Thanksgiving FAQ for the whole AW Community

HapiSofi

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Oh, man. Nothing says "regional cooking" (and sometimes "ethnic background") like people's Thanksgiving customs. Is it dressing, is it stuffing, is there cornbread in it, do you eat out on the porch, and anyway how do you pronounce "pecan"? It's been fun watching Icerose and Kitty Pryde go back and forth: Deseret meets Gumbo Coast.

Icerose, did you ever make white sauce from scratch? A roux is kind of like that, except you work at a fairly low temperature and keep stirring the flour and fat while it gradually browns. (Also, you don't dump a bunch of milk in it, then serve it on toast topped with grated boiled egg; but let us not dwell on these painful memories.)

Gravity, anything that isn't a salad, beverage, or dessert can be considered a GTM. I'm fond of putting it on the stuffing, myself -- which, with my stuffing, isn't that far removed from eating it on cornpone. For me, the smell of Thanksgiving morning is a big shallow pan of cornbread cooling on the stovetop, and a couple of pumpkin pies in the oven.

You can never have too much gravy.

My version of canonical stuffing: one-third cubed non-sweet cornbread, two-thirds cubed stale bread, lots of chopped onion and celery that you've sauteed in butter until barely soft, and you're allowed to add chopped pecans (p'cahhhnz) if you like. Chopped parsley is good too. Dust with white pepper, celery salt, a little black pepper, and a lot of sage. Beat an egg (n'AAAig) or two into enough chicken stock, or chicken stock and milk, to moisten the whole. Stuff the turkey fore and aft, then put the rest into one of those newfangled roasting bags and let it roast alongside for the last hour or two. For extra virtue, take some softened butter, season it with the same spices you used in the stuffing, and work it in under the skin on the turkey breast. Rub the rest of the seasoned butter on the outside of the turkey. Baste early, baste often.

The best piece of cooking advice my mother ever gave me was to always buy Libby's pumpkin and follow the recipe on the label. Get the plain pumpkin, not the stuff that already has the spices in it.
Yes, but what kind of gravy?

Milk/cream/mushroom/KFC (my cousins' "secret family recipe")
Can't be all that secret; you can spot that stuff a mile away.

I don't use milk or cream. Start with the deglazed pan drippings, and if necessary stretch the amount by adding chicken stock. (For this, I strongly prefer Campbell's double-strength chicken broth.) Get it simmering. Pour a highball glass of dry sherry and briskly stir into it as much cornstarch as needed. Slowly whisk this into the simmering proto-gravy, stirring vigorously. Adjust the seasoning after it thickens.

No liver. I despise liver.
Ahhh and cranberries. Cranberry/orange relish, jellied cranberry sauce, whole cranberry sauce, I don't care. I love 'em, cranberries, those distinctive-flavored, festively-colored tart little berries.
Love cranberry-orange relish. If you have a lot left over, cook it gently with a little extra OJ until the peel's translucent, add sugar until it starts jelling, and bottle it up as cranberry-orange marmalade. It sets up firm -- cranberries have even more pectin and acid than citrus fruit.

Cranberry relish classic is dead easy: one part sugar to two parts cranberries, measured by volume, plus just enough water to turn the sugar into syrup, plus a tiny pinch of allspice. For cooks who prefer more specific recipes (You Know Who You Are), that's maybe 3C cranberries to 1.5C sugar to 0.25C water. Bring the syrup to a boil while you wash and sort the berries, throw 'em in, and cook until they pop. The longer you let them cook after that, the firmer they'll set. Five minutes or so should give you a thick but liquid sauce. Ten minutes will give you a firm jelly.

Stormie, if you have a clean tin can on hand, it can be amusing to use one as a mold for the ten-minute version of cranberry sauce.
Pasteles is my favorite. But with chicken, not pork butt.
Yum. We did those with corn husks and nixtamal, and made them for Christmas.
Thanksgiving at our place always, always starts with gumbo. Crab, oyster, fish sausage, and shrimp. Om nom nom nom. It is the bestest.
A good gumbo is unbeatable. Did you ever find yourself tempted to skip the rest and just have more gumbo?

I once had Thanksgiving dinner with a second-generation Italian family that always started Thanksgiving with a separate pasta course, usually gnocci.
I gained five pounds just reading this thread. My family demands green bean casserole.
There's a lot to be said for it. Green bean casserole and that dessert you make with pie filling and dry cake mix are the apex of a certain era of American cooking.
What, nobody else needs the obligatory sweet potato bake with melted marshmallows on top? You people are insane!
Way too sweet for me. I'll take a hard winter squash, skinned then nuked in wax paper, with butter and salt and pepper.
Creamed Cauliflower, with gobs of melted cheese baked over it.
Broccoli, lightly dressed with Hellman's mayo. Better than you'd think, if you haven't tried it.
Oyster stuffing is totally not Yankee.
It's right there in the old Fannie Farmer Boston Cooking School cookbook. Oyster stuffing was big wherever cooks could get oysters. The difference is that Southerners on the Atlantic Seaboard kept making it.
Y'all ever heard of milk stuffing--soak the cornbread or bread croutons in milk?

