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www.desitalkchicago.com – that’s all you need to know 19 THANKSGIVING November 28, 2025 Give Your Thanksgiving Leftovers The Grilled Cheese Treatment W hat’s your post-Thanksgiving Day plan? In years past, it might have included going to sleep early to wake up well before dawn to fight - sometimes literally - for the best Back Friday deals. Maybe it’s a trip to the theater to see the latest big movie release. I will be flying back toWashington from visiting my family. But if I were already at home, I would be taking it easy - and making this grilled cheese sandwich with leftover roast turkey and cranberry sauce. While I do enjoy a plate of Thanksgiving leftovers simply reheated and enjoyed as is, after one (or maybe two) meals of that, I’m in desperate need of something different. Last year I was in the mood for chili. I’m also a fan of adding cranberry sauce to muffins. Frequently I will make some sort of soup and freeze it to enjoy later. And almost always, there will be a sandwich. The Thanksgiving leftover sandwich is beloved. It’s a tradition nearly as sacred as the holiday itself. Every- one makes theirs differently. Some layer it with stuffing and gravy. Others batter and fry it for an over-the-top indulgence. This version gives it the grilled cheese treat- ment. A smear of mayo on the outside of the bread while toasting gives it a nice crunch, slices of roast turkey bulk it up, and sweet-tart cranberry sauce (or whatever cranberry condiment you have lying around) is a match made in heaven for rich cheese. After spending hours, if not days or weeks, prepar- ing for the holiday, this grilled cheese sandwich is just about all the effort I want to put into a meal. Make it your own by incorporating whatever leftovers you have on hand. Maybe you had a cheese board as an appetizer for the big day? Use those remnants here instead of the cheddar. Are you a ham family instead of a turkey one? No problem. Want some vegetables? Brussels sprouts, collard greens or greens beans are welcome additions. Lastly, a reminder: Most Thanksgiving dishes (includ- ing the turkey and many of the sides) should not sit out at room temperature for more than two hours, and you should consume or freeze leftovers within four days. And while we’re here, use the turkey carcass to make stock. (Put it in a stockpot with carrot, celery, onion, bay leaves and black peppercorns; cover it with water by a few inches; let it simmer for a few hours, skimming it every now and then; then strain it and freeze for future recipes.) You’ve put a lot of effort into the Thanksgiving meal, so don’t let any of it go to waste. GRILLED CHEESE WITH TURKEY AND CRANBERRY SAUCE This grilled cheese sandwich with turkey and cran- berry sauce is a delicious way to make use of Thanksgiv- ing leftovers. The recipe makes just one sandwich, but you can easily scale it up to feed a crowd. You can also make it your own by throwing in more leftovers, such as collard greens, sweet potatoes or ham. Servings: 1 (makes 1 sandwich) Total time: 10 minutes Substitutions: Mayonnaise >> butter or olive oil. Cheddar cheese >> any melting cheese. Sliced cheese >> shredded cheese. Cooked turkey >> deli turkey, or leftover chicken or ham. Cranberry sauce >> any jam or jelly. INGREDIENTS • 2 slices sandwich bread, such as sourdough, white, whole-wheat or multigrain • 1 tablespoon mayonnaise, divided • 2 slices (about 1 1/2 ounces total) sharp cheddar cheese • 2 1/2 ounces shredded or sliced cooked turkey • 2 tablespoons cranberry sauce, relish or chutney DIRECTIONS Place a medium (10-inch) nonstick skillet over medium heat. Spread one slice of the bread with half of the mayonnaise and set it mayonnaise-side down in the skillet. Top with one slice of the cheese, followed by the turkey, cranberry sauce and remaining slice of cheese. Spread the remaining mayonnaise on the other slice of bread and set on top of the sandwich, mayonnaise- side up. Cook until the bread is brown and the cheese is melted, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Serve immediately. Nutritional information per sandwich: 569 calories, 28 g fat, 12 g saturated fat, 41 g carbohydrates, 758 mg sodium, 122 mg cholesterol, 36 g protein, 2 g fiber, 14 g sugar. This analysis is an estimate based on available ingre- dients and this preparation. It should not substitute for a dietitian’s or nutritionist’s advice. From staff writer Aaron Hutcherson. -TheWashington