So this was a hot topic yesterday on Twitter among a group of Hokies.
What is your favorite Thanksgiving side dish.
How do you eat your turkey? (Preparation, only on sandwich etc)
What side dishes have to be on the table?
Which side dish should be left out?
Thanksgiving traditions.
Forums:
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Comments
stop looking past Pitt and ahead to thanksgiving!!!!!!!!! /s
Thanksgiving Sandwiches on black friday are the best -- basically just leftovers but you stick as much of the meal and sides onto a sandwich as you can. gravy and cranberry sauce to moisten.
dark meat is better than white meat and if you disagree you're team cake -- thanksgiving is not the holiday for you
Green bean casserole is garbage. As for turkey preparation, my nanny usually cooks her turkey a few days ahead of time and serves it cold. Which is also garbage. My mom brines her turkey and roasts it in the oven, and that's usually pretty good. Favorite side = mac and cheese and mashed potatoes with gravy, but like, nice, thick gravy that clings to everything and gets sopped up with a homemade roll.
Unpopular opinion: Ukrop's whitehouse rolls are not very appetizing, are too dry, and not even fit to feed the evil Canadian geese that have taken up residence at my parents pond for the winter. Come at me.
I don't disagree with any of this.
I'd say deep fried turkey is my favorite, after a honey bourbon brine.
Sides...mashed potatoes/gravy and mac and cheese are two thirds of my required trifecta. Dressing is the third. Gravy over everything. Homemade rolls are a must. Green bean casserole is below old shoes on my list of desired side dishes.
Pumpkin pie, pecan pie, and cranberry apple pie are the desserts.
Jesus now we are attacking White House rolls from Ukrops. How unAmerican can this thread get!
YOU DON'T LIKE MAC AND CHEESE
HE DOESN'T LIKE MAC AND CHEESE?
Correct. But I accept it as a good at meals other than what I would consider a formal type meal like thanksgiving or Christmas dinner.
It's an English dish not really of historical significance in early American cooking.
Dude, last time I checked... the Mayflower came from England.
Fireman how could you?😢😢😢😢😢😢😢
With most of its Puritan passengers coming from a community in Holland.
Not so fast my friend...
They were British subjects who started out in Nottinghamshire, England. That started sucking, so they decided to move their gig to the Netherlands. When they found out that you could smoke dope and pretty much do whatever you wanted in Amsterdam, they decided to try their luck at this New World thingy that was all the rage on Twitter.
Eh, nothing against Ukrops in particular, but I despise all store bought baked goods on holidays.
My family tradition has always been homemade dinner rolls, prepared by my recently deceased grandmother. So I will be carrying the torch moving forward with the homemade bread baking responsibility. Good luck and God speed...to myself.
I agree but she didn't say just for Thanksgiving she said they were bad!
Sorry to hear about your grandmother. I lost mine a few years back and the holidays are always tough. However, I think it's awesome that you are carrying on the tradition and taking a crack at homemade rolls/bread yourself. I'm here to give you some encouragement and let you in on a secret: homemade bread is not as difficult as it's reputation makes it out to be, and even if it doesn't come out exactly right, it's still as impressive as hell to your family because at least you made the attempt!
Personally, I always use active dry yeast instead of the instant kind. Proofing the yeast is a must, and if you use instant, you don't proof the yeast, so you don't find out if it's still alive until you mix it up and let it rise, only to discover that it doesn't rise. Learn from my mistakes!! Also, let your dough rise in a warm spot. I like to turn on my oven, for a few minutes, then turn it off when I pop the dough in until it doubles. When I'm pinching off the dough to shape the rolls, I like to use a scale, that way they are all the same size. And make sure to brush the tops with SALTED butter as soon as they come out of the oven 🤤 Then keep a bag or two of unbaked, frozen rolls that you just have to thaw, proof, and pop in the oven as a back up in case you do somehow flub. You've got this though.
Thanks! They turned out ok. Not as smooth on top as my grandmother made them but I'm happy. I used the regular yeast and definitely proofed it. Proved it? Either way, it was working prior to mixing with the flour.
Funny side note, family voted to skip mac and cheese. Fireman probably approves lol.
What makes them acceptable to you? Just seeking to understand here. In my opinion, they are far too dense, too dry, and not very flavorful. I can make my own rolls that are 100% more tasty, and it would take less active time than driving to the store to pick them up.
You need to warm them slightly and eat with some greasy fried chicken then get back to us.
Kings Hawaiian rolls > all other rolls
You ever had a Ukrops white house roll?
You mean a Ukrops white house paperweight?
