♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -Today on "America's Test Kitchen," Lan makes Bridget stuffed spatchcocked turkey, Adam reviews slicing knives, and Erin makes Julia shaved celery salad with pomegranate honey vinaigrette.

It's all coming up right here on "America's Test Kitchen."

"America's Test Kitchen" is brought to you by the following.

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Welcome to the world of Smithey.

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Our fleet of small cruise ships explore American landscapes, seaside villages, and historic harbors where you can experience local customs and cuisine.

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♪♪ -They say, "easy as pie," or, "piece of cake."

[ Snaps fingers ] But you know what they don't say?

"Easy as turkey."

Because cooking a whole turkey is hard.

You've got the white and the dark meat that have to cook at the same rates.

It's big, it's unwieldy.

It's a lot.

So we've got Lan here, and she's going to take care of all of our turkey conundrums.

-Bridget, we're not only going to make cooking this turkey easy, we're going to cook a stuffing alongside it.

-Bonus.

-Bonus.

We're going to start with the salting mix for our turkey.

-Okay.

-Just two ingredients, really simple.

I have 1/4 cup of kosher salt.

And to that I'm adding 4 teaspoons of sugar.

-Okay.

-Just going to whisk this together.

That's it.

Now, this is going to be enough for a 12 to 14 pound turkey, which is what I have here... -Right.

-In order to make that cooking method easier, to make sure that the dark and white meat finish up at the same time, we're actually going to spatchcock this bird.

So to do that, we're going to turn it over so that backbone is exposed, because that's the part we're going to remove.

-Right.

-I like to use kitchen shears for this.

It's just a lot easier than using a knife.

Right here where there's a hip bone is where it is hardest.

And once you can get through that bit, you're kind of home free.

This is actually super great for gravy.

-Yes.

-You just chop it up, throw it in a stock.

It's fantastic.

-[ Bones cracking ] -Now we just flip this over.

So push down to crack that bone.

[ Bone cracks ] And that's it.

-Crack the breastbone, the keel plate there.

Yeah.

-Yeah.

-So I want to clean this up a little bit.

There's some extra skin up here that is totally unnecessary.

Next up, we're going to salt the turkey.

And as we always prefer, we want to do it under the skin.

Step one is to loosen the skin.

I'm just going to lift and kind of ease my fingers between the skin and the breast meat.

And it's really not a problem if you tear the skin.

I've actually figured out a way to patch it, and you wouldn't even know that it was torn.

You just need a couple of toothpicks.

You can actually find more details on that tip on the website.

-Great.

-You can just lift that skin up.

5 teaspoons right in.

-Okay.

Other side.

-Alright.

-For the legs, it's going to be 2 teaspoons apiece.

Cool.

The rest is going to be for the underside.

-Okay.

-Last thing I want to do is tuck these wings.

This is going to go into the fridge for at least 24 hours.

But if you can let it go for two days, that's even better.

It's time to move on to the stuffing.

-Great.

-I went ahead and got us a little head start.

I took 1 1/2 pounds of hearty white sandwich bread, cut it up into 1/2 inch cubes, and toasted it out in a 250 degree oven.

Next up, we're going to make our binder for the stuffing.

I've got 3 large eggs, and this is 1/2 a cup of water.

And it's just going to go right in.

Bread cubes can go right in.

And I'll just toss this until they're nicely moistened.

What I'm looking for is to not have a pool of egg at the bottom.

We're going to come back and toss this a couple more times.

-Okay.

-Um, in the meantime, I've got 4 tablespoons of unsalted butter melted over medium heat in this 12-inch nonstick skillet.

To that, I'm adding 3 onions that are chopped... [ Sizzling ] ...and 6 finely chopped celery ribs.

So this is just going to cook until the vegetables are softened.

It's going to take 8 to 10 minutes.

-Okay.

-Bridget, it's been 10 minutes.

And we're going to need some aromatics to flavor this.

I've got 2 tablespoons of minced fresh thyme, 2 tablespoons of minced fresh sage.

-Lovely.

-All the poultry herbs, right?

6 garlic cloves that I've minced, and 1 teaspoon of black pepper.

So I just want to break up that garlic a little bit, make sure everything is kind of opened up.

We'll just add this to our bread.

And one more quick toss.

-Alright.

