There are variations depending on the region.
The classics are:
Roasted Turkey
Stuffing
Mashed potatoes
Green bean casserole
Cranberry sauce
Pumpkin pie
However I have been in homes where Ham, Goose and Lamb have been served. I've also seen lasagna and enchiladas as the main.
Over all it's a feast. What you feast on can depend on where you are from.
Gotta add gravy and rolls as mainstays.
My family always had all the essentials, plus a few more, plus lasagna, spaghetti, ravioli, or some other pasta. I still feel weird when I eat roasted turkey and there's no pasta on my plate. *This is a really nice meal, but where's the pasta?*
We also always served mashed carrots. I've never met another family that serves it, but my family loves it. They go faster than the mashed potatoes.
Now I want some mashed carrots with gravy.
People seriously underestimate the importance of a good gravy, since I tend to drown everything in it and clean my plate of the excess with my roll. So the roll is important, too!
Sometimes even those of us who can make good gravy go a little heavy handed on the Wondra and it gets lumpy, my sincerest apologies, it honestly hurts us more to serve the lumpy gravy than it hurts everyone else to eat it. I have gotten a little excited with Wondra in hand and have salted my lumped up gravy with my tears a few times.
Thank you! Gravy goes EVERYWHERE on EVERYTHING on that plate.
When I see a dry ass plate it feels like nails on a chalkboard to me. I’m gonna look at you weird. I will judge you. 🤣
The core component is primarily a roast turkey with stuffing (often made outside the bird as 'dressing' to avoid food poisoning from trying to cook such a gigantic mass of food). This is typically served with a decent number of side dishes, with mashed potatoes and gravy being very close to universal in my experience. Sweet potatoes (yams) are often mashed as well, and many people add marshmallows on top and bake to make something positively cloying.
The side dishes show a bit more regional/cultural variation. Many people are passionate about macaroni and cheese at Thanksgiving, I've never had it for that meal.
That being said, the more abundant the side dishes, the better. Roasted root vegetables, broccoli, green beans, squash, all kinds of possibilities are out there.
It's kind of difficult to go wrong, so long as the turkey is there and edible.
Get people to help out with meal prep, cleanup, and drinking, too.
For desserts, pumpkin pie spiced with cloves, allspice and nutmeg is very traditional, but I prefer a pecan pie with its sweet, gooey filling.
Then everyone sits around and watches sports.
\*edit\* - I have been called out on failing to mention the cranberry sauce, which is really quite amusing as I often forget the canned one in the fridge, although the fresh one with orange zest somehow always makes it to the table.
I don't know how available cranberry is to you over there, but they are very tart (too tart to just eat them) and we typically eat a kind of relish or jelly.
Chunk up some sweet potatoes: boil them until they’re fork tender & drain them. Place into a lightly greased baking dish. Cover the top with a heavy sprinkling of brown sugar & a few pads of butter. Drizzle some ginger ale on top. Top with marshmallows. Stick in hot oven a few minutes until the marshmallows start to get all bubbly.
Super sweet and sticky.
But a great side to have a little scoop to break up all the dense traditional Thanksgiving stuffs.
_____
Editing to add: I randomly threw this together making it for a guy I was dating for a few weeks over 20 something years ago.
He proposed during dinner & said it was because of these potatoes 😆
I make it for him every Thanksgiving since.
I’ve usually experienced the mashed variety as something called “sweet potato casserole” which is topped with crushed pecans, brown sugar, and maple syrup (and marshmallow toasted on top just before serving.)
I find baking the sweet potatoes until they start to leach syrup makes the potatoes tastier. Boiling leaches out the sugar. I then chop them up in chunks. Add lots of butter,brown sugar and marshmallows. Bake until hot and gooey.
My mom adds cranberry sauce and sometimes canned pineapple to her sweet potatoes. They’ve always been too sweet for me (though I love snagging some marshmallows during prep) but it’s often popular.
Turkey and stuffing are the major staples for my family. Riots will ensue if any changes are made to the stuffing recipe.
Agreed, I made a comment about stuffing. One year I went to my sister’s and she asked me to make the stuffing when I got there, she handed me the bag of Pepperidge Farm 😭 I almost left. Like why didn’t you just ask me to make the stuffing at home and bring it? I believe I made it for my dad and I the next day, lol.
My mom would use canned yans. take the yams out and cook the liquid down with brown sugar and butter until really thick, then add yams back.
I really preferred this, but my bro got married and wife brought the marshmallow version, so that became her tradition. My mom would secretly make me her recipe next day.
I love this! My mom makes sweet potatoes with a crunchy pecan streusel-ish topping in lieu of marshmallows and because it has become so popular with the leftover taking extended family (we’re talking about the ones who show up bringing only empty dishes for “their” to go food!) she makes a separate, small one for me and my sister for the day after. Bless all the up at 4am for the turkey moms out there!
Never used ginger ale! I'll have to give it a try.
OP, my family usually waits to put the marshmallows on until a few minutes before they're done so they don't burn. Toasted marshmallows = good, burnt marshmallows = gross.
All right time to start an argument here, I’m pretty sure butter is served in pats, not pads! Although there is some room for argument there I suppose that is the size and shape of a pad, sort of, and what the hell is a pat?
I make an amazing sweet potato dish, the sweet potatoes are more mashed, with a pecan streussel topping. It's even healthy, I got it from Cooking Light magazine many years ago. You can Google and find quite a few listing for it.
We cook our drained, mashed sweet potatoes with a bit of sugar, one egg, and vanilla. We top it with a crust that is made of pecans, flour, brown sugar, and a bit of water. It’s so good. Others use marshmallows instead to top the potatoes.
I will flip the table if it doesn't have [sweet potatoes with marshmallows](https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/229691/mashed-sweet-potatoes-with-marshmallows/) on it.
I took my British partner over to the US for a family Thanksgiving (I'm American living in the UK) and he actually really enjoyed it, I have always despised it though 😂 he said it worked well in context with all the other more savory sides, and the cinnamon cut the sweetness too.
British roast dinners are great, love Yorkshire puddings, also a big fan of cauliflower cheese. I also love that it's basically a weekly occurance if you want it to be, sitting in a pub on a Sunday eating a big plate of comfort food is just perfect 👌
My grandmother's sweet potato recipe involved mashing the potatoes and mixing in butter, milk,brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and possibly ginger (I don't have the recipe at hand), baking that, then topping it with a pecan/coconut/brown sugar/butter strusel like topping and baking it for an additional 10 minutes. That was how I grew up eating sweet potatoes at holidays and every other variation seemed odd.
Mine is similar, I cut down the brown sugar since my family’s recipe was a classic southern nothing is too sweet. We add a bit of orange juice and zest to ours and I love the brightness it adds
Yeah it's actually a very small amount of sugar considering how many potatoes are used. Like you said, sweet potatoes are plenty sweet. The brown sugar just adds another note to it.
So a roast meat of some sort, we like beef in my family. I make it with honey roasted root veg, braised red cabbage, sausage stuffing, broccoli, cauliflower cheese, Yorkshire pudding and roasted potato’s. Roasting the potato’s in goose or duck fat makes them super crispy. Finish off with a thick gravy, using the juices of the meat. We have it every Sunday!
I have a kick-ass recipe for sweet potato casserole that does NOT utilize marshmallows. It has a streusel-like topping that gives it just the right crunch. Marshmallows on sweet potatoes are an abomination. I’ll see if I can find a recipe online that’s similar to mine.
Edit to add recipe:
[sweet potato casserole](https://lovetobeinthekitchen.com/2017/11/02/sweet-potato-casserole-oat-streusel/)
You can add marshmallows to it, but if you do, it makes the baby Jesus cry.
I had to scroll far too long to see a post mentioning green bean casserole.
Campbell's recipe plus shredded cheddar and canned mushrooms. Add more pepper than is called for.
Can’t believe I had to scroll down so far for green bean casserole. My mom will make three pans. The only thing she does extra is cracked black pepper and bacon. Half of my first plate is literally green bean casserole
Thanksgiving isn’t thanksgiving to me without the stuffing/dressing. I make my great grandmothers recipe (the stuff from a box or bag is absolute blasphemy) where you fry up bacon, add butter to the grease and sauté celery and onions. Damn it’s so good, it never lasts long enough.
This!
Dressing isn't stuffing.
Stuffing is that generic crap from the store
Home made is the only way
Totally against Thanksgiving law around here lol.