It's in a lot of my antique American and British pre-1900 cookbooks.
Is that uncommon? It's within canon for my mother's side of the family.
You can put in okra, but then you have to listen to my lecture on how okra is the booger of the vegetable world, and it's just not worth it, trust me.
What, you don't like vegetable snot? Okra's fine if you put it in at the last minute; otherwise, not. People who just want a more glutinous mouthfeel in their soups should skip the okra and add a packet or two of unflavored gelatin.

Odd but logical fact: okra is closely related to the plant whose sap was the original basis for marshmallows.
There'd be trouble in River City if I didn't make my Million Dollar Pecan Pie for Thanksgiving and Christmas!
Is that the one with fruit and Cool Whip in a graham cracker crust?
Oh, and it's pronounced: Pee-Cahn
Well, that's closer. I'm holding out for p'cahhhn or puh-conn, depending on your system of transliteration.
(a Pee-Can is what Grandma kept at her bedside at night) :tongue
PEEcans are those nasty bitter rancid dried-out nuts with the red-dyed shells. They're eaten by snowbirds, who must not know any better.
I do live in Utah so Gumbo does not exist here unless probably up state where the restaurants are.
Utah, land of Funeral Potatoes and Frog Eye Salad. You might be able to find gumbo makings upstate, but if I were you I'd just buy the specialized groceries online. If you've got a local Trader Joe's, they're good for frozen seafood that isn't square and breaded. Sometimes they even have cheap langostinos.
 

Stew21

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p'cahhhn - this one.

:)

I have six p'cahhn trees in my yard.


mmmm....pecan tarts (mini bite-sized pecan pies). Granny makes them every year.
 

DWSTXS

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p'cahhhn - this one.

:)

I have six p'cahhn trees in my yard.


mmmm....pecan tarts (mini bite-sized pecan pies). Granny makes them every year.


Just from hearing 'granny' I can see that you must either be from the South, or have relatives there, or have spent a lot of time there. Because, it is indeed, granny and granpa.

My GP's lived on a 100 acre farm in the Texas Hill Country, and very year, the family Thanksgiving and family Christmas's were held there.

Lot's of all the stuff mentioned in this thread was heaped onto the tabes, along with sweet tea, and a separate table for all the desserts.
 

Stew21

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south-ish rural midwest. :)


eta: you'd be surprised how many rural midwest customs - food and language in particular - are similar to southern
 
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icerose

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Oh, man. Nothing says "regional cooking" (and sometimes "ethnic background") like people's Thanksgiving customs. Is it dressing, is it stuffing, is there cornbread in it, do you eat out on the porch, and anyway how do you pronounce "pecan"? It's been fun watching Icerose and Kitty Pryde go back and forth: Deseret meets Gumbo Coast.

Icerose, did you ever make white sauce from scratch? A roux is kind of like that, except you work at a fairly low temperature and keep stirring the flour and fat while it gradually browns. (Also, you don't dump a bunch of milk in it, then serve it on toast topped with grated boiled egg; but let us not dwell on these painful memories.)

Pucawn is probably the closest I can come to spelling how it's pronounced around here.

I can't say I've ever had white sauce over toast with shredded egg..that just doesn't even sound remotely edible.

I make a white sauce quite often, for my chicken alfredo pizza, fettuccini, and milk gravy. So roux is the butter and flour base you start out with for a white sauce?

There's a lot to be said for it. Green bean casserole and that dessert you make with pie filling and dry cake mix are the apex of a certain era of American cooking.

Way too sweet for me. I'll take a hard winter squash, skinned then nuked in wax paper, with butter and salt and pepper.

I've never been able to bring myself to eat green bean casserole. After living off tater tot casserole for over 6 months after my mother had a severe stroke I haven't been able to eat any casserole with green beans in them. Especially not after the fact that everyone who made that blasted dish never bothered to drain the green beans and instead put that nasty slime into the casserole itself.

As for the marshmallow topped sweet potatoes, I've never understood or cared for that dish. Though sweet potato fries are absolutely delicious.

Utah, land of Funeral Potatoes and Frog Eye Salad. You might be able to find gumbo makings upstate, but if I were you I'd just buy the specialized groceries online. If you've got a local Trader Joe's, they're good for frozen seafood that isn't square and breaded. Sometimes they even have cheap langostinos.

