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It’s officially November, and therefore, the Next Big Thing to happen is Thanksgiving — and all of the turkey and trimmings that clamor into one family-centric day.
Are you ready?
We’re already thinking about all the goodies to come this time of year, yet there’s always that one food especially that we can’t stop thinking about. It steals our heart, frankly. And what about you — Main dish? Side? Dessert? Something stranger than fiction?
We asked around America’s Test Kitchen on what (regardless of logic) floats their boat on Thanksgiving. Some of the beloved dishes and eating experiences:
Pecan pie, by far. I spent a lot of my childhood wearing braces, so for too many Thanksgivings, I went pecan pie-less. That, coupled with the fact that — come on, it’s clearly the best pie in the Thanksgiving dessert field — makes me yearn for it pretty much constantly nowadays. Gotta make up for lost dessert time!
It’s not a tradition in my family, but something weird I really dig — it’s a molded cranberry salad made with fresh chopped cranberries, celery, pecans or walnuts, and (ew) raspberry Jell-o. Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.
For me, the post-Thanksgiving open-faced hot turkey sandwich outshines the meal on the actual holiday: a slice of white toast topped with a scoop of stuffing, white and dark meat over that, the plate flooded with an extravagant portion of gravy, plus cranberry sauce (which needn’t be homemade, but it does have to have the whole berries) on the side.
Personally, I have this odd attraction to mashed potatoes, stuffing, and gravy that is all mixed together and eaten with a spoon like it’s a thick stew. I have been known to eat that combo every day for a week.
And now for the Silly Question of the Day…
What dish(es) are you irrationally attached to at Thanksgiving?
Leave your silly answer in the comments!
P.S. Some indulgent dishes to get your appetite in good working order for the big day, if you’re daring enough: Chicken Fried Steak, Creamy Mushroom Soup, and Raspberry Chiffon Pie.
(Photo: tinaxduzgen)
About the Author: Christine Liu
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Stuffing. I never really get to have stuffing any other time of the year… mashed potatoes are readily available, cranberry juice and mixed drinks are available, turkey sandwiches, pies, etc are all available anywhere/anytime.
but stuffing. that’s something i always look forward to.
I didn’t think anyone else besides our family made mash pot, gravy, stuffing (we add sweet corn) as “one” side dish throughout the year.
My most recent addition to thanksgiving has to be one of my favorites of the meal:
Maple-Glazed Parsnips And Carrots
A few years ago I was handed a grocery bag full of ingredients and a recipe — “make this while I get ready for our guests”.
I’m a taste as you go chef — especially with a new recipe. There was a moment where I almost rationalized to myself that I would be able to find all of the ingredients at a c-store and enough time to make it again!
TL;DR — Maple, parsnips, thyme, bacon, and carrots is a great combination, and don’t start cooking for turkey day if you are hungry!
Cornbread dressing. It’s just not Thanksgiving without it. I will eat that with gravy for a week afterward.
Oh man, where do I start? Last year, I made the ATK pumpkin pie and I’m very tempted to put that on. It has definitely become a Thanksgiving MUST. But, to be honest, the things I look forward to most every Thanksgiving are these stuffed mushrooms my mom makes. Following the Thanksgiving theme of who-cares-how-many-calories, they are stuffed with a cream cheese and bacon and I eat them by the dozen.
Turkey quesadillas once the stuffing’s all gone but the turkey is not. Also, I have tried the molded cranberry salad described in the blog post – my mom thinks it’s one of the most amazing things on the table, and I think it’s as gross as it sounds.
It has to be the stuffing, although if you ask my wife she would say it’s the oyster casserole.
We make everything from scratch, including a cranberry chutney, but I still always insist on a small can of canned cranberry sauce!
Green bean casserole for sure! That’s what I always wait for to be passed my way at the Thanksgiving table! This year I may abandon the traditional recipe (I think we all know it!) and try the ATK version!
Of course I love the stuffing, mashed potatoes, and all the pies, but the one thing that I really look forward to on Thanksgiving is the creamed onions that my mother and/or aunt always make. There’s something about them that just makes the holiday meal for me.
last year we made the old fashioned pecan pie from Cook’s Country and I decided to make it a new tradition. it was seriously the best pie I’ve ever had! I can’t wait for Thanksgiving to have it again, so I’m making it for my birthday dessert earlier in the month. and I may make it again on Thanksgiving, too…
The Stuffing!!! Crunchy outside, soft inside… that piece of bread that’s tucked in around the cavity to keep the stuffing in, that gets really crunchy & basted with all the juices!!! My uncle and I used to fight over it! The crisp turkey skin, the cheeseball with the walnuts, summer sausage & definately the “pilgrim” or “gobbler” sandwich the day after….turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, gravy and lettuce!
My family makes these butter rolls that are literally like butter sponges. I eat so many of them!