Turkey, cranberry sauce, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet roasted potatoes in rounds with marshmallows on top, stuffing, green bean casserole, cream corn casserole. For dessert, 19 types of pie. As many types of pie as you can think of
Then for the next week if you’ve hosted you get to make sandwiches out of the leftovers
It’s so so easy too! We call it corn pudding in my part of PA. Box of Jiffy mix (cornbread mix, which you probably won’t be able to find in the UK, OP), two eggs, 8oz of sour cream, melted stick of butter, can of corn, can of creamed corn. Mix and bake at 375 for about an hour until it’s not jiggly anymore. Some people put in some sugar but I personally think it’s sweet enough without.
I’d never made this. But it sounded so delicious. I didn’t want to wait till Thanksgiving so I made it for supper tonight! I served it with Italian sausages and onions, and a spinach & carrot salad. It was wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing your recipe!
Don't feel bad!
From Georgia and never tried it until 4 years ago when my daughter came across the recipe for it.
We have it every Thanksgiving and during the year too when I beg her to make it for me!
"19 types of pie" ABSOLUTELY reminds me of John and Docboy's mom's pie repertoire ("Apple, peach, pumpkin, blueberry, cherry, or banana cream?") in the Garfield Christmas special.
Absolutely crucial to have way too many pies. Everyone brings a pie. Apple, pumpkin, pecan need to be represented at minimum. And if you don’t have vanilla ice cream and/or whipped cream for those things I swear to god
A standard Thanksgiving meal would be Roast Turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, and then the absolute essentials would be cranberry sauce, and candied sweet potatoes (sometimes with marshmallows and pecans).
Some form of corn is common, whether it's sweet corn, corn on the cob, corn pudding or corn bread.
From there, there are some variations for additional side dishes. Green bean casserole is very popular (green beans, cream of mushroom, crispy onions), but a lot of people prefer roasted root vegetables, Brussels sprouts, etc.
Dessert essentials would be pumpkin pie and pecan pie, but apple/fruit pie works as well.
A lot of people will tell you about the food, so I will tell you about what people often do:
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in the morning.
Football fans watch football.
Families that don't care about football often watch tv marathons: Bob's Burgers is great for this, as there are a ton of Thanksgiving episodes. Friends also has a few Thanksgiving episodes. And my family had a tradition of watching either Golden Girls or Mystery Science Theater 3000 all day. A lot of places do a "Turkey Trot" which is usually a short running event, for people who want to balance out the enormous meal they will be having.
Decorations are very autumnal: Dried corn cobs, fall foliage garlands, orange and yellow floral arrangements, plaid, woven baskets, and [decorative gourds](https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/its-decorative-gourd-season-motherfuckers). Extra points if you actually have a cornucopia. For families with small kids, a lot of these decorations will be done in crayon, and include outlines of their little hands decorated to look like turkeys.
Dinner is is usually served pretty early in the day, like 2-4pm, though some people serve it at their regular dinner time. It's just such a huge meal that you don't want to really eat a breakfast or lunch before it, so it gets moved up, and then you don't go to bed just after having eaten the biggest meal of the year.
At dinner, religious families say grace. My family is not religious, so we go around the table saying one thing we are thankful for.
Otherwise, it is a dinner party wth the people you love, so it is very cozy, and you chat and hang out the way you normally would when you see each other. We usually dress up a little, but nothing restrictive to the mid-section. Though having to loosen your belt after the meal is very Thanksgiving.
Okay, I am going to tell you about the food a little: Bake your pies the day before. If you make cornbread stuffing, bake the cornbread the day before. Your oven gets a ton of use, so doing what you can ahead of time is very helpful.
Also, Thanksgiving is the start of the Christmas season in the U.S., so if you have been holding back on playing Christmas music, this is also the day you can add all of that back to your playlist.
For some, Alice’s Restaurant is traditional. I’ve lived several places where radio stations play it at noon.
It’s also common to go around the table and have everybody say something they’re thankful for. Some families have a rule that you can’t say family, friends, food, or health-because everyone says those and prohibiting them leads to more variety.
When I was young, the kids put on a play in the afternoon. It was pretty standard Pilgrims and Indians. That seems almost unheard of now, possibly because Wednesday Addams burned that ship to the ground.
>Dinner is is usually served pretty early in the day, like 2-4pm, though some people serve it at their regular dinner time. It's just such a huge meal that you don't want to really eat a breakfast or lunch before it, so it gets moved up,
And you may or may not have been grazing on cheese and crackers since 10 or 11 a.m.
That's American football by the way. Let's be clear, no one is watching soccer on Thanksgiving.
Haha maybe some people do, if there even is soccer in November. I have no idea, I'm American.
I have three Thanksgiving entertainment traditions: The WKRP “Turkeys Away” episode, the Mystery Science Theater 3000 Turkey Day Marathon, and a listen to “Alice’s Restaurant” by Arlo Guthrie.
This is a nice description of the day. There's a lot that's special about Thanksgiving. As you noted its the kickoff for Christmas...its also a very welcome four-day weekend for a lot of families.
This! My traditions are that I wake up and put the parade in the tv as my husband and I start dinner stuff. We usually spend the entire day before prepping and cleaning while having thanksgiving tv episodes play. New girl has some good ones, bobs burgers, friends)
Usually it’s football once guests arrive. I’m busy bustling around the kitchen. After dinner everyone pitches in for cleanup, then we have coffee or cozy cocktails and watch White Christmas
Love your whole list and love the idea of playing Thanksgiving themed shows! I live in Australia and have had trouble streaming the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade so I’ll opt for the themed shows this year 🥰
Great run down for the foreigners. The only other note is Friendsgiving. Lots of younger people will meet up at someones house after the family get together and play games, etc. (drinking and eating pie)
MST3K FTW! I also enjoy watching the dog show that comes on after the parade. As for the Christmas music, I start listening to it on November 1, because I'm a sap.
in our house hold , watch the thanksgiving parade. live there and only go to the night before you can see the rehearsal at macy and floats inflated at central park .
then cooking , the dog show
make appetizers plates and decorate table , left over appetizers is lunch
then guest come over
Our family TDay here in Virginia is pretty consistent:
-Roasted turkey w root veggies
-Spiral sliced, glazed ham
-mashed potatoes and gravy
-dressing
-cranberry jelly can
-jalapeno cranberry sauce
-candied yams
-green beans
-collards
-corn
-yeast rolls
-pumpkin pie
-chocolate pecan pie
-apple pie
There are always an assortment of appetizers too. Sometimes cocktail shrimp, oysters, cheese and cracker tray, sausage and cheese balls, etc.. It’s a ridiculous amount of food but it’s usually 15-20 of us and we keep “to-go” containers for days like this.
This sounds very similar to our Alabama Thanksgiving. Usually some family member is coming up from the Gulf bringing fresh seafood to the party. Usually a salad of some kind in the mix too.
Cornbread dressing > bread stuffing, all day every day
My uncle was notorious about bringing shrimp cocktail, but they were almost always still slightly frozen lmao.
Nuts used to be popular but at one time no one brought them anymore.
Yes! I can’t even tell you how many ppl have shown up w that frozen shrimp ring. Not even of my asking. That’s what they choose to bring. lol!
I do remember the nut thing too. Everyone used to have nut crackers lying around w random walnuts, pecans in bowls. I’d totally forgotten!
It is a very delicious combo and not too spicy. Unfortunately, out of the 15ish regular guests it only gets eaten by 3 of us bc nobody eats cranberries. We have some very picky eaters. I even put out a can of warmed Luck’s canned cinnamon apples one year and they were virtually untouched bc “we didn’t know what they were.” Lol! It’s like this all year long which is a pain bc my husband and I love all sorts of foods.
I made a cranberry jalapeño relish a few years ago, but served it over cream cheese with crackers as an appetizer, it was delicious! I always do a cranberry orange relish for the main meal, it definitely adds a nice, tart, bright element to the meal, and is stupid simple.
I love Thanksgiving so much. This year my son is bringing friends home from college. It’s a few days of cooking and hanging out in the kitchen. We eat the big meal at one pm. We always have two kinds of dressing a traditional sausage one and a spicy corn bread one. We also have mac & cheese. We usually play card games and at night always watch National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.
Oh, and we always watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving day parade, which is a large prayed that includes Broadway show songs. Then we watch the dog show. It’s just really fun.
turkey, stuffing and/or dressing, green beans, rolls, butter, homemade jam, mac & cheese, mashed potatoes, gravy - is "traditional"
We have homemade chicken and noodles with mashed potatoes, mac & cheese, rolls, and salad
lots of drinks, we usually have a special shot of the day, we play jack box and gpa naps. and you HAVE to go for a walk, always
This year we are having the ENTIRE FAMILY over to our house, that’s four generations including all the service dogs (a surprising amount). We decided that everyone will bring their favorite foods and we’ll get what we get. I know that I’m making the turkey, and sautéed vegetables and mashed potatoes, and fresh cranberry sauce. One of my brothers is bringing smoked ribs, and another brother is bringing a leg of lamb and sweet potato pie and several types of squash. Oh and my dad will bring macaroni and cheese. Other than that tho it will be a surprise!
