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You probably won't have to salt the sauce itself since the clams are so briny; taste right before serving.

Butterflying branzino is a great way to fast-track when cooking a whole fish. Ask your fishmonger to do it for you.

This 30-minute one-skillet dinner is just the thing for an October weeknight.

The flat cut of brisket is leaner than the point cut (or deckle) but still has enough fat to keep it juicy. It will hold its shape better as it cooks, and slices neatly.

Letting the roast sit at room temperature will help it cook more evenly; starting it at a higher temperature jump-starts the browning process.

A dairy-infused pork sausage stuffing infuses this turkey breast with richness and perfumes the meat with warm spices.

The buckwheat in soba is nutritious and a good source of fiber (and it's flavorful, too).

This recipe calls for a quartered chicken, but you can use three pounds of thighs, breasts, or drumsticks if you prefer.

NOTE You will probably have some brisket left over (unless your friends eat like mine!). It reheats beautifully and is also great for sandwiches and hash.

Yes, there is butter in the sauce, but the key ingredient is verjus. If you can't find it, use half white wine and half unseasoned rice vinegar.

One pepper has nearly a day's worth of vitamin A, an antioxidant key to healthy skin and teeth.

Choose portobello caps with dry, firm gills—damp and soft ones mean the mushrooms are old.

Created by Epicurious member Kathe Miller from Chelan, Washington, this beautiful salad has a wonderful presentation as well as a rich taste. Try it as a starter, or as a satisfying lunch. Miller recommends pears that are tender but crisp, giving the salad a divine texture and bite that is at once crunchy and juicy.

Feel-good food: New research shows the vitamin C in acorn squash may help boost your mood.

To cut baking time, fork the tuber a few times, then nuke for 5 minutes.

Eggplants are sensitive to cold; protect them in plastic wrap before refrigerating.

As with biscotti there is an undeniable American-Italian influence at play here but, once again, I embrace this. Actually, though, American-Italian food has had its own influence on the cooking of the Old Country: these days, I am reliably informed by my Italian publisher and celebrated food writer, Csaba dalla Zorza, you can find dried cranberries with relative ease in Italy. The true Italian Christmas dinner is very much about the capon. Yes, you can find capons outside of Italy, although not everyone can quite cope with the idea of eating a castrated cockerel. Many understandably view old-school caponization with distaste, although it is considered ethically acceptable if the rooster has been chemically rather than surgically castrated. I don't know about you, but the idea of eating meat that has been flooded with the types of hormones necessarily involved here gives me the willies. Besides, my Christmas Dinner is my Christmas Dinner: unchanging, ritualistic, an intrinsic part of me. When in Rome, and all that, but if I'm cooking at home, I don't fiddle with my time-honored menu. I'm not going to give an evangelical tub-thump about my turkey brining techniques, as I've done enough of that in the past, but I am still open to other ways of celebrating the Big Bird and this recipe is a case in point. For me, it is perfect for any sort of seasonal supper party, but really comes into its own on a buffet table, as it carves fantastically and is as good (maybe even better) cold than hot, so you can make it in advance and then be the world's most unharried host on the night. You need to go to a butcher to get a while breast joint and you need to ask for it to be butterflied and boned and make sure the skin is left on. I know it might sound a bit of a faff, but take it from me that stuffing a while double breast joint is very much easier than stuffing and rolling a single breast joint, as is more commonly found in supermarkets. Basically, all you're doing here is opening out your boneless turkey joint, smothering it with stuffing, and folding it over. What you end up with, for all the ease of its creation, is nothing short of a showstopper.

This heirloom family recipe has the distinctive allspice aroma of the cooking of my hometown, Santiago de Cuba, the only part of Cuba where this complex spice is used in a pork marinade. The combination of cumin and allspice is especially characteristic of my family's cooking. Originally a Christmas dish, cerdo brujo is now one of the most popular dishes at my restaurant Zafra, where we celebrate Christmas every day.

Ipswich whole belly clams are steamers that have been removed from their shells and had the necks and membranes removed. And while you can get Ipswich clams from Ipswich, Massachusetts—where we get ours—these days the majority of whole belly clams come from Maine. Never substitute "clam strips" for whole belly clams. Clam strips come from surf clams, and they’ll be very tough if you fry them. This recipe is for a main-dish serving. If you want to serve these clams as an appetizer, reduce the quantities by half.

Dickson's Farmstand Meats Dickson's Farmstand Meats is a unique butcher, sourcing their meats from farms with extraordinarily high standards. It is only natural (pun intended) that their chili recipe would be uncommonly good, loaded with flavor as well as detailed techniques for great results. This is not your granddaddy's chili! For example, the main meat is beef shank, a highly gelatinous cut that gives a luscious smoothness to the sauce. The meat is marinated overnight before cooking, and the seasoning gets complexity from smoky Turkish Urfa chile flakes. If you have the time, refrigerate the chili overnight before serving to mellow the flavors.