"best turkey i've ever cooked, and i was a great turkey cook before. the key is in the brine and slow roasting. this is exact science. it's the kind of turkey that everyone talks about and no one ever actually makes in reality. Some helpful tips for the beginner: 1) if your container is bigger than 5 gallons, bump up the water content and keep the container cold - stick it outside- If it is below 45 degrees outside, you should be able to dump two bags of ice in and keep the whole thing basically at stable temperature (around 34 degrees) overnight. 2) allspice and candied ginger can be substituted with other spices and herbs as well as aromatic veggies of your choice. 3) the aromatic stuffing for the bird can also be subbed with other things - like oranges or lemons and shallots or garlic, and for thanksgiving flavor boost your turkey by putting a handful of sage inside of it, and a little rosemary to perfume it, and thyme to really make the turkey flavor pop. 4) use coarse kosher salt."

"Also you must use high grade bitter sweet chocolate and ensure it is finely chopped or grated. a food processor is best for this, and i don't recommend grating chocolate by hand - it is messy and dangerous. Go ahead and freeze a single bar of something nice like Shaeffen berger 70% and then give it a gentle, fine chop. it will take several minutes, but the finer you get it chopped the better texture your cookies will have. Keep chopping without making skin contact until you have finely grated or almost powdery looking chocolate and gently dump into your bowl. Mix quickly and gather dough into lump before rolling out as I said below.

"Recipe is great, but there are things you can do to make this a 5 star recipe. I followed the recipe, then tried a few variations, and even if some of those batches weren't optimal for what chocolate sable cookies COULD be, they were still some of the tastiest cookies ever made in my oven.

I would: use cake flour instead of all-purpose, and roll the dough out to 1/4 in thick before refrigerating. use rubberbands as spacers between the countertop and your rolling pin. just put 1/4 inches worth of wide rubber bands on a straight rolling pin, and use it to roll a perfect dough. Cut out shapes (smaller shapes are best, about 1.5 inches in diameter), then set onto a cookie sheet that's been sitting in a freezer, on parchment paper and refrigerate at least 2 hours so it's completely cold and firm. Bake at 375, not 350, for 9 minutes, not 12-14. Take out and cool. Fantastic texture and flavor and no burnt chocolate.