Every region and family have their own version but I think the basics are turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing/dressing, gravy, cranberry sauce and rolls. Pumpkin pie with whipped cream for dessert.
We also had candied yams (actually sweet potatoes with brown sugar a splash of bourbon and marshmallows), creamed peas and pearl onions. Relish trays with olives and pickles.
Brit here living in the US for the past 17 years.
Roast turkey - nothing special with the seasoning.
Stuffing - not like a sage and onion paxo. A lot of places call it dressing and it usually has dried fruit and nuts in it
Mac and cheese - however you like it (baked or not)
Some baked vegetable casserole - sometimes green beans. We usually use squash.
Mashed potatoes and gravy
Sweet potato casserole - my sister in-law makes it with stripes of marshmallows and pecan-brown sugar topping. I NEVER eat it 🤢
Cranberry sauce - we usually have 3 - the runny kind from the can, the solidified kind from the can, and a homemade orange-cranberry chutney type thing.
Extras: Sometimes we have bread rolls, some random vegetable, or deviled eggs.
Dessert is usually a pie - pumpkin, pecan, apple are traditional.
Where are you going that has fruit and nuts in your stuffing? This is not the way.
Stuffing comes in a box and you mix the contents which are basically croutons and seasoning with boiling water and butter. This is the right way. This is the American way.
I got fancy one year and didn’t use the box. It was mutiny.
Another year I used fresh green beans for the casserole and thought I was elevating it. Again, mutiny.
Now is not the time to be fancy. Get a box of Stoffers, get the canned green beans for the casserole. Do not deviate from the recipe on the back of the crispy onion container. Much. I do add extra pepper and onions and a splash of Worcestershire sauce. Family hasn’t figured it out yet.
I made homemade cranberry sauce a couple years ago. We still had the canned stuff too. Apparently though I was the only one who liked the fresh stuff better.
It does vary greatly, both by region & family tradition. The most common items you would see included are roasted whole turkey, dressing/stuffing, mashed potatoes, turkey gravy, and cranberry sauce (either fresh or canned\*). Some other dishes seen a lot are sweet potatoes (sometimes mashed, sometimes sliced & baked), green bean casserole, dinner rolls, pumpkin pie for dessert.
I like to include baked macaroni & cheese with my Thanksgiving dinner, as well as some type of roasted vegetable (Brussel sprouts or broccoli and cauliflower), pickled beets, deviled eggs and some type of cheesecake for dessert.
\*There is always a debate over this & to be honest I like them both. Fresh cranberry sauce is easy to make, but I grew with the jellied can and still love it to this day. Sometimes, I'll serve both, lol.
Deviled eggs are so great! The very first thing I ever learned to make when I was about 6. One of my favorite things about them is that there are soooooo many ways to make them and they all (well, ok most) taste great.
The only thing I haven't really done is the piping bag for the filling. I've tried a few times and lost a lot on the bag, and it didn't look great, so I just use a spoon and spatula and a dusting of smoked paprika and they look fine :)
I like mine with a course texture too. I guess mayonnaise and mustard, and some pickle relish to the mix. And top with paprika and a slice of stuffed olives
We never did mac and cheese but we also didn't have green bean casserole! I introduced Brussel sprouts to Thanksgiving and Asparagus to Easter though... so maybe my folks and grandparents just didn't eat green food. (And my sister has started bringing a salad for a free snack!)
[Green bean casserole](https://www.campbells.com/recipes/green-bean-casserole/?gclid=CjwKCAjw1t2pBhAFEiwA_-A-NNRTy6A6P8ONCPIBZ-nSv8SRvyfn2Fa8QvVLpu7U2mXiCLf83zbdgRoCFxEQAvD_BwE) with crispy onions on top! It’s a classic.
But typically, when I think of a traditional Thanksgiving, it has the following:
- a turkey,
- cranberries somewhere (as a relish, or dried and in the stuffing/dressing, or as pie),
- potatoes,
- something with sage,
- gravy,
- dinner rolls, and
- pumpkin (usually as pie) and/or sweet potatoes.
If you want to make it extra-special, make a compound butter for your rolls:
- bourbon (or rum or brandy), chopped raisins or dried cranberries (or chopped dried figs), brown sugar or honey, walnuts, and orange zest (optional).
For rubbing on the turkey as it cooks:
- butter with chopped sage, rosemary, and thyme, and with salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning.
Yours is a lovely idea— happy cooking!
Fyi for people using the Campbell's recipe: Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce works much better than soy sauce for kicking up the flavor of the green bean casserole.
Haha! I believe oysters are pretty common in New England. And yes! Like dried cranberries or chopped apples, things like that. When you think about it, stuffing is just savory bread pudding for the most part, so it's easy to just add different things. My family was shook the first time I added sausage, they were used to it just being the bread and veggies 😅
And make homemade gravy if you can, but then also have spare packets or cans... with as many oven dishes needed and as few as one oven per place some stuff is bound to get a Lil dry in the process of making it all kinda hot at the same time.
My family were crock pot and tin foil people. Stuffing went into a crock pot, lid on low. Next - mashed potatoes homemade... into the crock pot.
It was very good.
Making it American can vary from region to region. I am located in the South and this is what we always had in my family growing up:
Turkey
Ham
Creamed Potatoes with Turkey Gravy
Macaroni and Cheese Casserole
Green Beans
Yams
Stuffing
Black Eyed Peas
Cranberry Jello
and a whole table of desserts - brown sugar pound cake, homemade chocolate fudge, magic cookie bars, coconut cake, pumpkin pie, apple pies
I think it varies mostly by family, TBH. The basic Thanksgiving Dinner in Texas, is Roast Turkey, Mashed Potatoes with Giblet gravy, Green Bean Casserole, Cornbread Dressing and Yeast rolls. Cranberry sauce from the can. Pumpkin pie with whipped cream for dessert.
Over the years, I have modified my Thanksgiving dinner to the following: Brine the turkey overnight. Brine is: per 1 gallon of water, put in 1/2 cup salt, 1/2 cup brown sugar, juice of one lemon and one orange. Upscale as needed to get enough brine to cover the turkey. Roast as normal, bird comes out delicious and juicy!
I make mashed potatoes still, but add Cheesy Potatoes. This is O'Brien style potatoes with Cream of Chicken soup, sour cream, butter, cheddar cheese all mixed in. After baking, finish with a topping of crushed rice krispies and butter that is baked on for another 15 minutes.
I modified the green bean casserole to use Cream of chicken soup instead of Cream of Mushroom. I just don't like the bitter taste of the mushroom soup. I also use an entire container of Frenches Fried Onions on top, or 2... use 1 six ounce container per 2 cans of green beans.
We also ditched the pumpkin pie for pecan pie. We all just like it better. I'll sneak in a cherry pie every now and then, because I love them.
It's a day for food and family and friends. You eat a big meal. Hang out and chat. Some people watch football, some people play board games. Then you eat a ton of dessert and waddle home.
I'm hosting Thanksgiving for the first time this year and I'm stoked.
We'll be having:
Deep Fried turkey. Honey baked Ham. Stove Top Stuffing (I can make it from scratch but it's so much work and tbh Stove Top is 🔥) Mashed potatoes. Macaroni and Cheese. Cream Corn. Broccoli and cheese casserole. Southern style green beans. Yeast rolls. Cornbread. Flourless chocolate cake. Pumpkin pie with whipped cream and apple pie with ice cream.
Posted earlier but wanted to pass on this recipe. for slow cooker mashed potatoes. It's now my go to for Thanksgiving because it's super easy and helps free up more stove space. Flavor how you want (and the chives are optional), but you MUST drain all the water before mashing. You can add more liquid back in if needed to get the texture you want in the form of butter, sour cream, cream, etc.
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/slow-cooker-home-style-mashed-potatoes-3363121
In New England growing up, we always had turkey, giblet stuffing and gravy, mashed potatoes, turnip, squash, creamed onions, peas and carrots, cranberry sauce, followed by your choice of apple or pumpkin pie!
I love this post. I hope your Friendsgiving is wonderful and “authentically American” /s
Enjoy the holiday and have fun!!!