-That's looking pretty good.

I have our roasting pan right here.

And I've given it a good coating of baking spray to make sure nothing sticks.

What I'm going to do is shape it into a 9-inch by 9-inch square.

That's going to be just about the right size for this turkey of ours.

We can go ahead and move our turkey and plop it right on top.

So our stuffing is nice and protected.

We also want to protect the breast meat.

It's going to cook pretty quickly.

And in order for this to all finish at the same time, we want the legs to get a jumpstart.

-Okay.

-The way to do that is our trusty foil shield.

You just press it right over the top.

I'm going to wash my hands, and then we'll get this into the oven.

-Okay.

-This is going to go into a 425 degree oven right on the middle rack, and it'll cook for 45 minutes.

-Okay.

Get that for you.

-Oh.

Thank you.

Hey, it's starting to smell good.

-It's starting to smell great.

-If you could do me a favor.

Um, can you drop that oven temperature to 325?

-Of course.

-Thank you.

Alright, Bridget, now that we've gotten the dark meat a jumpstart, I'm just going to remove this foil.

And I want to give this a quick brush with some melted butter.

It's going to be just 1 tablespoon of unsalted butter.

I'm going to pop this back into our 325 oven.

And it's going to go until it's done -- 2, 2 1/2 hours.

I'm looking for the breast to register 155 degrees and the legs to register 175.

-Oh, wow.

-Look at this.

-Oh, whoa.

Alright, I'm following you.

-[ Chuckles ] Wherever you go.

Phew.

-Pretty satisfying, right?

-That is gorgeous.

-So it's just going to go right to a carving board.

-Oh, my goodness.

-This is going to need some help.

But all of these beautiful brown juices and fond, we want that in the stuffing.

So we're going to give this a nice scrape.

-Oh, my goodness.

-This I'm just going to spread into a nice even layer.

Maximize our surface area for browning and a light bit of crisping.

-Okay.

-But we're not going to actually do that quite yet.

So this turkey, it's going to need to rest for 30 minutes.

It could actually go a little bit longer if you needed it to.

I am not going to cover it.

I don't want that skin to steam.

-Right.

-And 15 minutes before serving, I'll pop this back into the oven just to warm it and brown it slightly.

-Gorgeous.

Alright.

Oh.

[ Gasps ] -Right?

Oh, yum.

-Oh, that smells like Thanksgiving.

Mmm.

-It sure does.

Let's give this a quick fluff and it can go right into our serving bowl.

I really love how you get a bunch of different textures here.

And wait until you taste it.

Okay.

Last little bit.

Now that this is ready to go, let's go carve our turkey.

-Sounds great.

-So first up is really easy.

We're going to take off the legs.

I'll just kind of lift this up and cut along the skin, because it's really just the skin that we need to get through.

Really, you're just cutting through the skin that's holding that leg in place, and it just pops right out.

So next up, we're going to deal with the wings.

You can see how there's, like, a little seam right here.

-Yup.

-That's kind of where we want to cut.

And then you should be able to kind of just lift.

Give it a little twist.

And that joint kind of reveals itself.

I'm just kind of following the bone in there.

You sort of feel for it.

There's not much to look for, really.

Um, and then now all we've got left on here is the breast, which makes it really easy.

There's a keel bone running down the center, and I just want to cut on either side of it.

[ Crunching ] Can you hear how crispy that skin is?

-Definitely.

-Awesome.

And then we'll just slide our thumb in here to hold it open.

-And it's still nice and hot.

-[ Both laugh ] -Yeah.

-And I want to just kind of follow the rib cage until that breast releases.

Other side.

Alright, so now we've got a leg quarter, which is not great to serve whole.

-[ Laughs ] No.

-I just want to divide them.

I like to kind of come down this way, find the bone.

And then you can just kind of, um... -Pop it.

-...pop it.

Now, there's one little tricky bit here that doesn't happen on a whole bird.

When we spatchcocked it, we left a bit of the rib cage on this thigh.

I want to find it.

It's kind of triangular right here.

Slip my knife right underneath... and remove it.

And then this bone, we don't want that either.

So I'm just going to cut around either side of the bone.

And just kind of gently work the tip of your knife along that bone until everything releases.

And then we'll flip this over and give it a slice.

The breast -- much easier.

