepper, poultry seasoning (one of my grandmother's favorite seasonings) and some sort of dry soup mix. Then I pour hot water over it to make the broth. Why a mix? Laziness. Making my own broth is more work than I feel like doing and even mediocre dry mixes can add a good underflavor to the meat. I soak the bird in this broth overnight or longer turning the bird midway through.

For brothing (my version of brining) for our Thanksgiving capon, I chose an Osem mushroom soup dry mix. This is a good base for many soups, stews and stuff I make. It isn't anything spectacular, but for an easy way to add some good, earthy, mushroom flavor, it's good. I wouldn't use it as a dominant flavor, but as an underlying flavor it works well. So right now the bird is in the broth.

For my grandmother's stuffing (the one I make for real family occasions in her memory) I needed to get some good challah. This isn't as easy as it used to be. Many of the local bakeries in Park Slope have been driven out by banks, real estate agencies and expensive baby boutiques. Personally I'd rather have more bakeries. There used to be ones where you could get great breads and others where you could get good pasteries and cannoli. Interestingly, our favorite bakery for challah was a local Italian one that also had great cannoli. Challah and cannoli, what could be more New York! Well, that one is now a baby boutique.

Around the corner from us is a little Jewish specialty store. I don't shop there much because they are really over priced. Good, though. And it is there that I can now get challah. On Rosh Hashanna I got a round challah there that was quite good. You're supposed to order in advance, but on a whim I took a chance that they'd have extra and was able to get one last minute without reserving one. They also suggested I buy a small teiglach. I decided to go for it. Of course one challah and one small teiglach set me back $13, but they were quite tasty!

So I went back to the same store for challah today. Well, today they didn't have any, but they will be getting it tomorrow. In fact, they begged the bakery to bake a special order for them. The bakery is technically closed, but they talked them into opening just to bake challah for their store. They should arrive tomorrow...cutting it close since I need that challah for stuffing the capon. I'll have to put off cooking until I can get the challah. And if somehow I can't get the challah, I will have to improvise a stuffing. No problem. Done that a hundred times and can do it again. But I'd prefer my good old grandmother's recipe for a holiday like Thanksgiving.

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