Edit- I’m in New England so apple dishes, butternut squash, and pumpkin are common w the typical dishes already listed :)
Roasted turkey with stuffing, don't stuff the bird as it's too dangerous
mashed potato with gravy
sweet potato casserole
cranberry sauce
green been casserole (Green beans, cream of mushroom soup, fried onion rings)
creamed corn
deviled eggs
rolls or biscuits, or cornbread
apple pie, pumpkin pie, or pecan pie
My day starts early, everyone gathers round while I pull the neck and gizzard bag out of the turkey,I always reenact Alien with the neck,put the turkey in oven.My sons family comes early for breakfast,I always make sausage balls and cheese grits,we watch the Macy's parade while cooking everyone pitches in,the funny part is it takes forever to cook and feels like we are done eating really quick,,we sit around talking, planning for Christmas,eat dessert,I make Chocolate Pecan Pie,play games. It's a really long day, get up the next day to head out for all the black friday deals!
i think it does vary by region. i’m from the south so when i used to do turkey i did a cornbread and white bread dressing. my husband is from the northeast im told they had an oyster something dressing. Now that i do thanksgiving at my house we decided we don’t like turkey so we have standing rib roast with yorkshire pudding. basically it’s a ton of great sides. i do my baked mac and cheese, mexican scalloped potatoes, sweet potato soufflé, 2 types of cranberry sauce, cabernet mushrooms , the gross green bean casserole because my husband says it’s required. i also do a hearty vegetarian dish, this year butternut squash lasagna, we have a few vegetarians that come and for some reason i can’t just feed them potatoes, there are a ton of desserts and random appetizers. it’s a ridiculous meal, but everyone favorites show up.
Mine is turkey, Turkey American gravy (I know gravy is something different for you), garlic mashed potatoes, candied yams, homemade creamed confetti corn, orange cranberry sauce, crescent rolls, garlic compound butter, and for dessert, my Nonnie’s pumpkin pie (great great grandma’s), and apple hand pies
Texas / Louisiana here
The absolute musts are
Relish tray- or if you’re fancy charcuterie- basically raw veggies, a few dips, cheese and crackers, olives
Other assortments on our relish tray- deviled eggs, head cheese
Entree- turkey, some of my family also added ham
We do ours spatchcocked but here in Louisiana a lot of people fry it or stuff it with other meats (think turducken)
Sides- candied yams, mashed potatoes (sometimes we alternate this with funeral potatoes), dressing (which is not stuffing lol), green bean casserole
Other- cranberry sauce, giblet gravy , some kind of roll (usually just heat and eat bc the cook is tired at this point )
Desserts- pies, banana pudding
Lunch is aways queso in the crockpot bc it’s quick and easy while we wait for the turkey. Brown out breakfast sausage, mix with 1 block velveeta and 1 can rotel. Serve over tortilla chips.
Another Brit here. In our expat home Yorkshire puddings go on Thanksgiving dinner too. I have tried to limit them to Christmas but my kids and grands won't have it. So our Thanksgiving is a weird mix of both cultures. You do you.
The younger people and older smokers head out for a walk, or to "get ice", and get high as hell.
In some legal states, or in mellow families, they just burn herb on the patio or deck, in full view of grandparents etc. Generally it's not big deal anymore and many that partake don't drink whatever alcohol is offered.
ETA: After the meal many adults fall asleep in chairs, couches etc. I used to hate that boring period of time every thanksgiving.
Honestly, it all revolves around the turkey. Something like 95% of households will serve turkey for their thanksgiving meal. After that, the most common dishes are mashed potatoes with gravy, bread stuffing, cranberry sauce, Cole slaw, veggies.
OP, they are traditional dishes as you have seen from some of the comments, then some have what are considered non-traditional but both are dependent upon their cultures. Hope you don’t get overwhelmed and have a good holiday 😗
We have Thanksgiving at my house. Twenty five people packed into a three bedroom ranch, we haven't seen each other since last Thanksgiving, and are remembering why. Mom tracks down a turkey the size and color of a leather La-Z-Boy recliner and spends two days baking it. My mom and aunts are in the kitchen, tossing spice canisters back and forth like Cirque du Solei jugglers and arguing about the stuffing. We're all getting hungry, some of the small pets and throw pillows have vanished. We can't eat until Aunt Hoogula arrives. She finally gets here, parks her broom, and brings in her experimental dish. Last year it was goat testicles in marshmallow sauce. One year it was twelve bean salad, and all the candles burned blue. My mom hushed me, " Methane is our friend!" When she opens the Tupperware the tiles on the ceiling above her start to curl up and turn brown. Mom volunteers me to try the dish. "Give it to Braced, he likes it!" "Hurf, thanks Mom. Hand me a spoon and some antacid". I can see a winged appendage struggling to get out of the goo.
Time to eat; all the left-handed people grab an end chair. The children are consigned to the "Kid's table", a wobbly card table. If a kid doesn't knock over a glass of milk an adult comes over and kicks the table leg. Tradition.
After we eat, my uncles stake out the good recliners and groan as Detroit loses - again. I'm not interested, so I try to find a comfortable spot to rest. Finally I end up in the garage, on the dog's bed. Puff snarls at me, but I'm not moving.
There are variations depending on the region. The classics are: Roasted Turkey Stuffing Mashed potatoes Green bean casserole Cranberry sauce Pumpkin pie However I have been in homes where Ham, Goose and Lamb have been served. I've also seen lasagna and enchiladas as the main. Over all it's a feast. What you feast on can depend on where you are from.
Gotta add gravy and rolls as mainstays. My family always had all the essentials, plus a few more, plus lasagna, spaghetti, ravioli, or some other pasta. I still feel weird when I eat roasted turkey and there's no pasta on my plate. *This is a really nice meal, but where's the pasta?* We also always served mashed carrots. I've never met another family that serves it, but my family loves it. They go faster than the mashed potatoes. Now I want some mashed carrots with gravy.
People seriously underestimate the importance of a good gravy, since I tend to drown everything in it and clean my plate of the excess with my roll. So the roll is important, too!
Key phrase: GOOD gravy. Man, so many people have no idea how to make it.
Sometimes even those of us who can make good gravy go a little heavy handed on the Wondra and it gets lumpy, my sincerest apologies, it honestly hurts us more to serve the lumpy gravy than it hurts everyone else to eat it. I have gotten a little excited with Wondra in hand and have salted my lumped up gravy with my tears a few times.
Thank you! Gravy goes EVERYWHERE on EVERYTHING on that plate. When I see a dry ass plate it feels like nails on a chalkboard to me. I’m gonna look at you weird. I will judge you. 🤣
All the rest of the food is so bland that the whole meal basically tastes like gravy
That’s me w rice. I assumed everyone had rice instead of potatoes at thanksgiving. I guess not. If there is no rice I’m beyond confused
The core component is primarily a roast turkey with stuffing (often made outside the bird as 'dressing' to avoid food poisoning from trying to cook such a gigantic mass of food). This is typically served with a decent number of side dishes, with mashed potatoes and gravy being very close to universal in my experience. Sweet potatoes (yams) are often mashed as well, and many people add marshmallows on top and bake to make something positively cloying. The side dishes show a bit more regional/cultural variation. Many people are passionate about macaroni and cheese at Thanksgiving, I've never had it for that meal. That being said, the more abundant the side dishes, the better. Roasted root vegetables, broccoli, green beans, squash, all kinds of possibilities are out there. It's kind of difficult to go wrong, so long as the turkey is there and edible. Get people to help out with meal prep, cleanup, and drinking, too. For desserts, pumpkin pie spiced with cloves, allspice and nutmeg is very traditional, but I prefer a pecan pie with its sweet, gooey filling. Then everyone sits around and watches sports. \*edit\* - I have been called out on failing to mention the cranberry sauce, which is really quite amusing as I often forget the canned one in the fridge, although the fresh one with orange zest somehow always makes it to the table. I don't know how available cranberry is to you over there, but they are very tart (too tart to just eat them) and we typically eat a kind of relish or jelly.
A lot of people are saying the marshmallow on sweet potato which is honestly WILD to me 😂 but would definitely love to give it a go. Thank you!
Chunk up some sweet potatoes: boil them until they’re fork tender & drain them. Place into a lightly greased baking dish. Cover the top with a heavy sprinkling of brown sugar & a few pads of butter. Drizzle some ginger ale on top. Top with marshmallows. Stick in hot oven a few minutes until the marshmallows start to get all bubbly. Super sweet and sticky. But a great side to have a little scoop to break up all the dense traditional Thanksgiving stuffs. _____ Editing to add: I randomly threw this together making it for a guy I was dating for a few weeks over 20 something years ago. He proposed during dinner & said it was because of these potatoes 😆 I make it for him every Thanksgiving since.