We're just going to slice through these.

The grain is kind of running this way.

So I want to do one of these.

I really like to hold my knife at a 45-degree angle, when I slice the breast.

You get a beautiful cross-section.

Now, the last couple of pieces, tuck them right in there.

-Mmm.

-Not bad, right?

-Pretty great.

-How great is it that you can get two of the big Thanksgiving dishes done all at once?

-It's true.

I mean, this is like a miniature Thanksgiving.

You've got the turkey, you've got the stuffing, and you brought my favorite beverage in the world -- gravy.

-[ Chuckles ] I'd heard that about you.

-[ Laughs ] -Here we go.

And a little dark meat, too?

-Please.

-Let's see if I can't scoot this little guy out of here.

-I'm never greedy because I can go back for more.

-[ Laughs ] And then a nice helping of stuffing.

-Oh, yeah.

-Ooh, delicious.

-Oh, this is gorgeous.

-Yum.

-And even better, you can get this recipe for the gravy on our website.

Alright, I'm going to go into the breast meat here because that really is the challenge -- making sure that it's seasoned, but not dry.

That's fantastic.

-It's so good.

-Super moist.

Mmm.

The skin is beautifully rendered, as well.

Super crisp.

Succulent, juicy, seasoning is perfect.

-Mm-hmm.

This is not salty at all.

Now, onto the stuffing.

You can taste those deep, dark turkey drippings.

You toasted the bread.

That was fantastic.

-Mm-hmm.

-And also, you're getting these little crispy browned parts from putting this back in the oven.

This is turkey day perfection.

And you made it all look so easy.

-I had a good recipe.

-So if you want to take a crack at this fabulous turkey recipe, it starts by removing the turkey backbone, then applying a salt and sugar mix under the skin.

Place the turkey on the mound of stuffing and roast, first covered with foil, then uncovered until deep golden brown.

Stir the stuffing, and then return it to the oven and bake until crisp and brown.

So from "America's Test Kitchen," a spectacular recipe for stuffed spatchcocked turkey.

Don't forget the gravy.

♪♪ -When carving smaller pieces of meat, like a chicken breast or a pork chop, you can get away with using a chef's knife.

But for larger roasts like a brisket, you really want a slicing knife.

And today, Adam's going to tell us which brand is worth the money.

-Oh, a slicing knife makes it much easier to get neat slices of bigger pieces of meat.

We tested this lineup of eight slicing knives.

The length was 10 inches to 12 inches.

The price range was $26 to $240.

-Ooh.

-The tests included slicing brisket because it's nice and wide, a big, wide, large turkey breast, and pork loin.

And the things that separated the -- the best knives from the not-so-good knives, number one, sharpness is very important.

How well it's sharpened and honed at the factory.

-Okay.

Number two -- this also affects sharpness -- is the blade geometry, which is the angle at which the cutting edge is ground on either side of the blade.

In our lineup, those angles range from about 20 degrees, which is fairly wide, to 15 degrees, which is narrower.

-Okay.

You have a couple of them here.

I want you to try this knife first and take a couple of slices of flank steak, and then try the one next to it second.

And just tell me what you observe.

-Awesome.

-This is a little awkward, I have to say.

I'm able to make nice slices, but I'm working at it.

-Yeah.

You're good with a knife, though.

Now try the other ones.

-Okay.

Oh, this is a breeze.

Yeah, this is way easier.

On some of these on the first slices, I had trouble getting through the bottom.

And on this second knife, nope.

It slides right through.

-So the first one, the blade geometry is 20 degrees.

It's a wider angle.

The second one you're using, it's 15 degrees.

-Mm-hmm.

-So it's narrower.

And you agree with the testers who all felt that it was keener, more agile, definitely easier to slice through with.

-Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

-Blade dimensions also made a difference with a slicing knife.

Number one, it's got to be long enough.

You can see this one, for instance, 12 inches long.

-Yeah.

-That's going to span a big roast, a brisket, something like that.

Something like this was just 10 inches long.

You're not going to get all the way across every brisket with this.

The height of the blade from the cutting edge to the spine also made a difference.

Testers preferred blades that were about an inch and a half tall from the cutting edge to the spine at the top of the blade.

That gave them a chance to really hug the meat and make nice, neat slices.

