This Holiday Menu Is So Classic You Might Start Making It Every Year
One of our favorite ranchers, Mary Heffernan of Five Marys Ranch in California, prepares the ultimate family-style holiday feast with plenty of flavor and cheer.
Mary Heffernan knows how to cook for a crowd. The California rancher grew up in a big family—her parents were each one of five—and she now lives with her husband, Brian, and four girls (all named Mary!) at their historic Five Marys Farm near Mount Shasta. The property is also home to a burgerhouse and craft butchery where they serve up sizzling steaks, smoky bacon, spicy sausage, and more. It’s safe to say it was a no-brainer to turn to Heffernan for help with creating the ultimate family-style feast to be savored around the holidays.
Heffernan’s latest cookbook, Five Marys Family Style: Recipes and Traditions from the Ranch($40, Sasquatch Books), is an ode to making memories around a table, gathering your people not just for gifts but also for good food; at the ranch, that means salt-jacket prime rib. It also means continuing traditions like a visit to the fish market for fresh crab to be served on Christmas Eve—and leftovers on Christmas—and cutting down the stress by making much of the spread ahead. Of this feast, the pickled onions, candied pecans, salad vinaigrette, crabcakes, and tartar sauce all can be made a day before a celebration. That’s our kind of menu planning.
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“Here’s a salad that’s as festive as my parents’ house during the holidays,” says Heffernan. “With sweet cherries, spicy pecans, piquant blue cheese, and plenty of greens, it’s sort of a party in a bowl—and it holds up well, already dressed, on the table, which is always a plus during a long holiday dinner.”
Saltine-Crusted Bite-Size Crabcakes with Jalapeño Tartar Sauce
“My grandfather loved to host and cook for big family events,” writes Heffernan. “He always served cracked crab with a mayonnaise-based sauce and hot crusty sourdough on Christmas Eve, starting with the fresh crab he’d buy live at the fish market. It doesn’t get more San Francisco than that! We still do this every year, with my dad carrying on the tradition. The girls delight in the sight of live crabs in a cooler before dinner, and we always prepare enough to have plenty of leftover crab meat for a Christmas Day seafood appetizer—like these crabcakes, made with plenty of fresh Dungeness crab. They’re the ideal handheld make-ahead bites for a special occasion.”
Tip: To make the cracker crumbs, put the saltines in a large resealable bag, close it, and use a rolling pin or wine bottle to roll them until well crushed (but not totally powdered).
Before roasting the prime rib, Heffernan and crew “pack it with a seasoned salt crust, which hardens and browns beautifully as the meat cooks,” the rancher says. “It lifts right off before serving, like removing a jacket, and leaves the meat not salty but perfectly seasoned.”
“Over the holidays, we always bring apples down to my parents’ house and fold them into a version of apple pie with the crunch of Oregon hazelnuts and a dose of cardamom, which together give the pie an almost Scandinavian accent,” writes Heffernan. “While chilling a pie crust is always important, I’ve found that you can cut corners in the rolling-out process—meaning you can roll out the dough immediately after making it, as long as the dough has time to get good and cold before baking.”