



I’ve never been a big fan of Thanksgiving, but when Bon Appetit came out with a new season of Making Perfect this time all about the holiday of eating, I knew I wanted to give it a try. Because scheduling holidays as a newlywed is difficult, my new husband and I decided to make all of Perfect Thanksgiving a few weeks early. Below is a review of each dish, which substitutions we made, and any logistical aspects I learned while cooking this incredible meal.





Expertly Glazed and Spiced Roast Turkey YouTube

Substitutions: n/a

Logistics: We have yet to open the new knife set we were gifted so we had to use our old trusty knives, freshly sharpened. Our 13 pound turkey defrosted in the fridge for 3 days before the dry brine and was still a bit cold when we opened it. If I had planned ahead better I would have had it defrost for 4 days or bought a fresh turkey (unavailable at the time we made our meal). We cut the turkey into parts ourselves and watched several how-to videos beforehand since it wasn’t shown in the BA video. We were able to complete the task, but it would have been a breeze with a better quality knife.

Review: 5/5! This turkey is just as good as Brad’s description of having Andy as a partner “top notch, world class.” I admit to being one of those people who asked, “how good can turkey really be?” But after trying the first bite of this turkey, I knew just how wrong I’ve been. The flavor was incredible, permeated all the way through, and maintained moisture. Plus, what a bonus that it cooked in about an hour and a half.





Fancy Cranberry Sauce

Substitutions: ground cardamom in place of cardamom seeds, water in place of cranberry juice.

Logistics: the only gelatin form we had was silicone. We made the cranberry sauce 2 days before dinner and it set really well in that time.

Review: 5/5. I promise I’m not just saying this! This may be embarrassing but I actually cried with happiness when it came out of the form. The texture was the perfect happy medium between compote and jello. I was worried it would be too tart but it had just the right amount of sweetness and spice to balance out the sour cranberries. The talk of the table was how beautiful it looked and how impressive a homemade cranberry jelly is.





Mashed Potatoes with Crispity Cruncheties

Substitutions: listen, German Butterball potatoes absolutely cannot be found. The recipe suggests Yukon Golds as a substitution so we went with that.

Logistics: I wish I had made the crunchy topping a day in advance because it needs 15+ in an oven and I could have used the oven space. If you don’t have a food processor, I would just loosely crunch the chips and bread. We used a ricer to mash. We wanted a smoother texture than a hand masher would provide but we also don’t have the cabinet space to store a food mill. You will want more than one person to peel the potatoes when they come out of the oven. They cooled very fast and we had only made it through half the potatoes before they firmed and wouldn’t go through the ricer. We put them back in the oven for 3 minutes and started again.

Review: 4.5/5. I liked this more than I anticipated. The video had some chaotic energy with most people requesting mashed potatoes, but with Carla and Molly really pushing the crispy potato. If you read the comments on the video, many of them run along the lines of “these mashed potatoes are too watery.” And when I first combined the wet ingredients into the potatoes, it looked like I was making potato soup. But as it rested, they firmed up into a good texture. The crispy bits were fun and pretty, but I don’t really think I needed them as they got soggy after plating them on top of the hot potatoes.





Why Is It So Good Gravy

Substitutions and Logistics: combining this one because I basically skipped the first half of this recipe. I didn’t want to buy extra turkey wings just for the gravy, so I sautéed some garlic cloves and shallot then deglazed in the sherry before added premade turkey stock.

Review: 4/5. I can’t provide a full review on this one since I deviated from the recipe so far. The two things I will say is 1. making a beurre manié really helped prevent flour clumps in the gravy 2. The addition of 1tsp. of MSG (which we bought specifically for this) didn’t really punch up the flavor as much as I expected.





Cornbread Stuffing with Sausage and Corn Nuts

Substitutions: extra onion in place of celery (allergy in the family)

Logistics: I ended up making my own cornbread for this because the recipe in the magazine didn’t give a recipe for the actual cornbread though one is provided in the online recipe. Admittedly I overbaked my cornbread to start with so it was already pretty dry before the toast in process.

Review: 4.5/5. If you cook the onions to the specifications in the recipe, they don’t stay crispy and I missed their crunch in the finished stuffing. If I were to make this again I would probably omit the sausage because I don’t think it added too much. Overall though, I loved this stuffing and it’s great on my leftover sandwiches too. The corn taste is strong, the texture is near perfect, and it was fun to make.





Squash and Radicchio Salad with Pecans

Substitutions: much like German Butterball potatoes, I’m convinced 898 and Honeynut Squash exist only within a 15 mile radius of the Test Kitchen in NYC. The recipe suggested a substitution of delicata squash so we used that. We were lucky enough to find piave cheese but Parmesan might have been a better choice anyways.

Logistics: the squash and the brussel sprouts cooks at the same temperature which is honestly a relief after playing around the ovens all day.

Review: 2/5. The first and only big miss in this whole menu. I do want a fall vegetable and a crunchy texture as part of my Thanksgiving meal, but this was not the way to do it. I would substitute with crispy green beans and a sweet potato dish. The radicchio was too bitter, the dressing unremarkable, and the pear and cheese got lost in the flavor of radicchio. The only part I liked was the squash but I would just make that on its own.





Brussels Sprouts with Pistachios and Lime

Substitutions: n/a

Logistics: like I mentioned above, it was a god send that these cooked at the same temp as the squash

Review: 4.25/5. I liked these much more than I expected. Normally the smell of roasting Brussels make me sick but roasting them whole cut down on the smell they released. I could have done without the pistachios but overall these Brussels sprouts were a huge hit.





Pecan Rye Pumpkin Pie

YouTube video not yet released

Substitutions: I did not want to buy a bag of rye flour specifically for one recipe, so I used all purpose in its place. We used a good bourbon instead of rye whiskey.

Logistics: we made this the day before and I’m glad we did. It gave the custard more opportunity to set. We are also galette people so putting the dough in the pie plate and fluting the edge was more difficult than expected. To make the dough, I used a hybrid of the recipe’s instructions and Carla’s 10 minute pastry dough.

Review: 4/5. It’s a good pumpkin pie! However I would up the bourbon and maple syrup so we could taste it more. I suspect this recipe is rushed (you’ll find out why in the video.) I’ll be trying the pumpkin brûlée pie next.









Final Review

I had a great Thanksgiving meal! The turkey really stood out to me and rightfully was the center of the meal.

I would have liked to see more instructional aspects in the videos, but without them we still managed to make a presentable meal.

Things I won’t be making again- squash radicchio salad

Things I will be making again- literally everything else









For the past year, I like many other viewers, have become totally enamored with Bon Appetit on YouTube. The distinct personalities of the test kitchen chefs combined with with the incredible looking food makes for the perfect way to escape after a day of work.