It also gave them enough clearance for their knuckles off the board, so they weren't dragging their knuckles through meat juices at the bottom.

Another factor of the blade dimensions was the thickness of the blade.

Testers preferred that it be about 1.5 millimeters at the spine.

That gave them a nice balance of rigidity and flexibility.

Some of them were a lot thicker, like this one.

This was 2.8 millimeters at the spine.

-That's quite thick.

-You can see It's a lot thicker, and it doesn't have nearly the flex... -Oof.

Mnh-mnh.

-...that the other one does.

So this one felt more awkward to use.

Some of them are about 1.5 millimeters at the spine, and that gave them the right balance between flex and rigidity.

And then if it was more like one millimeter, it was a little too flexy, a little too bendy.

It wiggled too much to really slice in a precise, controlled way.

Another feature of these blades are these shallow indentations along the length of the blade.

-Mm-hmm.

Those are called grantons.

-Mm-hmm.

-And they are there to reduce the surface tension between the blade and whatever it is you're cutting.

That's going to make the action smoother -- the slicing.

It's also going to help release slices that you have just cut a little more smoothly.

In the end, this is our winning knife.

It was the winner before.

It's still the winner.

This is the Victorinox Swiss Army Fibrox 12-inch Granton edge carving, slicing knife.

It's got great blade dimensions.

It's 12 inches long.

It's the right height.

It's the right flexibility and rigidity.

It's got those grantons.

The handle is comfortable.

For 48 bucks, you really can't do any better than this one.

♪♪ -Celery usually plays the role of a support vegetable, adding a little flavor to soup or some crunch to a batch of tuna salad.

Rarely does it take center stage, does it, Erin?

-It never does.

It's very underappreciated.

-It is.

-Until today.

So today, we're going to make a salad where it's going to be front and center.

-I love it.

-Alright.

We're going to start with the dressing.

We're going to make a pomegranate honey vinaigrette.

-Oh, yum.

-So we have 2 tablespoons of pomegranate molasses.

This is a staple in Eastern Mediterranean cuisines.

-Mm-hmm.

-And it's like sweet and tangy, a little bitterness.

-And if you can't find it at the store you can find a recipe for it on our website.

-Absolutely.

Now I'm going to add 2 teaspoons of honey.

This is going to boost its sweetness a little bit.

And this is 1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar.

And we're going to add 1 shallot, 1/4 teaspoon of salt... -Yeah.

-...and a pinch of black pepper.

Alright, so now, we're just going to whisk this together.

Alright.

And now we're going to finish this with 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.

-Mm-hmm.

-And now I'm just going to slowly drizzle this in.

Um, the pomegranate molasses is going to kind of help stabilize our vinaigrette.

-Mm-hmm.

Alright, so our dressing is ready.

Moving on to the star.

Let's start with the stalk celery.

And so I'm going to use 4 stalks.

We are going to use these beautiful celery leaves, as well.

-Yeah.

-So I'm just going to tear off -- We want about 1/2 a cup of celery leaves.

Put these into our salad bowl.

Now I'm going to slice our celery into very thin slices on the bias.

I'm just going to trim off the ends.

And you just really want to slice very thinly.

Okay.

Onto celery root.

This is grown in the ground before it's sold.

It's pulled up, and then, like, the roots are trimmed off, and it looks kind of scary, right?

-[ Both laugh ] -The first time I ever used it, um, I was like, what is that?

-Looks like a little gremlin.

-Yeah.

And another name for this is celeriac.

-Mm-hmm.

-So I'm going to first just cut off where the greens meet the root.

I'm just going to cut that off.

The other side, I don't want to trim off all of that 'cause there's some good white meat underneath it.

So at an angle, I'm just going to kind of spin and trim.

-Mm-hmm.

-And anything you don't want to eat, trim off.

Now, I'm just going to cut this in half.

If -- If you have a really large one, you want to cut it into 1/4s.

And I'm going to use two.

And this one I'm going to cut into 1/4s.

Now we're going to use a mandoline.

Basically, you have a blade.

Make sure that's flat.

And you just want it to be stable and just start thinly slicing it.

When you get to a stage where your finger is getting close to the blade, you want to use the guard.

We're using a total of 14 ounces of celery root.

Salad is coming together.

-That is so pretty.

-Isn't it gorgeous?