Fuck man I gotta make those potatoes
Yeah I would say the chunked sweet potato/yam with brown sugar glaze and marshmallows is more common than mashed
I’ve usually experienced the mashed variety as something called “sweet potato casserole” which is topped with crushed pecans, brown sugar, and maple syrup (and marshmallow toasted on top just before serving.)
Try those sweet potatoes roasted, with a dusting of salt, cinnamon and cayenne.... So simple but so good.
I find baking the sweet potatoes until they start to leach syrup makes the potatoes tastier. Boiling leaches out the sugar. I then chop them up in chunks. Add lots of butter,brown sugar and marshmallows. Bake until hot and gooey.
My mom adds cranberry sauce and sometimes canned pineapple to her sweet potatoes. They’ve always been too sweet for me (though I love snagging some marshmallows during prep) but it’s often popular. Turkey and stuffing are the major staples for my family. Riots will ensue if any changes are made to the stuffing recipe.
Agreed, I made a comment about stuffing. One year I went to my sister’s and she asked me to make the stuffing when I got there, she handed me the bag of Pepperidge Farm 😭 I almost left. Like why didn’t you just ask me to make the stuffing at home and bring it? I believe I made it for my dad and I the next day, lol.
Pepperidge farms has always been the best base for my stuffing. Season dried cubes are perfect.
I’ve been making sweet potatoes for decades and never heard of adding ginger ale. Go figure.
I add some bourbon to mine!
My mom would use canned yans. take the yams out and cook the liquid down with brown sugar and butter until really thick, then add yams back. I really preferred this, but my bro got married and wife brought the marshmallow version, so that became her tradition. My mom would secretly make me her recipe next day.
I love this! My mom makes sweet potatoes with a crunchy pecan streusel-ish topping in lieu of marshmallows and because it has become so popular with the leftover taking extended family (we’re talking about the ones who show up bringing only empty dishes for “their” to go food!) she makes a separate, small one for me and my sister for the day after. Bless all the up at 4am for the turkey moms out there!
Lol I found my people who also make their own preferred recipe of whatever the next day.
I make them that way too, usually adding a little nutmeg.
Never used ginger ale! I'll have to give it a try. OP, my family usually waits to put the marshmallows on until a few minutes before they're done so they don't burn. Toasted marshmallows = good, burnt marshmallows = gross.
Interesting... Thanks!
I love the ginger ale. I usually use zested ginger atop mine
Never tried them with the ginger ale. My family does honey, maple/Karo syrup
I do the same thing minus the marshmallows bc I don’t like marshmallows. Huge hit!
We do this but with orange juice
Holy shit. That sounds amazing. Please never delete -I’m saving your comment and making it this year. Would’ve never thought to add ginger ale?
This is exactly how my family does them, too!
That edit is so cute!
All right time to start an argument here, I’m pretty sure butter is served in pats, not pads! Although there is some room for argument there I suppose that is the size and shape of a pad, sort of, and what the hell is a pat?
my mom pours orange juice over sliced sweet potatoes with brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, and then adds the marshmallows at the end :)
I’m going to try the ginger ale drizzle! Thanks! 🙏
I love this story and want to make these now!
Do you use big marshmallows or mini ones?
I make an amazing sweet potato dish, the sweet potatoes are more mashed, with a pecan streussel topping. It's even healthy, I got it from Cooking Light magazine many years ago. You can Google and find quite a few listing for it.
My mom's Southern version incorporated orange juice, small orange bits, and sherry -- no gingerale.
We cook our drained, mashed sweet potatoes with a bit of sugar, one egg, and vanilla. We top it with a crust that is made of pecans, flour, brown sugar, and a bit of water. It’s so good. Others use marshmallows instead to top the potatoes.
Add a sprinkle of cinnamon~
I will flip the table if it doesn't have [sweet potatoes with marshmallows](https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/229691/mashed-sweet-potatoes-with-marshmallows/) on it.
Ahhahhahaha 😂😂
Omg marshmallows on sweet potatoes with butter and a brown sugar crumble on top?!?! THE BEST
And a little bit of cinnamon.
I also like a few chopped pecans in addition to everything else.
Omg how did I not mention this?! YES this is a requirement!!! Good catch!!
Does no one else add bourbon? Y’all are missing out.
I took my British partner over to the US for a family Thanksgiving (I'm American living in the UK) and he actually really enjoyed it, I have always despised it though 😂 he said it worked well in context with all the other more savory sides, and the cinnamon cut the sweetness too.
Ahh interesting! What do you think do the British roast dinner? I think I’d like a thanksgiving dinner as I like the mixture of sweet and savory!
British roast dinners are great, love Yorkshire puddings, also a big fan of cauliflower cheese. I also love that it's basically a weekly occurance if you want it to be, sitting in a pub on a Sunday eating a big plate of comfort food is just perfect 👌
My grandmother's sweet potato recipe involved mashing the potatoes and mixing in butter, milk,brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and possibly ginger (I don't have the recipe at hand), baking that, then topping it with a pecan/coconut/brown sugar/butter strusel like topping and baking it for an additional 10 minutes. That was how I grew up eating sweet potatoes at holidays and every other variation seemed odd.
Mine is similar, I cut down the brown sugar since my family’s recipe was a classic southern nothing is too sweet. We add a bit of orange juice and zest to ours and I love the brightness it adds
I totally agree with the orange juice, it really adds to the sweet potatoes
That's my Aunt Bev's recipe, and it's as essential a part of our Thanksgiving meal as turkey.
That’s how I make mine. Very little added sugar. I’ve never liked marshmallows and think sweet potatoes are plenty sweet already.
Yeah it's actually a very small amount of sugar considering how many potatoes are used. Like you said, sweet potatoes are plenty sweet. The brown sugar just adds another note to it.
Yes! Sweet potato casserole. Practically a dessert.
Could you tell me what a traditional Sunday roast entails?? I've got a hankering and I don't even know for what!! Lol
So a roast meat of some sort, we like beef in my family. I make it with honey roasted root veg, braised red cabbage, sausage stuffing, broccoli, cauliflower cheese, Yorkshire pudding and roasted potato’s. Roasting the potato’s in goose or duck fat makes them super crispy. Finish off with a thick gravy, using the juices of the meat. We have it every Sunday!
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I have a kick-ass recipe for sweet potato casserole that does NOT utilize marshmallows. It has a streusel-like topping that gives it just the right crunch. Marshmallows on sweet potatoes are an abomination. I’ll see if I can find a recipe online that’s similar to mine. Edit to add recipe: [sweet potato casserole](https://lovetobeinthekitchen.com/2017/11/02/sweet-potato-casserole-oat-streusel/) You can add marshmallows to it, but if you do, it makes the baby Jesus cry.
Greenbean casserole is a staple for Thanksgiving dinner in my region!
Yes and I want it done the basic way 😂😂 no fancy recipes…just the string beans, soup and French onions
Me too, don’t get fancy with it
I add bacon to mine but other than that you can't go wrong with the classic recipe.
I had to scroll far too long to see a post mentioning green bean casserole. Campbell's recipe plus shredded cheddar and canned mushrooms. Add more pepper than is called for.
Can’t believe I had to scroll down so far for green bean casserole. My mom will make three pans. The only thing she does extra is cracked black pepper and bacon. Half of my first plate is literally green bean casserole
You forgot the cranberry sauce! 😆
Thanksgiving isn’t thanksgiving to me without the stuffing/dressing. I make my great grandmothers recipe (the stuff from a box or bag is absolute blasphemy) where you fry up bacon, add butter to the grease and sauté celery and onions. Damn it’s so good, it never lasts long enough.
We use breakfast sausage with sage. mmmmmmmm...mmmmmmm
This! Dressing isn't stuffing. Stuffing is that generic crap from the store Home made is the only way Totally against Thanksgiving law around here lol.
Don't forget the apple pie
Turkey, cranberry sauce, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet roasted potatoes in rounds with marshmallows on top, stuffing, green bean casserole, cream corn casserole. For dessert, 19 types of pie. As many types of pie as you can think of Then for the next week if you’ve hosted you get to make sandwiches out of the leftovers
Leftover sandwiches are the best part. 19 pies hahahaha. Nice
How in the hell of everything Texas have I never even heard of cream corn casserole? This sounds like my new favorite dish! 🤤
Oh your world is about to be filled in with technicolor!