The yams. Preferrably with skin on, and so perfectly grilled/roasted that there are spots of charred skins! I’d cut it open with a knife and sprinkle cinnamon sugar on, spoon out the hot flesh and enjoy it burning on my tongue!
It’s all about the turkey: brined, plump, and hickory-smoked to juicy, crispy perfection on the old Weber (rain, shine or snow). Turkey heaven…
Cheesy potatoes (also known as hash brown casserole)! My Aunt Becky makes them best.
Pumpkin pie with whipped cream. Lots of both!
Cranberry sauce from the can. Still with the ridges.
For me, its the mashed potatoes. It is such a usual food that i could have every day but on Thanksgiving, my sister makes them from scratch with tons of garlic. Delicious
Agree with langeallison – it has to be canned cranberry sauce – the smooth version. Also must have my mama’s sweet potato souffle!
I’m new at this Thanksgiving thing, as I’ve lived only a few years here in America. I’ve grown addicted to my aunt Margie’s carrot cake so much that I don’t try others. Doing that would be a disservice to her amazing baking abilities and would fall on the carrot-cake-adultery category for me. Unfortunately, she lives in California and I now live in Texas. Guess where I am going for Thanksgiving this year.
stuffing. not just any stuffing though, sage stuffing made with white bread. i refuse to accept any substitute!
I’m all about the turkey skin! Mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry, rolls, even the meat itself take a back seat to the perfectly crisp, well seasoned skin. Can’t wait!
STUFFING. Stuffing, stuffing, stuffing. Sadly, embarrassingly, it really doesn’t even matter what kind, I will eat it all, and thoroughly enjoy every moment of it. I believe it is a textural obsession as well as a flavor-related one: not only does stuffing so deliciously and sumptiously absorb all the turkey juices, but it’s also this luscious, comforting, almost pillowy texture that needs little or no chewing. Sigh!
Turnip and carrots mashed together with salt, pepper, dash of nutmeg, and a Paula Deen amount of butter!
I must have pumpkin pie. I’ll usually make two just so I can be sure I get to have some.
Homemade dressing. My wife can’t get enough of it.
Candied yams, with lots of roasted marshmallows on top.
My grandmother’s cornbread dressing. Which is problematic, since I can’t make it quite as good as hers was. Maybe I should start practicing now…
The dressing recipe passed down from my great grandmother: homemade buttermilk biscuits, homemade white cornbread (the only cornbread that matters) mixed with aromatics and turkey stock. It’s the only recipe that remains a constant every year.
OH, and Pumpkin Roll cake with cream cheese icing and toasted pecans. It’s not Thanksgiving without it.
I love the oyster stew my mom used to make. And the cranberry raisin tart. But the winner has to be the corn pudding, a creamed corn casserole. It’s such a tradition, that that fact matters even more than the taste. It’s definitely comfort food.
My Dad’s homemade turkey gravy. Every year when he makes the gravy he tells me the step by step process as if he
has never shown me how to make gravy before. Even thiugh I’ve seen it all my lufe his gravy making is always the highlight of the meal.
My family has a recipe for a sweet potato soufflé that as been handed down for generations. If I don’t have it, it isn’t Thanksgiving. And no, there are no marshmallows in this one!
lasagna.
we do thanksgiving twice in my family (child of divorce here), and since two turkey dinners in one weekend was kind of a lot, and everyone really liked lasagna better, we started the “second thanksgiving” tradition.
now, since I eat turkey about 6 days out of 7 (hello, food allergies), it’s even better.
The dish we would always have for Thanksgiving was not wacky so much as unusual. My grandmother who was Italian would always make a rice dish which consisted of white rice,cerery, onion, salami, cerlery and parmesan cheese baked as a casserole. When she passed my mother would then make it. I never had bread stuffing until I moved and had my own household. The dish is a required taste but it it something that always reminds me of my Mom who has now passed. I now make a smaller portion of it since not everyone likes it but, it just wouldn’t seem like Thanksgiving without it. Plus, it gives the the feeling that the spirit of my Mom is there at the table even if she isn’t there physically.
Limberger! Grandma and I can’t get enough of the delightful barnyard smelling cheese- though the rest of the family exiles us to the porch when we indulge.
Hands down, it wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without my wife’s sweet potato casserole (pecan topping for us, no marshmellows; and never, ever mess up a sweet potato dish by adding anything related to an orange!).
I cannot wait for the sweet potato casserole. It is my favorite every year. It has to have pecans on it though. I’m also really excited for the homemade rolls. I don’t make those though as I tend to be a yeast killer.
A jello salad that’s been a staple of my family’s Thanksgiving for close to 50 years now. We just called it “Green Jello”, composed of lime jello, drained crushed pineapple, whipping cream and pomegranate seeds. Quite festive looking and something kids LOVE!
Anything that’s orange!
