By / Photographs by Aubrie Pick for The Wall Street Journal, Food Styling by Amanda Anselmino, Prop Styling by Anna Raben
I COME FROM a family of butchers. My people have been pulling tendons, trimming fat and finding our way around the joint for generations. To cook meat well, you have to care about it, form a relationship with it. A good month before Thanksgiving, I like to take a hot cup of tea to a soft chair along with a half-dozen of my favorite cookbooks to start looking for turkey inspiration. I close the books feeling the full weight of the 12- to 14-pound traditional grande dame I will probably, inevitably, make. Just as I made last year and my family made for Thanksgivings 1972-present. I tell myself that a big, brown turkey is what everyone wants—but is it just what they expect?
We call it “the heavy weight of tradition” for a reason. A common counter-strategy tells us to channel our creativity into the sides, and every year I try out a new fleet of recipes with bold flavors and trendy garnishing bling to surround the magisterial turkey. But once I began to see the side dishes as loud-talking relatives, all of them trying to outdo one another to get the attention of the dignified matriarch, there was no unseeing it. I would have to start getting more creative with the bird itself.
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