Sistah Schubert would like a word with you.
Kroger also has a frozen yeast roll (sold in a bag) that you can let rise for a few hours, bake, then slather with a butter and honey mixture that'll make your undies wet.
Honey butter only pairs with biscuits!
Hushpuppies.
-Me to my in-laws
Anything short of a hard roll is trash!
Cold turkey is for sandwiches!
If you eat your gravy with a knife and fork that's tofu!
Oh the geese are there to stay. They are met with extreme prejudice on my property.
FAM! Enjoy the day!
This should about cover it.
https://www.thekeyplay.com/content/2018/november/21/ask-tkp-thanksgiving...🦃
https://www.thekeyplay.com/content/2014/november/26/ot-2014-thanksgiving...
https://www.thekeyplay.com/content/2013/november/25/ot-thanksgiving-sides
Looking at the trend we now have 2019 taken care of. Someone just has to remember to put up Thanksgiving Food posts in 2023 and 2024.
Searched for Fried Turkey Gifs and found this gem..
Other than that I am all about the basics, mashed potatoes and stuffing smothered in gravy and pecan pie for dessert.
My family also skips the green bean casserole in favor of a broccoli cheese casserole that is far superior.
It's a tie between mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce for me. Both of which dowell on sandwiches the next day.
Why does everyone want Mac and cheese at a dinner like Thanksgiving? I just don't get it.
the fact that you equate homemade, from-scratch mac and cheese at thanksgiving dinner to the kraft ez mac you make for your 4 year old daughter as a treat for when she's been good in the grocery store is well established by now. you don't have to get it.
Yes it's the same. Noodles and cheese. It just doesn't seem very American traditional thanksgiving food.
It's taking everything in my power not to downvote you. It's your opinion, it's just wrong
Mac and cheese is "noodles and cheese" the same way that a good burger is "meat and bread".
Are we supposed to downvote wrong opinions?
I'm pretty sure that it's an incorrect fact and that's a valid downvote.
/s
Instead of downvoting his misguided opinion, I'm upvoting everyone that's telling him he's wrong.
'Tis the season of giving and all that.
I love Mac and Cheese, but it depends on who fixes it.
For me, and I think I've said this here before, the most depressed I was in Iraq was during Thanksgiving because I really missed my mom's pecan pie. That crap they had in the dining with Pecan's and glaze was some BS...
Side Dish - Stuffing Corn, Green Beans, Mashed Potatoes...
Bread - I can do Cornbread, but Hawaiian Rolls are the best.
as a treat for when she's been good in the grocery store
Err... Yeah, that's totally the only time I give my kids Kraft. Totally. ... Just don't ask them.
What do you meeeaaaan???
Because it's warm, comforting and delicious - like everything at Thanksgiving should be :)
Mac and Cheese is one of the most over-rated side-dishes ever. The only thing that makes it worth having is if it is augmented with something cool like bacon or lobster.
Doesn't get anymore American than this trash:
Could you atleast splurge on some Velveeta? It's once a year, bro, open up that wallet.
Yuck.
Years ago when I was exec chef at a restaurant, I had bacon Mac & cheese with braised pork cheeks. I changed my menu quarterly, but this remained for 6 years with only the sauce on the pork changing from time to time. At one point a young lady came in with her boyfriend and had it and immediately ordered another. After leaving the restaurant, they got into an argument and broke up. We met 2 years later, she realized I made the Mac & cheese, and we now have 2 kids.
tl:dr My Mac & cheese makes babies.
Sweet potato casserole and/or stuffing. Dressing can be shot into the sun.
This is an odd hill to die on, honestly. In most areas of the country there is no difference in the content of these two dishes. The technical difference is how they are cooked (i.e. stuffed into the turkey, where cross-contamination and improper cooking methods lead to food poisoning, or cooked separately in a baking dish where the risk of food born illness is negligible and the ability to control cooking adequacy and moisture content is far superior).
But, to each their own.
Nevertheless, here I die. Also where I am from (Georgia) they are two different dishes.
https://www.foodandwine.com/fwx/food/stuffing-or-dressing
My heart goes out to all of you who have not had real stuffing.
Interesting. Care to elaborate?
Dressing is drier and comes with a gravy to put on it. It is also not as compact, needs a spoon instead of a fork. A quick Google search has informed me that the dressing and stuffing my family does is far different than most of the country so this might be a case of us just being crazy.
So, What's your families version? Is it stuffed into the bird? We need a recipe.
Why would you put salad dressing on your turkey?