Now we are going to add pomegranate.

First I'm going to put on some gloves because it can stain your hands.

-Mm-hmm.

-Okay, so now I'm going to cut off the blossom end and I'm going to score it.

Just going to take my knife... about six times around.

Now just break it apart.

-Mm-hmm.

And break it apart underwater.

And the seeds basically sink.

-Mm-hmm.

-And the membranes basically float.

-Nice.

-So it's easy peasy.

-Yeah.

-And we're going to drain it.

-Okay.

-Alright, Julia, we are ready.

-Okay.

-Ready to toss.

Alright.

So we have our pomegranate honey vinaigrette.

-Look how that held.

-See?

It's -- Yep.

It's beautiful.

It's coating the side of the bowl.

-Gorgeous.

-I'm giving it one last stir.

And we're going to add our celery root and our celery and our celery leaves.

And because I thinly sliced the celery root and there's a lot of pieces that kind of get stuck together, I like to be one with my salad.

-Mm-hmm.

-And I'm just going to toss it and use my fingers to kind of break it up so that all of the pieces get coated with the dressing.

Okay, so we're going to add one more major element to this.

We're going to add frisée.

-Mmm.

-Frisée is a nice bitter winter green.

It's a bitter green, so it's going to add a nice complexity of flavor.

Now I'm going to add the 1/2 cup of pecorino, shredded.

It's going to add a little saltiness.

And I'm going to add 2 tablespoons of our pomegranate seeds that we prepped earlier.

Right.

Now I'm just going to toss it.

-Okay.

-Okay Alright, so as with everything, you want to taste before you serve.

I'm going to give it a little bit more salt.

-Okay.

-Because there's a lot of hardiness in here.

And last but not least, we're going to just put a nice garnish on it.

We're going to add 1/2 a cup of walnuts.

Just going to sprinkle that over it.

It's going to add a nice nutty flavor and also a nice crunchy texture.

And I'm just going to sprinkle it with 2 more tablespoons of pomegranate seeds.

-Erin, that's gorgeous.

-I am very proud of this salad.

Alright.

-Mmm.

-Alright.

Enjoy, Julia.

-Oh, I can't wait to try this.

Alright, I'm gonna try to get a little of everything on my fork here.

Mmm.

-Crunchy.

-That is so delicious.

Unexpected flavors.

I got a little bite of the pomegranate seed that burst in my mouth, followed by the pecorino.

-Crunch of the walnut.

-Yeah.

-Celery root, raw, is one of my absolute favorite vegetables to eat raw.

It just has this, like, little slightly parsley, anise-y flavor to it.

It just takes on whatever you serve it with.

-Mm-hmm.

Ah.

-And the different textures.

-Yeah.

-Right?

Celery root, thin is the key.

-Erin, this is a delicious celebratory celery salad.

-Thank you.

Nicely said.

Well said.

-[ Laughs ] I love it.

If you want to make this lovely celery salad, start by making a sweet tart vinaigrette using pomegranate molasses.

Prep two types of celery.

Pick the leaves, slice the stalks on a bias, and shave celery root.

Then toss with pomegranate seeds, pecorino, and walnuts.

From "America's Test Kitchen," a delicious recipe for shaved celery salad with pomegranate honey vinaigrette.

You can get this recipe and all the recipes from this season, along with select episodes and our product reviews at our website, americastestkitchen.com/tv.

This is incredible.

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♪♪ "America's Test Kitchen" is brought to you by the following.

-Plugrà European style butter was created for all chefs, cooks, and bakers, slow-churned with 82% butterfat for a smooth texture and more pliability for flaky crusts.

Plugrà -- from professional kitchens to your home.

-Smithey cast-iron and carbon-steel cookware -- thoughtfully crafted, made with passion, used with passion.

Welcome to the world of Smithey.

-On an American Cruise Lines journey, travelers experience the maritime heritage and culture of the Maine Coast and New England Islands.

Our fleet of small cruise ships explore American landscapes, seaside villages, and historic harbors where you can experience local customs and cuisine.

American Cruise Lines, proud sponsor of "America's Test Kitchen."

-GreenPan Frost, the frozen treat maker that makes ice cream, sorbet, slushies, and more with a built-in chiller that goes from fresh to frozen.

GreenPan Frost.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