The CulinaryWoman Newsletter 11/7/21

Thanksgiving will be a buffet this year

Thanksgiving was changing before the pandemic. Despite the impression the holiday has gained as the year’s major culinary holiday, more and mote people were gravitating to Friendsgivings or catered meals, rather than endure family drama or crowded travel.

This year, it feels like Thanksgiving really will be more of a buffet of choices than the stereotypical dinners of the past or last year’s Zoomgivings.

Many people still plan to cook. But in recent weeks, my email box has been filling up with restaurants and food places that want to sell me a Thanksgiving meal, or at least some of the elements of one.

It’s no wonder why restaurants hope you’ll let them share in the celebration. They desperately need the business, and catering can be simpler and cheaper for them than sit down service (so many are closed on the holiday, anyway).

Inside The Economics of Thanksgiving Packages

New Orleans chef Jason Goodenough says packages offer culinary businesses several advantages.

First of all, they eliminate what he calls “guest-perceived mistakes,” which can cut into a restaurant’s profit margins. “Dishes, wine, cocktails - anything! - was replaced, and came off the bill, no questions asked” at his much-praised restaurant Carrollton Market, which closed in January.

“That kind of crap doesn’t happen with carry out, and taking out the service element is huge, too,” he says.

Also, it was much easier for his cooks to put together 50 sweet potato casseroles to go rather than 50 plates for table service. “The economies of scale” for packages “work in the restaurant’s favor,” Jason says.

A wide variety of prices

In these parts, there’s a wide variety of prices. At the upper end, Dixboro House, helmed by noted chef Louis Maldonado, is promoting a $400 deal that serves six to eight people.

For that, you get an antipasto plate, lobster crab and cream cheese dip with a baguette, a 10-pound Amish turkey, with gravy, stuffing, potato purée, cranberry sauce, glazed carrots and a smoked ham, green bean and onion gratin.

Pies are $40 and two bottles of wine are $100.

Zingerman’s Roadhouse is marketing a choice of family feasts, from $400 for eight to 10 people, and one that feeds two people for $125. They all have lots of side dishes, some sort of pie, and you can decide between coffee spiced smoked turkey and oven roasted bird.

We decided to order a dinner package from Knight’s Market, where we have gotten other holiday meals during the pandemic.

For $40, we are getting a two-person sized meal of turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, green bean casserole and cranberry sauce. I added a pound of ham, which my godmother Maxine likes, for $18.

The package doesn’t include pie, but they offer one for $25 and there are many pie options around Ann Arbor.

As it turns out, Knight’s has already sold out of its dinner packages, including 450 pounds of turkey, although ham and sides are available.

I’m sure places where you live are offering packages and there are many, many choices on Goldbelly, where the choices are mind-boggling.

You can get fried turkey, turducken, and the piecaken, which is layers of pumpkin and pecan pie topped with spice cake, slathered with apple pie filling and covered with buttercream. If you don’t like that, there is a version with cream cheese frosting.

If you’re going to order a Thanksgiving meal, don’t wait, especially if you are having it delivered from afar. Then, relax and know you are accomplishing two things: an easy meal, and helping a business.

My latest column for the Washington Post looks at the water crisis in Benton Harbor. In the food world, it is known for its long-standing fruit market, which I visited a few years ago.

The infrastructure bill that passed Congress on Friday night includes funds to fix Benton Harbor’s water pipes. I hope that happens as soon as possible.

Win A Year Of Cheese

Food boards are all the rage: meat boards, snack boards, dessert boards, and of course cheese boards. Instagram and Pinterest are full of inspiration.

The Wisconsin Cheese Board is on a hunt to find the country’s most creative cheese board. The grand prize is a year’s worth of cheese, a year’s worth for a friend and — the reason I like this contest - a donation of a year of cheese to a food pantry of the winner’s choice.

There are also 25 more prizes. Each week, from now through Dec. 16, judges will choose one person to receive a cheese prize pack. They will then be finalists for the big grand prize. Entries placing second, third and fourth each week will win a custom cheese board.

I just priced cheese boards for possible holiday gifts, so I thought the contest was pretty attractive. You can read more and enter here.

Big News In Beets

Sugar beets are big business in Michigan, and beet growers are having a big year. According to MLive, officials at Michigan Sugar, the state’s big sugar processor, are expecting the 2021 sugar beet season to produce a record-breaking yield of 34 tons per acre, up from the previous record of 31.65 tons per acre set by the company’s grower-owners in 2015.

Sugar beet growing is concentrated in 20 counties across mid-Michigan, from Lake Huron to Lake Michigan. Most, but not all the beets are processed to make sugar.

As you might expect, beets can be found all over Michigan, in our farmer’s markets and groceries. I love beets, even though the prep can be a little messy (tip: if your fingers get stained, rub some dishwashing liquid on them, then wash your hands).

I wrote about my love of beets for The Takeout, whose delightful illustration above is by Libby McGuire. I hope you’ll try some of these ideas for your fall table. Definitely check out different varieties like gold and candy-striped.

Keeping up with CulinaryWoman

I was delighted this week to receive an email from restaurateur Danny Meyer. I asked him to write a blurb for the book jacket for Satisfaction Guaranteed. Even though he’s friends with Zingerman’s co-founders Ari Weinzweig and Paul Saginaw, he’s a busy man, and I had no idea if I would hear back.

I did, and I’m so appreciative. I remember eating at the original Union Square Cafe as a young journalist in New York. I went back to its new location just before the pandemic, and the food and service were as good as I remembered.

Thanks for placing your pre-orders for the book, and also for supporting the newsletter.

Next week, I’ll announce the winner of our latest book give away, and there are more coming up for our CulinaryWoman Community members. Please consider upgrading your subscription to be eligible.

You can reach me at CulinaryWoman at gmail.com. I’m on Twitter and Tik Tok @culinarywoman. Be sure to check out my monthly series on different Zingerman’s businesses, which I call ZingToks.

Thanks, stay healthy and see you next week.