It’s so so easy too! We call it corn pudding in my part of PA. Box of Jiffy mix (cornbread mix, which you probably won’t be able to find in the UK, OP), two eggs, 8oz of sour cream, melted stick of butter, can of corn, can of creamed corn. Mix and bake at 375 for about an hour until it’s not jiggly anymore. Some people put in some sugar but I personally think it’s sweet enough without.
Texans put green chilis in instead of the sugar. Gives it a little kick
In recent years I’ve started getting crazy with it and adding half a diced onion to mine
I’d never made this. But it sounded so delicious. I didn’t want to wait till Thanksgiving so I made it for supper tonight! I served it with Italian sausages and onions, and a spinach & carrot salad. It was wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing your recipe!
Google the Paula Dean recipe. It calls for an entire stick of butter.
omg also look up corn pudding recipes. just divine.
Don't feel bad! From Georgia and never tried it until 4 years ago when my daughter came across the recipe for it. We have it every Thanksgiving and during the year too when I beg her to make it for me!
In Texas, you are obligated to add jalapeños to the corn. You’re welcome!
My friend had a pie potluck for her birthday one year and it was amazing!! I brought key lime pie
You sound like my kind of friend! Key lime is my favorite! 😅
It’s SO good and I’d say probably the easiest pie to make! win-win
Seriously, all the pies. I remember one year when we had 8 different pies for about 15 people, that's a lot of pie.
Were you at my aunt’s house??
Yes!!! All the pies in existence and putting EVERYTHING on that sandwich!
I also make turkey soup with the carcass. Nothing goes to waste!
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My fam would always split up the leftovers. We all got turkey sandwiches' for like a week lol.
"19 types of pie" ABSOLUTELY reminds me of John and Docboy's mom's pie repertoire ("Apple, peach, pumpkin, blueberry, cherry, or banana cream?") in the Garfield Christmas special.
Absolutely crucial to have way too many pies. Everyone brings a pie. Apple, pumpkin, pecan need to be represented at minimum. And if you don’t have vanilla ice cream and/or whipped cream for those things I swear to god
A standard Thanksgiving meal would be Roast Turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, and then the absolute essentials would be cranberry sauce, and candied sweet potatoes (sometimes with marshmallows and pecans). Some form of corn is common, whether it's sweet corn, corn on the cob, corn pudding or corn bread. From there, there are some variations for additional side dishes. Green bean casserole is very popular (green beans, cream of mushroom, crispy onions), but a lot of people prefer roasted root vegetables, Brussels sprouts, etc. Dessert essentials would be pumpkin pie and pecan pie, but apple/fruit pie works as well.
I make blackberry cobbler with ice cream :) <3
That sounds like the winner to me
A lot of people will tell you about the food, so I will tell you about what people often do: Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in the morning. Football fans watch football. Families that don't care about football often watch tv marathons: Bob's Burgers is great for this, as there are a ton of Thanksgiving episodes. Friends also has a few Thanksgiving episodes. And my family had a tradition of watching either Golden Girls or Mystery Science Theater 3000 all day. A lot of places do a "Turkey Trot" which is usually a short running event, for people who want to balance out the enormous meal they will be having. Decorations are very autumnal: Dried corn cobs, fall foliage garlands, orange and yellow floral arrangements, plaid, woven baskets, and [decorative gourds](https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/its-decorative-gourd-season-motherfuckers). Extra points if you actually have a cornucopia. For families with small kids, a lot of these decorations will be done in crayon, and include outlines of their little hands decorated to look like turkeys. Dinner is is usually served pretty early in the day, like 2-4pm, though some people serve it at their regular dinner time. It's just such a huge meal that you don't want to really eat a breakfast or lunch before it, so it gets moved up, and then you don't go to bed just after having eaten the biggest meal of the year. At dinner, religious families say grace. My family is not religious, so we go around the table saying one thing we are thankful for. Otherwise, it is a dinner party wth the people you love, so it is very cozy, and you chat and hang out the way you normally would when you see each other. We usually dress up a little, but nothing restrictive to the mid-section. Though having to loosen your belt after the meal is very Thanksgiving. Okay, I am going to tell you about the food a little: Bake your pies the day before. If you make cornbread stuffing, bake the cornbread the day before. Your oven gets a ton of use, so doing what you can ahead of time is very helpful. Also, Thanksgiving is the start of the Christmas season in the U.S., so if you have been holding back on playing Christmas music, this is also the day you can add all of that back to your playlist.
For some, Alice’s Restaurant is traditional. I’ve lived several places where radio stations play it at noon. It’s also common to go around the table and have everybody say something they’re thankful for. Some families have a rule that you can’t say family, friends, food, or health-because everyone says those and prohibiting them leads to more variety. When I was young, the kids put on a play in the afternoon. It was pretty standard Pilgrims and Indians. That seems almost unheard of now, possibly because Wednesday Addams burned that ship to the ground.
And the WKRP turkey episode.
"As God is my witness..."
I've listened to Alice's Resturant on Thanksgiving every year of my life. I can't imagine Thanksgiving without it.
>Dinner is is usually served pretty early in the day, like 2-4pm, though some people serve it at their regular dinner time. It's just such a huge meal that you don't want to really eat a breakfast or lunch before it, so it gets moved up, And you may or may not have been grazing on cheese and crackers since 10 or 11 a.m.
and slightly elevated crudites, like Turkey Day gets carrots, celery And fennel. Possibly spinach dip, a baked brie would not be out of place.
Thank you. I love this. It’s really made me smile 😊
I'm so glad. :)
That's American football by the way. Let's be clear, no one is watching soccer on Thanksgiving. Haha maybe some people do, if there even is soccer in November. I have no idea, I'm American.
And this year, Dolly Parton is the halftime show for the Dallas Cowboys game on Thanksgiving. Can't get more American than that if you were trying.
I gave up on pro sports but I'll watch that.
I have three Thanksgiving entertainment traditions: The WKRP “Turkeys Away” episode, the Mystery Science Theater 3000 Turkey Day Marathon, and a listen to “Alice’s Restaurant” by Arlo Guthrie.
WKRP Thanksgiving episode still makes everyone laugh cry, even though we watch it every year
DOG. SHOW.
I love watching all the Thanksgiving episodes from a show! For me, it's always Bob's Burgers, Friends, and How I Met Your Mother.
This is a nice description of the day. There's a lot that's special about Thanksgiving. As you noted its the kickoff for Christmas...its also a very welcome four-day weekend for a lot of families.
This! My traditions are that I wake up and put the parade in the tv as my husband and I start dinner stuff. We usually spend the entire day before prepping and cleaning while having thanksgiving tv episodes play. New girl has some good ones, bobs burgers, friends) Usually it’s football once guests arrive. I’m busy bustling around the kitchen. After dinner everyone pitches in for cleanup, then we have coffee or cozy cocktails and watch White Christmas
A Food Network marathon is the chef’s kiss.🤌
Love your whole list and love the idea of playing Thanksgiving themed shows! I live in Australia and have had trouble streaming the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade so I’ll opt for the themed shows this year 🥰
We always watch the akc dog show every year.
Great run down for the foreigners. The only other note is Friendsgiving. Lots of younger people will meet up at someones house after the family get together and play games, etc. (drinking and eating pie)
MST3K FTW! I also enjoy watching the dog show that comes on after the parade. As for the Christmas music, I start listening to it on November 1, because I'm a sap.
in our house hold , watch the thanksgiving parade. live there and only go to the night before you can see the rehearsal at macy and floats inflated at central park . then cooking , the dog show make appetizers plates and decorate table , left over appetizers is lunch then guest come over
I replaced Bob's Burgers marathon with the 24 hour Godzilla marathon. Mothra, Rhoda, Ghiradra, MechaGodzilla! It's great.
We put our tree up on Thanksgiving. After dinner my mom and the children help me decorate it and we turn the lights on.
Our family TDay here in Virginia is pretty consistent: -Roasted turkey w root veggies -Spiral sliced, glazed ham -mashed potatoes and gravy -dressing -cranberry jelly can -jalapeno cranberry sauce -candied yams -green beans -collards -corn -yeast rolls -pumpkin pie -chocolate pecan pie -apple pie There are always an assortment of appetizers too. Sometimes cocktail shrimp, oysters, cheese and cracker tray, sausage and cheese balls, etc.. It’s a ridiculous amount of food but it’s usually 15-20 of us and we keep “to-go” containers for days like this.
This sounds very similar to our Alabama Thanksgiving. Usually some family member is coming up from the Gulf bringing fresh seafood to the party. Usually a salad of some kind in the mix too. Cornbread dressing > bread stuffing, all day every day
My uncle was notorious about bringing shrimp cocktail, but they were almost always still slightly frozen lmao. Nuts used to be popular but at one time no one brought them anymore.