Our family has a recipe for a jello mold that everyone loves. (I know. Jello???) Lime jello, pears, pecans, cream cheese and whipped heavy cream. So irrational and illogical its funny. but ummmmmm sooo good. Its a good thing we only make it once a year with the all the fat in it.
Growing up Japanese in America, our Thanksgiving table always had weird stuff on it in addition to traditional items. The #1 thing I miss is my mom’s Potato Macaroni Salad, which falls into the realm of traditional, I suppose
Other things I miss: Mom’s Chinese Chicken Salad, Wontons, Rice and sausage stuffing and Coffee Jello
I love Green Bean Casserole and mashed potatoes and gravy.
I can’t do without sausage stuffing. So yummy that day and as leftovers for as long as possible.
Sweet Potatoes with Marshmallows! Orangy, syrupy, browned butter and brown sugar confection. Oh how it enhances turkey with gravy, stuffing and cranberry sauce. The best part – in my opinion – is when it is leftover. My eyes close in ecstasy as I pull off the cling wrap that has stuck to the top of the marshmallows. Then the defining moment – a mouth full of butter, brown sugar, sweet potatoes and marshmallows that have solidified into a cloud of sugar. Mmmmm…..I need some right now!
My mom always made a yellow cake with ricotta cheese that would sink to the bottom. It was delicious. The recipe unfortunately has gone with her but if someone can find it I would be very grateful. Thanksgiving is not the same without it!
I can never get enough of my Mom’s Ritz cracker stuffing. I lose all self control when it comes to that. Our family has always made creamed onions which hold a special place in my heart as well since we don’t tend to eat them any other time of the year.
Cranberry “sauce” right out of the can. Growing up, it never failed that someone would slurp a can of that stuff onto a little crystal dish. There would be 20-30 of us and half of it would go to waste. To be honest, it looked gross, so I never tried it and was afraid of anything cranberry until my 20s because of it. Cranberries are so good & there are so many great dishes to make with them, but my family still insists on slurping a can of it onto a little crystal dish every Thanksgiving.
I grew up on bread stuffing made from the 1969 Betty Crocker cookbook, and it remains my favorite. Basic, honest bread stuffing. I’ve tried and enjoyed many different kinds of stuffing, but this is what I always look forward to.
Turkey. There HAS to be a real, whole, on the bone turkey. We had a few Thanksgivings where someone wanted something other than turkey and, for me, it just wasn’t Thanksgiving.
Pumpkin pudding and pumpkin bread. Wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without either one. The traditional turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy are there, too, but I MUST have the pumpkin pudding and bread!
I must absolutely have my stuffing made with sweet italian sausage, freshly roasted (OO my hands are burned) chestnuts, diced apples slightly sprinkled with cinnamon and the rest of the typical stuffing ingredients. It is fabulous!!!!
Kidney bean salad (toss beans with minced celery, onion, mayo, salt & pepper, serve chilled), Amish Yams & Apples (I’m the only person I know who likes it) and Chess pie (buttermilk, lemon or chocolate, I’m not picky. Or Southern, so that’s why it’s weird).
No matter how many simple to ultra fancy side dishes I make for Thanksgiving, the whole family always requests my version of green bean casserole. Two years ago, I made a pumpkin praline cheesecake for Thanksgiving dinner and now that is a new request that I think will continue to be requested for many years to come. We had a couple guests that year and every time I see them, they still rave about it. And of course, I always invite them for the next dinner, since they are both older ladies in their 90′s with no families anywhere close. No one should be home alone on a holiday, unless they prefer it that way.
It’s the stuffing. I know AB contends that stuffing is evil, but after 40 years, it’s not killed me (nor even tried to!). I love eating left over stuffing, cold, out of hand, right from the bowl in the fridge. not-stale white bread, onions, celery, broth, obscene amounts of poultry seasoning, a couple eggs beaten with some milk to glue it all together, and then salt and black pepper to taste.
We love the ATK mashed sweet potatoes, but those are no longer just for Thanksgiving, neither is the ATK cranberry sauce. The ATK green been casserole? Oh yeah!
I think it drives my in-laws nuts that I want to cook all these things from scratch! And now the cheesy (“funeral”) potatoes too, via the Feed.
Given the opportunity, a brined, fresh, local bird, cooked on a charcoal grill can’t be beat! Except for the little bit of extra one has to go through to make the requisite quarts of gravy!
Pumpkin Pie, hands down. I probably even have the worst pumpkin pie recipe ever, but my 6-year old son and I can’t get enough. I’m looking forward to trying a new recipe this year.
Silly? SILLY?!?! Yes, stuffing is a wonderful carb rush, but we have a salad every year that defines the holidays for us, because a dear aunt made it who is no longer with us. The salad represents a touchstone, a moment to physically reflect on family and the joys that each one brought to the whole.
