Blog Posts by Serious Eats

It can be a very personal question. Do you use a boxed mix? Stovetop? Semi-homemade? Totally from scratch? Dry out the bread overnight first? And where do you fall in the dressing vs. stuffing debate? To clarify, "stuffing" is when it actually cooks in the bird's cavity while "dressing" bakes in a separate pan.

If you ask Alton Brown, he'll say "stuffing is evil." That's because stuffing is extremely porous and as the turkey around it cooks, juices that may contain salmonella soak into the stuffing. To be safe, you have to cook the stuffing to a minimum of 165°F, which can dry out the turkey. But there are plenty of people who'd argue, and fervidly so, that "stuffing" allows the bread cubes to soak up all those savory, turkeytastic juices, which "dressing" just can't achieve.

We're organizing a boxed "stuffing" taste test (though we'll be cooking them "dressing"-style-ah, semantics!) for those who go that route. Ain't no shame, right? Do you have a favorite brand?

Photograph: Carey Jones

One of the best things about traveling-well, at least, the kind of traveling we do-is getting to know foodstuffs that seem utterly normal to those who've always had them. On our most recent trip, a taco tour of Texas with a detour to New Mexico: amazing flour tortillas. Whataburger. Green chile on everything. And Big Red and Mello Yello. But here's the thing, as admitted outsiders. We get Mello Yello. Big Red, not so much.

If you grew up eating Gushers, drinking Slurpees, or consuming just about any substance advertised on Saturday morning TV, you have some sense of what "red," "yellow," and "blue" taste like.

Right? We don't know when it was decided that red would approximate cherry, yellow would be lemon-like (except in the case of banana, which is almost always a bad idea), and blue would taste like... well, blue. Like blue raspberry, which makes so little sense as a flavor-tasting neither like raspberries, nor blueberries, nor any one thing in particular. Still, if

"Ok Jack, time for your lobotomy!" That Calvin and Hobbes quote comes to mind this time each year. But there are a few crucial things to remember before you start the lobotomy work.

When shopping for a pumpkin, look for the following:

• Firm, smooth skin
• At least one even face to make carving easier
• A green stem, not a brown or rotting one (and never lift it by the stem)
• A heavy feel for its size
• No bruises, soft spots, or lacerations on the skin--it will rot from those spots
• If your carved pumpkin starts to shrivel, you can revive it by giving it a bath in ice water for an hour or so (a cooler or bathtub both work fine for this). Lightly spray the cut surface of your pumpkin with vegetable oil to prevent moisture loss.

Got all the equipment? If you've really got it together, you'll be armed with a spoon, Sharpie, vaseline, and carving saws. Read all about the essential tools here.

Brush up on your carving skills in these two guides:

Photograph: Rosco Weber

I always felt incredibly sorry for Lucky the Leprechaun. First of all, as a magical creature, he probably struggled with confidence issues growing in up a world where no one believed in him. It's a bitter pill, knowing people don't believe in you. Imagine if they didn't even believe in your existence? But after finally working up the courage to introduce himself to a group of children, hoping to find acceptance with the most innocent and unprejudiced of us all, they cornered him on a bridge and forced him to jump.

Kinda heavy for an 80s cereal commercial...

Who raised these ungrateful brats? What gives them the right to take his lucky charms? They're available for purchase, kids. Didn't your parents teach you not to gang up on...leprechauns? Or, say, not to steal from others? These snot nosed jerks relentlessly pursued Lucky, blatantly endangering his life on many occasions and nearly killing him more than once. How he ever survived landing on his neck after that hang

You eat with your nose as much as you do your mouth. Some food aromas are so powerful and potent, you can practically taste them after a deep whiff. Ever been in a bakery when they pull out a fresh loaf of bread? Or Thanksgiving, when the house smells of turkey-pie-stuffing-etc. all day long? Don't you kind of want to bottle up those scents for later? The SE staffers share their favorite food smells. What are yours?
Head on over to Serious Eats to read their picks >>

Photograph: Jessica Leibowitz

Grape Nuts, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Is it your mysterious name? Shhh wait-don't tell me. I don't want to know what it means. Is it your unique warm and nutty flavor? Is it the way I can't hear anything when I'm eating you because the crunching is just too loud? Is it your versatility; How I love you just as much whether you're crunchy or soggy?

Shall I go on?

I'll spare you.

I may be in a minority here, but I'm going to say it proudly-I love Grape Nuts with an intensity that frightens me. Look, I get it. It's hard and crunchy and kind of weird-tasting and not that sweet. I've heard it compared to dog food, cardboard, and pebbles. But as for me, I love Grape Nuts and I want to shout it from the rooftops.

Growing up, Grape Nuts were welcome in our home. I mean, it only has four ingredients: whole grain wheat flour, malted barely flour, salt, and dried yeast. So while many people equate Frosted Flakes or Cocoa Krispies as a nostalgic cereal, my

My wife is charming in many ways. One of them is her habit of leaving her favorite bit of a meal until the very end. This is particularly charming to me because it means that long after the two strips of bacon have made the short journey from my plate to my belly, there are still two perfectly good strips sitting on the other side of the table. I usually spend the second half of brunch honing my already top-notch distracting skills while attempting to liberate her bacon strips from the cruel fate of going cold before being consumed.

My wife also has this odd theory about circular foods, which is this: The center is always the best part.

Sometimes you don't notice how this affects her eating habits. She eats a peach or sucks a lollypop from the outside in, just like any normal person does. Hamburgers are a bit strange. She starts by taking a bite just like you or me. But she'll continue biting around the edge in concentric circles until all that's left is a cork-shaped

If your sweet tooth leads you to the movie theater concession stand, what do you buy? Sour Patch Kids? Twizzlers? Twix? For me, there's only once answer, and it's Junior Mints.

I love the little divots on the backs of each Junior Mint. They balance so perfectly on the tip of your finger. I love that the chocolate shell isn't too stiff, so it melds and collapses into the creamy mint center. Sure, the chocolate's nothing fancy, but it's just an accent, really. And a challenge...

I love slowly shaving the chocolate off the circumference of each mint with my teeth, then attempting to remove just the top and bottom layers of the chocolate shell. Did any of you ever do that? It's one way to make an overpriced box of Junior Mints last through an entire movie. Or, well, at least half a movie.