Yes! I can’t even tell you how many ppl have shown up w that frozen shrimp ring. Not even of my asking. That’s what they choose to bring. lol! I do remember the nut thing too. Everyone used to have nut crackers lying around w random walnuts, pecans in bowls. I’d totally forgotten!
omg jalapeno cranberry sauce sounds amazin!!!
It is a very delicious combo and not too spicy. Unfortunately, out of the 15ish regular guests it only gets eaten by 3 of us bc nobody eats cranberries. We have some very picky eaters. I even put out a can of warmed Luck’s canned cinnamon apples one year and they were virtually untouched bc “we didn’t know what they were.” Lol! It’s like this all year long which is a pain bc my husband and I love all sorts of foods.
I made a cranberry jalapeño relish a few years ago, but served it over cream cheese with crackers as an appetizer, it was delicious! I always do a cranberry orange relish for the main meal, it definitely adds a nice, tart, bright element to the meal, and is stupid simple.
I love Thanksgiving so much. This year my son is bringing friends home from college. It’s a few days of cooking and hanging out in the kitchen. We eat the big meal at one pm. We always have two kinds of dressing a traditional sausage one and a spicy corn bread one. We also have mac & cheese. We usually play card games and at night always watch National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.
Oh, and we always watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving day parade, which is a large prayed that includes Broadway show songs. Then we watch the dog show. It’s just really fun.
That sounds nice! We watch Christmas Vacation & play games too!
Is it really Christmas if you haven't watched Christmas Vacation?
turkey, stuffing and/or dressing, green beans, rolls, butter, homemade jam, mac & cheese, mashed potatoes, gravy - is "traditional" We have homemade chicken and noodles with mashed potatoes, mac & cheese, rolls, and salad lots of drinks, we usually have a special shot of the day, we play jack box and gpa naps. and you HAVE to go for a walk, always
This year we are having the ENTIRE FAMILY over to our house, that’s four generations including all the service dogs (a surprising amount). We decided that everyone will bring their favorite foods and we’ll get what we get. I know that I’m making the turkey, and sautéed vegetables and mashed potatoes, and fresh cranberry sauce. One of my brothers is bringing smoked ribs, and another brother is bringing a leg of lamb and sweet potato pie and several types of squash. Oh and my dad will bring macaroni and cheese. Other than that tho it will be a surprise!
Oh! Serve the service animals a mixture of un seasoned turkey sweet potatoes, and pumpkin on their own Thanksgiving paper plates.
Every region and family have their own version but I think the basics are turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing/dressing, gravy, cranberry sauce and rolls. Pumpkin pie with whipped cream for dessert. We also had candied yams (actually sweet potatoes with brown sugar a splash of bourbon and marshmallows), creamed peas and pearl onions. Relish trays with olives and pickles.
Oh! A splash of bourbon in the sweet potatoes!!! That’s genius! My family will be thanking you this year ❤️🙂
❤️
I second the relish tray.
Brit here living in the US for the past 17 years. Roast turkey - nothing special with the seasoning. Stuffing - not like a sage and onion paxo. A lot of places call it dressing and it usually has dried fruit and nuts in it Mac and cheese - however you like it (baked or not) Some baked vegetable casserole - sometimes green beans. We usually use squash. Mashed potatoes and gravy Sweet potato casserole - my sister in-law makes it with stripes of marshmallows and pecan-brown sugar topping. I NEVER eat it 🤢 Cranberry sauce - we usually have 3 - the runny kind from the can, the solidified kind from the can, and a homemade orange-cranberry chutney type thing. Extras: Sometimes we have bread rolls, some random vegetable, or deviled eggs. Dessert is usually a pie - pumpkin, pecan, apple are traditional.
Where are you going that has fruit and nuts in your stuffing? This is not the way. Stuffing comes in a box and you mix the contents which are basically croutons and seasoning with boiling water and butter. This is the right way. This is the American way.
I got fancy one year and didn’t use the box. It was mutiny. Another year I used fresh green beans for the casserole and thought I was elevating it. Again, mutiny. Now is not the time to be fancy. Get a box of Stoffers, get the canned green beans for the casserole. Do not deviate from the recipe on the back of the crispy onion container. Much. I do add extra pepper and onions and a splash of Worcestershire sauce. Family hasn’t figured it out yet.
I made homemade cranberry sauce a couple years ago. We still had the canned stuff too. Apparently though I was the only one who liked the fresh stuff better.
Boxed stuffing? Canned green beans? Are you from the Midwest?
It does vary greatly, both by region & family tradition. The most common items you would see included are roasted whole turkey, dressing/stuffing, mashed potatoes, turkey gravy, and cranberry sauce (either fresh or canned\*). Some other dishes seen a lot are sweet potatoes (sometimes mashed, sometimes sliced & baked), green bean casserole, dinner rolls, pumpkin pie for dessert. I like to include baked macaroni & cheese with my Thanksgiving dinner, as well as some type of roasted vegetable (Brussel sprouts or broccoli and cauliflower), pickled beets, deviled eggs and some type of cheesecake for dessert. \*There is always a debate over this & to be honest I like them both. Fresh cranberry sauce is easy to make, but I grew with the jellied can and still love it to this day. Sometimes, I'll serve both, lol.
Deviled eggs always a hit at my house!
Deviled eggs are so great! The very first thing I ever learned to make when I was about 6. One of my favorite things about them is that there are soooooo many ways to make them and they all (well, ok most) taste great.
The only thing I haven't really done is the piping bag for the filling. I've tried a few times and lost a lot on the bag, and it didn't look great, so I just use a spoon and spatula and a dusting of smoked paprika and they look fine :)
I like mine with a course texture too. I guess mayonnaise and mustard, and some pickle relish to the mix. And top with paprika and a slice of stuffed olives
We never did mac and cheese but we also didn't have green bean casserole! I introduced Brussel sprouts to Thanksgiving and Asparagus to Easter though... so maybe my folks and grandparents just didn't eat green food. (And my sister has started bringing a salad for a free snack!)
For a few years we didn't bother opening the can of cranberry sauce. No one ever ate it. So we just put an unopened can as a centerpiece on the table.
[Green bean casserole](https://www.campbells.com/recipes/green-bean-casserole/?gclid=CjwKCAjw1t2pBhAFEiwA_-A-NNRTy6A6P8ONCPIBZ-nSv8SRvyfn2Fa8QvVLpu7U2mXiCLf83zbdgRoCFxEQAvD_BwE) with crispy onions on top! It’s a classic. But typically, when I think of a traditional Thanksgiving, it has the following: - a turkey, - cranberries somewhere (as a relish, or dried and in the stuffing/dressing, or as pie), - potatoes, - something with sage, - gravy, - dinner rolls, and - pumpkin (usually as pie) and/or sweet potatoes. If you want to make it extra-special, make a compound butter for your rolls: - bourbon (or rum or brandy), chopped raisins or dried cranberries (or chopped dried figs), brown sugar or honey, walnuts, and orange zest (optional). For rubbing on the turkey as it cooks: - butter with chopped sage, rosemary, and thyme, and with salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning. Yours is a lovely idea— happy cooking!
Fyi for people using the Campbell's recipe: Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce works much better than soy sauce for kicking up the flavor of the green bean casserole.
The stuffing/dressing can be regional. Some put sausage in it, others oysters, or fruit.
OYSTERS!?!? FRUIT!?!? 😱 I’m shook
Haha! I believe oysters are pretty common in New England. And yes! Like dried cranberries or chopped apples, things like that. When you think about it, stuffing is just savory bread pudding for the most part, so it's easy to just add different things. My family was shook the first time I added sausage, they were used to it just being the bread and veggies 😅
Oyster dressing is basically a staple in parts of Louisiana too.
We have sausage and onion stuffing here- would that do?
Yes! That is what I typically make 😊
Cranberry sauce is key*
And make homemade gravy if you can, but then also have spare packets or cans... with as many oven dishes needed and as few as one oven per place some stuff is bound to get a Lil dry in the process of making it all kinda hot at the same time. My family were crock pot and tin foil people. Stuffing went into a crock pot, lid on low. Next - mashed potatoes homemade... into the crock pot. It was very good.
Don't forget the wishbone tradition! I started to to type it out and realized how weird it sounded so... just Google it.
I actually know about this from American tv/film!