Post By Aaron Hutcherson Stop Basting Your Thanksgiving Turkey E very Thanksgiving, I host dinner for friends and family. Of all the dishes on the table, including at least two kinds of pie, my pièce de résistance - each time - is the turkey. Moist, juicy and flavorful, it’s the dish that always gets the most compliments and requests for the recipe. It also happens to be the thing I spend the least amount of effort on. My secret to success, besides a digital probe thermometer? I don’t baste. And I’m here to tell you that you - yes, you - should stop basting, too. I speak from experience: I haven’t basted in 25 years. From the moment the turkey goes in the oven, and until the in- ternal temperature reaches 155 degrees, I pretty much set it and forget it. While I’m not usually someone who offers a hot take, especially one that will ruffle many, ahem, feathers, this is one of the few kitchen practices I’ve been passionate about for a long time. Conventional wisdom and tradition tell us that basting makes the turkey meat more moist. It’s what our grandmothers (and their grandmothers?) have sworn by for generations. But basting as a technique for a juicy bird is a myth that doesn’t hold up to science. (The argu- ment that this is how it’s been done in the past is not good enough. Just because our elders rinsed poultry, doesn’t mean we should.) My induction into the anti-basting club came in the early aughts, when social media and virality didn’t yet exist. I was still in college and spent what- ever free time I had reading recipes and watching Food Network, especially Alton Brown’s “Good Eats.” It was Brown’s argu- ments against basting - he called it “evil” - that caught my eye. For this barely-an- adult in my early 20s, hot takes, perhaps because they sounded bold and cool, were like catnip. I followed Brown’s in- structions to end up with the best turkey I’d ever eaten. I’ve been making Thanksgiving din- ners since I was 14, but until Brown’s method, I was relying on the plastic pop-up timer and basting at 20-minute intervals. The turkey was always dry, and it made me wonder why this stringy bird was a holiday darling. According to Brown, basting is not only ineffective, it’s also inefficient. The basting juices don’t penetrate the turkey skin, and each time you open the oven door, heat escapes, slowing down the cooking process, which prolongs the roasting time and thus risks dry meat. To get even more details on the science, I reached out to Paul Adams, science research editor at America’s Test Kitchen, and asked him for his two cents on basting. “Traditional basting has one advan- tage,” Adams said, “depositing dissolved proteins onto the skin, which facilitate the Maillard reaction.” That interaction of sugars and the proteins’ amino acids gives you browner and glossier - not crispier - turkey skin. Adams is in the no-basting camp for similar reasons as Brown, calling the practice “not beneficial.” The myth makes sense on the surface, he said. “You’re putting moisture onto your turkey, therefore your turkey will be more moist. But the turkey skin is imperme- able to moisture, so it doesn’t get into the bird.” “When you cook a turkey, lots of moisture is evaporating. The skin is made up of 50 percent water, and in order for that skin to get crisp, all that water needs to cook off. It takes way more energy to evaporate water than it does to just heat water,” Adams said. Evaporating a water- based basting liquid also causes signifi- cant cooling. When that energy is drawn out of the turkey, it slows down the cook time and dries out the meat. While Adams is against most basting, he thinks that basting with oil, butter or another fat a couple of times during the roasting process could be effective. The added fats help crisp up the skin and make it more flavorful. And because the fat limits evaporation, trapping the mois- ture underneath, the turkey would cook 20 to 25 percent faster, he said. Adams acknowledged that some myths are harder to dispel than oth- ers, sharing that his own father, despite Adams’s food science cred, doesn’t follow his son’s advice. “My dad is a big baster, and we had a little argument about [this interview].” This Thanksgiving, Adams is going to focus on the vegetable sides - and look the other way when his father bastes the turkey. -TheWashington Post By Olga Massov PHOTO: LAUREN BULBIN/THEWASHINGTON POST/ FOOD STYLING BY LISA CHERKASKY Grilled Cheese With Turkey and Cranberry Sauce.