Frog Eye salad isn't too bad as long as they rinse the pasta, j-ello is a bane of my existence and I take pains to avoid it whenever possible. Funeral potatoes...yeah we won't go there. Nothing like tasteless sludge topped with corn flakes. You'd think by now they could come up with a new dish for funerals. I mean you're already grieving you don't need to be gagging at the same time. Maybe I'm just not built for Utah cuisine.

I'll check it out, I still can't buy seafood though. But I'll see what else they have.
 
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Kitty Pryde

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Frog Eye salad isn't too bad as long as they rinse the pasta, j-ello is a bane of my existence and I take pains to avoid it whenever possible. Funeral potatoes...yeah we won't go there. Nothing like tasteless sludge topped with corn flakes. You'd think by now they could come up with a new dish for funerals. I mean you're already grieving you don't need to be gagging at the same time. Maybe I'm just not built for Utah cuisine.

I'll check it out, I still can't buy seafood though. But I'll see what else they have.

Frog eye salad--I had to look that one up. Gack! Seems to be similar to a Waldorf Salad, another revolting dish that doesn't deserve to be called salad.

It's interesting that there's a special type of dish for funerals. Maybe that's the only time when the appearance of that dish doesn't cause additional sadness :)


I thought of another killer good Thanksgiving dish--last year my friend the fancy caterer cooked us the turkey covered in bacon, sitting on a bed of bacon, with bacon lining the insides. OMG you have never tasted such a tender juicy bird. Anyone else ever made the bacon turkey? It's a winner.
 

icerose

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Frog eye salad--I had to look that one up. Gack! Seems to be similar to a Waldorf Salad, another revolting dish that doesn't deserve to be called salad.

It's interesting that there's a special type of dish for funerals. Maybe that's the only time when the appearance of that dish doesn't cause additional sadness :)


I thought of another killer good Thanksgiving dish--last year my friend the fancy caterer cooked us the turkey covered in bacon, sitting on a bed of bacon, with bacon lining the insides. OMG you have never tasted such a tender juicy bird. Anyone else ever made the bacon turkey? It's a winner.

The emphasis is of course not too bad. I don't particularly care for it and if they put in bananas, grapes, and don't rinse the pasta it isn't even edible and lives very much up how you would imagine the name of the dish tastes and feels.

Yeah, it's a really strange phenomenon and one I have never understood. One funeral I attended there were four different dishes of funeral potatoes, rolls, frog eye salad, jello salad, and the worst looking chili I have in memory. I think I stuck with the roll...

I have heard of bacon turkey before, I haven't ever tried it though. I've heard you can't get a more tender and juicy bird than doing it that way.
 

TerzaRima

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Cornbread stuffing with lots of sage and onions

Don't forget some celery and Granny Smith apples chopped into the mix. I grew up on Stove Top, and the first time I tasted real cornbread stuffing in all its multitextural glory was a revelation.

Cranberry sauce--I just boil the cranberries with sugar according to the directions on the produce bag, but I always add a splash of orange or tangerine juice, and a bit each of cinnamon and nutmeg. Sometimes I add a glug of red wine, which seems to make the flavor pop.

The biggest surprise hit since I have been cooking Thanksgiving dinner has been the potatoes. I'm too lazy to peel any, so I cook them and smash them with some roasted garlic, a little butter, and some buttermilk. People come back for thirds. The next day, they make amazing pancakes.

Am I the only gravy-less AW cook? I didn't grow up having gravy for Tgiving, and I have never made it.
 

MacAllister

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Am I the only gravy-less AW cook? I didn't grow up having gravy for Tgiving, and I have never made it.
Heh. I would drink the stuff as a lovely warm beverage, if people didn't look at me funny...
 

KTC

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Wow. Sounds like you guys go all out. Thanksgiving morning, even! Wow. Sounds like Christmas. We just have Thanksgiving dinner.

-Turkey (with stuffing)
-sweet potatoes
-mashed potatoes
-gravy
-turnip
-brussels sprouts
-chow chow (both red and yellow)
-carrots
-ham
-corn
-cornbread/buns
-wine
-cranberries
-pumpkin pie
-apple pie
-trifle

That's what we had for Thanksgiving dinner last month...on the REAL Thanksgiving. (-;
 

MaryMumsy

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I've gotten a number of chuckles reading through the posts. If I dared to vary my menu I would probably be hung (and not in effigy).