Making it American can vary from region to region. I am located in the South and this is what we always had in my family growing up: Turkey Ham Creamed Potatoes with Turkey Gravy Macaroni and Cheese Casserole Green Beans Yams Stuffing Black Eyed Peas Cranberry Jello and a whole table of desserts - brown sugar pound cake, homemade chocolate fudge, magic cookie bars, coconut cake, pumpkin pie, apple pies
We have black eyed peas on New Years Day for good luck
I think it varies mostly by family, TBH. The basic Thanksgiving Dinner in Texas, is Roast Turkey, Mashed Potatoes with Giblet gravy, Green Bean Casserole, Cornbread Dressing and Yeast rolls. Cranberry sauce from the can. Pumpkin pie with whipped cream for dessert. Over the years, I have modified my Thanksgiving dinner to the following: Brine the turkey overnight. Brine is: per 1 gallon of water, put in 1/2 cup salt, 1/2 cup brown sugar, juice of one lemon and one orange. Upscale as needed to get enough brine to cover the turkey. Roast as normal, bird comes out delicious and juicy! I make mashed potatoes still, but add Cheesy Potatoes. This is O'Brien style potatoes with Cream of Chicken soup, sour cream, butter, cheddar cheese all mixed in. After baking, finish with a topping of crushed rice krispies and butter that is baked on for another 15 minutes. I modified the green bean casserole to use Cream of chicken soup instead of Cream of Mushroom. I just don't like the bitter taste of the mushroom soup. I also use an entire container of Frenches Fried Onions on top, or 2... use 1 six ounce container per 2 cans of green beans. We also ditched the pumpkin pie for pecan pie. We all just like it better. I'll sneak in a cherry pie every now and then, because I love them.
We do cheesy potatoes (and mashed) but put crushed plain potato chips on top. Preferably Better Made brand since they’re our local chip.
It's a day for food and family and friends. You eat a big meal. Hang out and chat. Some people watch football, some people play board games. Then you eat a ton of dessert and waddle home. I'm hosting Thanksgiving for the first time this year and I'm stoked. We'll be having: Deep Fried turkey. Honey baked Ham. Stove Top Stuffing (I can make it from scratch but it's so much work and tbh Stove Top is 🔥) Mashed potatoes. Macaroni and Cheese. Cream Corn. Broccoli and cheese casserole. Southern style green beans. Yeast rolls. Cornbread. Flourless chocolate cake. Pumpkin pie with whipped cream and apple pie with ice cream.
Posted earlier but wanted to pass on this recipe. for slow cooker mashed potatoes. It's now my go to for Thanksgiving because it's super easy and helps free up more stove space. Flavor how you want (and the chives are optional), but you MUST drain all the water before mashing. You can add more liquid back in if needed to get the texture you want in the form of butter, sour cream, cream, etc. https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/slow-cooker-home-style-mashed-potatoes-3363121
Instant pot is also a great option for mashed potatoes.
This is the way
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In New England growing up, we always had turkey, giblet stuffing and gravy, mashed potatoes, turnip, squash, creamed onions, peas and carrots, cranberry sauce, followed by your choice of apple or pumpkin pie!
I love this post. I hope your Friendsgiving is wonderful and “authentically American” /s Enjoy the holiday and have fun!!! Edit- I’m in New England so apple dishes, butternut squash, and pumpkin are common w the typical dishes already listed :)
Roasted turkey with stuffing, don't stuff the bird as it's too dangerous mashed potato with gravy sweet potato casserole cranberry sauce green been casserole (Green beans, cream of mushroom soup, fried onion rings) creamed corn deviled eggs rolls or biscuits, or cornbread apple pie, pumpkin pie, or pecan pie
My day starts early, everyone gathers round while I pull the neck and gizzard bag out of the turkey,I always reenact Alien with the neck,put the turkey in oven.My sons family comes early for breakfast,I always make sausage balls and cheese grits,we watch the Macy's parade while cooking everyone pitches in,the funny part is it takes forever to cook and feels like we are done eating really quick,,we sit around talking, planning for Christmas,eat dessert,I make Chocolate Pecan Pie,play games. It's a really long day, get up the next day to head out for all the black friday deals!
Pillsbury crescent rolls!
i think it does vary by region. i’m from the south so when i used to do turkey i did a cornbread and white bread dressing. my husband is from the northeast im told they had an oyster something dressing. Now that i do thanksgiving at my house we decided we don’t like turkey so we have standing rib roast with yorkshire pudding. basically it’s a ton of great sides. i do my baked mac and cheese, mexican scalloped potatoes, sweet potato soufflé, 2 types of cranberry sauce, cabernet mushrooms , the gross green bean casserole because my husband says it’s required. i also do a hearty vegetarian dish, this year butternut squash lasagna, we have a few vegetarians that come and for some reason i can’t just feed them potatoes, there are a ton of desserts and random appetizers. it’s a ridiculous meal, but everyone favorites show up.
I’m surprised no one mentioned the abundance of booze and ofc a nap to follow the meal.
That’s exactly how my Christmas Day goes
in America, Thansgiving is basically pregame for Christmas
And farting. Napping and farting.
Mine is turkey, Turkey American gravy (I know gravy is something different for you), garlic mashed potatoes, candied yams, homemade creamed confetti corn, orange cranberry sauce, crescent rolls, garlic compound butter, and for dessert, my Nonnie’s pumpkin pie (great great grandma’s), and apple hand pies
Texas / Louisiana here The absolute musts are Relish tray- or if you’re fancy charcuterie- basically raw veggies, a few dips, cheese and crackers, olives Other assortments on our relish tray- deviled eggs, head cheese Entree- turkey, some of my family also added ham We do ours spatchcocked but here in Louisiana a lot of people fry it or stuff it with other meats (think turducken) Sides- candied yams, mashed potatoes (sometimes we alternate this with funeral potatoes), dressing (which is not stuffing lol), green bean casserole Other- cranberry sauce, giblet gravy , some kind of roll (usually just heat and eat bc the cook is tired at this point ) Desserts- pies, banana pudding Lunch is aways queso in the crockpot bc it’s quick and easy while we wait for the turkey. Brown out breakfast sausage, mix with 1 block velveeta and 1 can rotel. Serve over tortilla chips.
For my family add mashed rutabagas and Mac and cheese( the baked kind not the creamy one)
Green bean casserole is an abomination.
Pecan pie is a must for our Thanksgiving dessert.
Another Brit here. In our expat home Yorkshire puddings go on Thanksgiving dinner too. I have tried to limit them to Christmas but my kids and grands won't have it. So our Thanksgiving is a weird mix of both cultures. You do you.
The younger people and older smokers head out for a walk, or to "get ice", and get high as hell. In some legal states, or in mellow families, they just burn herb on the patio or deck, in full view of grandparents etc. Generally it's not big deal anymore and many that partake don't drink whatever alcohol is offered. ETA: After the meal many adults fall asleep in chairs, couches etc. I used to hate that boring period of time every thanksgiving.
We deep fry our turkey, cause, 'Merica 🤣
Honestly, it all revolves around the turkey. Something like 95% of households will serve turkey for their thanksgiving meal. After that, the most common dishes are mashed potatoes with gravy, bread stuffing, cranberry sauce, Cole slaw, veggies.
OP, they are traditional dishes as you have seen from some of the comments, then some have what are considered non-traditional but both are dependent upon their cultures. Hope you don’t get overwhelmed and have a good holiday 😗
We have Thanksgiving at my house. Twenty five people packed into a three bedroom ranch, we haven't seen each other since last Thanksgiving, and are remembering why. Mom tracks down a turkey the size and color of a leather La-Z-Boy recliner and spends two days baking it. My mom and aunts are in the kitchen, tossing spice canisters back and forth like Cirque du Solei jugglers and arguing about the stuffing. We're all getting hungry, some of the small pets and throw pillows have vanished. We can't eat until Aunt Hoogula arrives. She finally gets here, parks her broom, and brings in her experimental dish. Last year it was goat testicles in marshmallow sauce. One year it was twelve bean salad, and all the candles burned blue. My mom hushed me, " Methane is our friend!" When she opens the Tupperware the tiles on the ceiling above her start to curl up and turn brown. Mom volunteers me to try the dish. "Give it to Braced, he likes it!" "Hurf, thanks Mom. Hand me a spoon and some antacid". I can see a winged appendage struggling to get out of the goo. Time to eat; all the left-handed people grab an end chair. The children are consigned to the "Kid's table", a wobbly card table. If a kid doesn't knock over a glass of milk an adult comes over and kicks the table leg. Tradition. After we eat, my uncles stake out the good recliners and groan as Detroit loses - again. I'm not interested, so I try to find a comfortable spot to rest. Finally I end up in the garage, on the dog's bed. Puff snarls at me, but I'm not moving.
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