The salad? It’s a black cherry Jello salad interspersed with canned black cherries and pineapple and little cheeseballs made with cream cheese and rolled in walnuts. Sounds silly to you? Means the world to us!
Sweet Potatoes. Every year I tell the story of my mother who always burned the marshmallows on the sweet potatoes. Every year she’d be rushing to get things on the table and each time she’d ask one of my brothers or sisters to watch / help watch / at least remind her about the sweet potatoes in the oven. Every time it came out burned.
Definitely, the sweet potatoes!! We have 4 pecan trees so they must be topped with toasted pecans!! I also love brown sugar on them. My husband has a family reunion every Thanksgiving and they have always forgotten the sweet potatoes, so I bring them now! That is my signature dish for Thanksgiving. Sadly, with 3 children, it is always slow cooker sweet potatoes because I don’t have time for any other recipe, but I love them anyways!
The turkey wing midnight snack. Best late night nosh ever.
A cranberry salad/jello or “red stuff” my grandma always made with cranberries, crushed pineapple, nuts, celery, and a pack of jello (i might be missing a few ingredients!). It’s so good and I have to have it every Thanksgiving!
Although last year I tried the ATK recipe for Andouille sausage and cornbread stuffing….I’ve been craving it all year. Irrationally.
My mother’s pineapple jello mold. It’s not a recipe I would generally seek out, but it’s jello/pudding/pineapple goodness is one of the big tastes of Thanksgiving.
Ambrosia baby, the first of the season. My families favorite, and then all the rest of the good stuff, Turkey, pumpkin pie, stuffing and cranberry salad, and of course an olive tray. ooh and crab stuffed mushrooms as the appetizer
Cornbread Pudding. I got the recipe from the mother-in-law of an and ex’s sister. It’s so amazing, cornbread, creamed & whole corn, sour cream – oh yum! I only make if on Thanksgiving and friends clamor for it.
I love mixing my Mashed Potatoes and gravy with corn. Pile a little turkey in there and that’s Thanksgiving.
I did not grow up in the USA and therefore have no attachment to any of it. My husband on the other hand says there must always be mashed potatoes. And he must be the one to prepare them. There’s never been a reason except “Mashed potatoes are Thanksgiving.”
I do not eat a lot of vegetables but the Green Bean cassarole is one that I feel cheated if I don’t get to eat it on Thanksgiving.
It’s a tradition that we always have shucky beans at Thanksgiving, also known as leather britches. They are dried white half runner beans that you string up on cotton twine to dry. They’re cooked with salt pork. They taste nothing like green beans. They taste meaty and are delicious. My parents are both from Eastern KY and the beans are well known there.
Our family always made a chestnut stuffing. Even though we are down to two people now, I still make it, not really for dinner, but for fried stuffing the next day with leftover turkey gravy. Everyone tried to be the first one up because there was only so much to go around. Now, I can have all the fried stuffing I want!
The pies, the turkey, the sweet potatoes . . . all that’s wonderful, but what I really crave is the strawberry pretzel salad my husband’s grandmother makes. It so doesn’t go with the fall theme, but I’m not about to say anything – it’s delicious!
It will always be dessert. Pecan pie, chocolate, sweet potatoes, ect.
We are SO looking forward to Thanksgiving at all of your tables this year. Love all the stories behind the dishes! And America’s Test Kitchen is totally open to any of your cooking questions for the holiday. Congrats to davidrlee and his wife’s sweet potato casserole with pecans — our random winner of this week’s silly question giveaway. Everyone, be sure to check out our newest giveaways at http://americastestkitchenfeed.com/topics/giveaway/
OM Gosh Gosh!
Roasted Turkey, Cornbread Stuffing, Creamy Turkey Gravy, Whole Cranberry Sauce w/Orange Zest (homemade), Cream Mashed Potatoes made w/light cream, Small White Pearl Onions, Petit Peas, Savory Sweet Potatoes, Fresh Whole String beans, Hot Buttered Rolls, Homemade Pumpkin Pie, Apple Pie. Squash Pie, Fresh Whipped Cream, Fresh Apple Cider, Hot Brewed Gourmet Decaf Coffee and My Hot Fresh Cranberry Orange Tea and some new favorites the kids always ask for, Baked Macaroni and 3 cheeses (yes 3 cheeses not 1), Collard Greens seasoned with Smoked turkey (such finicky eaters), shrimp, lobster and Cheescake (doesn’t matter what kind)…..OH and Sherbet Punch! Yeah, like that’s going to happen… the sherbet punch that is..
Whewww..I’m glad it’s only once a year…oh wait we have Christmas, New Years’ and Easter. Want to hear those favorites. Well the party’s over got to go and start cracking… : [ speaking of cracking did I mention pecan pie, condiments (unpickled) of cashews, walnuts, almonds……..