| No Images? Click here  Essential Tools for an Easier Thanksgiving Feast Hosting Thanksgiving dinner is stressful even in the best-case scenarios. Between choosing the right bird, settling on a menu, and stocking your pantry, not to mention cooking the whole thing, there's already plenty on your plate. Toss in the inevitable array of rowdy/late/antagonistic/drunk/inappropriate/whatever-drives-you-insane guests, and throwing a full-blown holiday temper tantrum starts to look pretty tempting.  Thankfully, while you can't control the chaos that is family, you can have a firm grasp on what's going on in the kitchen. That means getting all your shopping done early, making what you can in advance, and stocking your toolkit with every vessel and utensil you'll need to make cooking and serving your Thanksgiving meal a breeze. Here's the equipment that the Serious Eats staff uses, both to test our Thanksgiving recipes at work and to make our Thanksgiving dinners at home.  Cast Iron Skillet An excellent cast iron skillet is useful year-round, but it's especially handy come the holidays. If you use yours exclusively for stovetop preparations, then you're in for a treat—since they're oven-safe, cast iron pans are just as useful for baked items, like Stella's sweet and savory corn casserole and these delicious pull-apart stuffing rolls.  Glass Pie Plate The Thanksgiving table needs a pie, and a pie needs a good pie plate. We're big fans of the tempered-glass pie plates from Pyrex for our gooey deep-dish apple pie. Want to know if that pretty stoneware dish you bought will do the trick? Here's how to pick the right pie plate for every job.  Food Processor We recently tested a number of food processors on the market. Sure, they can be heavy and pricey, but a food processor is an excellent tool to have in your kitchen, especially when you're cooking for a crowd. Use it to quickly blitz your mirepoix, slice potatoes, and put together your flaky pie dough in a flash.  French Rolling Pin We know you might think that rolling out your pie dough with a bottle of wine is just fine. But a good, tapered French-style rolling pin offers a lot more control and precision. Once you have your rolling pin, you'll be ready to make any kind of pie recipe Stella throws at you.  Poultry Shears If you're going to spatchcock your turkey, you’ll need a strong pair of shears. Good thing we finally got around to testing out a whole bunch. OXO's poultry shears were the winners: The looped handle will keep your hands from slipping (in case of grease), and there's a take-apart hinge that makes them super easy to clean.
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