Happy Thanksgiving, MetaFilter! If you have friends from different parts of the U.S., you might have wondered why they consider certain dishes to be an essential part of a Thanksgiving feast, when you've never even thought of them as remotely Thanksgiving-related. Now you can see what dishes were popular searches on allrecipes.com in various states thanks to a series of infographics in the New York Times.
posted by grouse on Nov 26, 2009 - 70 comments

Bittmanfilter: 101 Head Starts on the Day-- "The Minimalist" gives us a hundred and one Thanksgiving dishes that can be prepared in advance.
posted by dersins on Nov 18, 2009 - 24 comments

Barbecued Ribs, Roast Beef, French Toast, Twice Baked Potatoes, Macaroni and Cheese, French Onion Soup, Rye Bread, Corned Beef, Brownies. [more inside]
posted by Lord_Pall on Jul 27, 2009 - 95 comments

Ice cream sundaes are good, but what if you could eat the bowl? On a suggestion from his son, Michael Ruhlman, food writer and critic, figures out how to make a chocolate chip cookie ice cream bowl... and tells you how to do it too.
posted by SansPoint on Jun 18, 2009 - 62 comments

The Royal Society of Chemistry has published their specifications and recipe for the perfect Yorkshire pudding. Unusually for this type of thing, it might not have anything to do with selling anything.
posted by chorltonmeateater on Nov 13, 2008 - 56 comments

NYT asks: What's your recipe deal breaker? Deep frying? Requiring a helper? Standing overnight? Lifehacker readers chime in with the recipes that stop them cold.
posted by divabat on Jun 10, 2008 - 139 comments

Multinational food and pharmaceutical company Podrovka is cooking its books -- literally. Its latest annual report includes a section that must be baked in the oven before it can be read.
posted by brain_drain on Nov 21, 2007 - 20 comments

Anyone CAN Cook [NY Times link] 101 incredibly simple 10-minute recipes from Mark Bittman.
posted by dersins on Jul 18, 2007 - 70 comments

Ahh, the quest for the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. The classic stands as the benchmark: but are there better? Many think so: Sherry Yard, David Lebovitz, the folks at Cooking Illustrated, Martha Stewart, Hillary Clinton, beloved New York bakeries, intrepid webloggers. Alton Brown in an episode of Good Eats shows how to get them thin, puffy, or chewy. Cookbook after cookbook and competition after competition try to ferret out the best of this american icon. Web recipe sites have their own favorites. Some people swear by secret ingredients: cornstarch, pudding (which has cornstarch in it), oats, great chocolate. Two thirds of Americans prefer their chocolate chip cookies "nutless." Others find technique of greatest importance. Is there any end to this quest for one of baking's holy grails?
posted by shivohum on Feb 20, 2007 - 53 comments

Mmmm, Pie. What do you get when you combine quirky pie recipes with homemade postcards? Why, the Pie-of-the-Month club, of course. Check out timely entries like Election Pie, retro Tang Pie, or Pink Lullaby Pie from a real live Wizard of Oz munchkin. Consult with a real pie expert to answer all your pie-related questions!
posted by grateful on Apr 12, 2004 - 10 comments

The Greatest Pumpkin Pie. Just in time, I hope, for your Thanksgiving dinners, I declare the world's best "pumpkin" pie. More inside.
posted by five fresh fish on Oct 11, 2003 - 45 comments

Of All The Quintessential American Dishes which almost every American makes a different way and passionately insists on defining and even spelling as narrowly and personally as possible, my favourite - and many Europeans' (who think it's Mexican and so safe to love) - is undoubtedly chili con carne. This website is the first I've seen which begins to address the complexity of the deliciousness that is a bowl of red. Mmmm...![Mine, I make very Portuguesely with olive oil, far too many onions, severe garlic overload, a full bottle of dry white wine, lots of fresh parsley, fresh piri-piri pimentos, steamed red beans and...sacrilege!...big fat (wild, whenever I can get them) mushrooms.]
posted by MiguelCardoso on May 14, 2003 - 60 comments

Black-eyed peas before noontime is a good luck custom in the U.S. southern states, often served in Hoppin John. Spaniards favor twelve grapes at midnight, Greeks munch on a slice of vasilopita bread baked with a foil-wrapped coin, the Dutch breakfast on hot oliebollen, while the intrepid Japanese defy death by snacking down on mochi rice cakes. Every culture seems to have a traditional food or beverage to celebrate the New Year - do you have a gastronomical favorite to mark the occasion?
posted by madamjujujive on Dec 27, 2002 - 26 comments

Thanksgiving Bill of Fare - "If you will boile chickens, young turkeys, peahens, or any house fowl daintily, you shall, after you have trimmed them, drawn them, trussed them, and washed them, fill their bellies as full of parsley as they can hold; then boil them with salt and water only till they be enough." When sated with peahens and house fowl you might have enjoyed a taste of Pumpion Pie. Early colonial cuisine probably borrowed heavily from the New Booke of Cookerie from London and were no doubt greatly influenced by native recipes and cooking customs.
posted by madamjujujive on Nov 28, 2002 - 7 comments