Turkey (lots and lots of turkey)
Stuffing (white bread, poultry seasoning, onions, celery, chicken broth)
the stuffing does not get cooked in the turkey
Mashed potatoes, redskin with the skins on
Gallons of giblet gravy made from the pan drippings, giblets, scraps from carving the bird, chopped celery and onion (sorry Mac, the liver is in there)
3 kinds of cranberry stuff. canned jellied, canned whole berry, and home made cranberry-orange relish
Broccoli casserole (similar to the green bean one but better)
Pumpkin pie (the one from the Libby's can), puh-khan pie, apple pie, lemon meringue pie, mince meat pie, and tons of vanilla ice cream and whipped cream

My LDS SIL makes fab funeral potatoes and they are a staple of Christmas Day dinner.

The strangest thing I was ever served at Thanksgiving was at a former SIL's house. Both the stuffing and the gravy had chopped hard boiled egg in them.

MM
 

TerzaRima

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Utah, land of Funeral Potatoes and Frog Eye Salad

Utah sounds a lot like Minnesota, gastronomically. Lots of things bound together with cream of mushroom soup and (mild) cheddar, an inordinate fondness for Jell-O. Wiggly rococo desserts with canned fruit and whipped cream get the honorific of "salad." Innocent of garlic and onions.
 

MacAllister

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Heh. Jello salad, that staple of church suppers...my mom made the one with lemon jello made with (IIRC) ginger ale, with shredded carrots, finely chopped celery, and minced-up green peppers.

Served with a dollop of Hellman's mayonnaise on top.
 

Kitty Pryde

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...lemon jello made with (IIRC) ginger ale, with shredded carrots, finely chopped celery, and minced-up green peppers.

Served with a dollop of Hellman's mayonnaise on top.

*runs screaming from the thread*
 

firedrake

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Heh. Jello salad, that staple of church suppers...my mom made the one with lemon jello made with (IIRC) ginger ale, with shredded carrots, finely chopped celery, and minced-up green peppers.

Served with a dollop of Hellman's mayonnaise on top.

Oh dear.
 

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I know, huh? If you think about it, it explains sooooo much about how I turned out.

The closest recipe I can find is this one.
 

firedrake

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I know, huh? If you think about it, it explains sooooo much about how I turned out.

The closest recipe I can find is this one.

ewwww, very, very wrong.

As an ex-pat Brit, I find the whole jello salad thing bizarre.

Jello.is.a.dessert
 

Inky

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ewwww, very, very wrong.

As an ex-pat Brit, I find the whole jello salad thing bizarre.

Jello.is.a.dessert

This from someone who's country introduced moi to Spotted Dick!
:ROFL:
:ROFL:

AND it comes in a can!

*envisions Mel Brooks making a movie where canned spotted dick is an abomination...much the same way canned salmon was in The Meaning of Life...*

One word regarding Jello:
AMBROSIA
*readies ladle*
what?
I'm not a small-portion kind of eater. I nose dive.
 
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firedrake

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This from someone who's country introduced moi to Spotted Dick!
:ROFL:
:ROFL:

AND it comes in a can!

*envisions Mel Brooks making a movie where canned spotted dick is an abomination...much the same way canned salmon was in The Meaning of Life...*

mmmmmmmmm spotted dick in a can....yummmy :D
 

Inky

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mmmmmmmmm spotted dick in a can....yummmy :D
I know!
Now if we could only get 'em to can Yum Yums (Gregg's Bakery, Scotland)...and meat pasties...lincolnshire sausage...sausage biscuits...

*contemplates opening up a British Cafe', here in the...uh hem...COLONIES*
 

firedrake

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I know!
Now if we could only get 'em to can Yum Yums (Gregg's Bakery, Scotland)...and meat pasties...lincolnshire sausage...sausage biscuits...

*contemplates opening up a British Cafe', here in the...uh hem...COLONIES*

ah, yes, the great British Banger.
I may end up making my own. I've found a website that sells hog casings, I just need to find the grinder, casing stuffer thingie.
 

Inky

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ah, yes, the great British Banger.
I may end up making my own. I've found a website that sells hog casings, I just need to find the grinder, casing stuffer thingie.
That's what she said!

Sorry.

Uh hem.

When residing in Turkey, I'd discovered a few websites that offered all kinds of British foods and would ship...but not to the address I had at the time. In searching again, if I come across supplies...I'll send you the link. Living in Europe for 10 years...I'm mooning for my British and German goodies...er...don't take that outa context...
 

Giant Baby

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Heh. Jello salad, that staple of church suppers...my mom made the one with lemon jello made with (IIRC) ginger ale, with shredded carrots, finely chopped celery, and minced-up green peppers.

Served with a dollop of Hellman's mayonnaise on top.

:e2cry: This thread was getting too delicious, maybe?