Sauces that spice up Thanksgiving Day

IF you strip back the traditional Thanksgiving menu to its most basic elements, you have turkey, gravy and stuffing. Even if these are perfectly prepared (not the most likely possibility, alas), this relatively neutral, mild-mannered fare could use a little added zip, color and, dare I say, spice.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not anti-Thanksgiving. It’s just that the usual add-ons often simply seem to add more richness. A spoonful of sweet potato casserole is lovely, but it doesn’t provide any high notes. That’s where condiments come in. Chutneys, relishes and pickles can offer some welcome diversion.

And so, since many of us don’t have a pantry stocked with them, here are a few simple recipes for brightening up an otherwise one-note meal. All of these condiments can be prepared several days ahead of the holiday and kept in the refrigerator, ready to spoon into bowls. (Even if you don’t get around to making them until the actual day, they are still fairly easy to put together.)

We all have favorite Thanksgiving side dishes that we look forward to each year, sometimes more for nostalgic reasons than because they are culinary gems. My Aunt Ruth made her annual quick-pickled peaches, and I still crave them, even though the fruit came out of a can. They looked right at home beside the creamed onions and green beans amandine, but more important, they contributed a sorely needed vinegar-spiked brightness to the dinner plate.

I played around with some classics, tweaking them just enough for my palate’s pleasure. In my cranberry apple relish, for example, there’s a boost of jalape?o and cayenne, but it still looks and tastes like Thanksgiving. My sweet-and-sour onions employ balsamic vinegar and saffron along with raisins and currant and a hint of lemon. A garlicky spiced brine lends depth to my pickled carrot slices, and a final sprinkling of fresh dill adds spark.

None of these are shockingly out of character for the holiday, but all satisfy the same goal: adding a spoonful of heightened flavor to enhance the experience.