🦃 Smoked Turkey
🐖🐽 Smoked Ham
🍎 Apple Sausage Stuffing
🍊 Cranberry-Orange Relish
🥕 Carrot Pudding
🥬🧀 Spinach & Gruyere Pie
🥔 Scalloped potatoes
🍞 Rolls
🥧🍨 French Silk Pie and Ice Cream,
or cake🍷 Wine
Turkey is for Thanksgiving, Ham is for Christmas. I will die on this hill. Ham for Thanksgiving is unnatural.
This would be true if turkey was good but of all of the meats store bought turkey is near the bottom (dark meat excluded) Ham is much better.
One year my nanny (the same nanny that serves cold turkey) did shrimp for Christmas. We were not amused.
Agree on the turkey part, but ham is for easter. I will be making a prime rib roast for Christmas this year
No, No, No.
Thanksgiving is for foods from our colonial heritage;
Christmas is for the the highest quality foods.
My dad has been frying turkeys for years and always cooks up a good bird.
I can't stand the canned cranberry jelly/sauce any more ever since I started making it from scratch myself, so I've started to bring that.
I know I'm in the minority, but I love good ole oven roasted turkey. Crispy skin, juicy meat and homemade gravy along with mashed potatoes is just better than smoked or fried. (Those are still acceptable, but not my first choice).
As for sides, oven roasted brussel sprouts with olive oil, salt and pepper are hard to beat. But the one that comes out for every holiday is Pineappley Stuff (recipe below). It sounds kind of weird but is really great.
Pineappley Stuff
—melted (not too hot though, you don't want to scramble the eggs)1 cup milkEdit: just found out there are two of these recipes floating around my house and I posted the wrong one. Corrected now.
My mom makes some very similar. We always have it for Christmas and Easter with ham.
With you on the turkey, though I like any well prepared bird, but that Pineappley Stuff sounds really really like want it right now good. I am grabbing a pen and paper and thanks.
The pineappley stuff is a mainstay at our family's holiday meal and now my go to dish at office potlucks.
OCEAN SPRAY WHOLE BERRY CRANBERRY SAUCE AND BETTY CROCKER STUFFING RECIPE
Must have sides:
-Sweet potato casserole (with brown sugar, pecan crust - not that marshmallow crap)
-Homemade cornbread dressing, using scratch made buttermilk cornbread as the base. Sooo good.
-Deviled eggs
-Twice baked potatoes
-Sausage braid, so good it'll make you smack your old lady
-Honey butter rolls
-Pumpkin Roll
Turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce and mayo on grilled Texas toast for a Black Friday treat.
Leave out wet stuffing and sweet potatoes with marshmallows.
Mf'ing HASH BROWN CASSEROLE 😤😤😤
ooohhh yeah....
need to get this one started in my family
My favorite side is Bourbon mixed with a splash of fresh UVA Tears
This guy gets it!
Food- Turkey, dressing (because my mom doesn't shove it up the turkey's butt), mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, cranberry salad, string beans, homemade rolls, corn, Snickers salad has become an important addition in the last decade or so, Deviled eggs.
Dessert-- Pumpkin pie, apple pie, apple cake, caramel cake
Traditions-Helping cook, watching the parade, Thanksgiving lunch, FOOTBALL. Shopping with mom on Black Friday... Black Friday lunch: Turkey and dressing shoved into homemade rolls and some leftover sides...
Tradition since marriage-- Basking in the glory of LOLuva sadness...
Yeast Rolls with a slab of butter folded into each one before the final rise.
Always the last "dish" to finish so they are nice and hot and buttery goodness. These are the best rolls for thanksgiving leftovers.
My god. Why have I never tried this? I'm in charge of the rolls this year, this is happening.
Favorite dish: Oyster Casserole
Turkey: Salt brine, oven roasted. Sandwiches for leftovers
Must have side: Corn Pudding
Left out: Cranberry sauce is trash just like the people who enjoy it.
Dessert: Rhubarb, apple, or pumpkin pie is acceptable on Thanksgiving
Fried turkey, preferring the dark meat.
Favorite sides are cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes.
The best turkey alternative is standing rib roast.
Best pie: Brown Sugar, and pumpkin is acceptable.
I'm waiting for a certain someone to tell us how she doesn't like Turkey except on bread and cold.
I have never had Brown Sugar Pie before. It sounds delicious.
It is excellent. My grandmother used to make it, and she had tons of recipes and never shared her real version. My aunt comes as close as anyone. For a low difficulty version that is good, try this:
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/23654/brown-sugar-pie-ii/
This is shoo fly pie minus the molasses pretty much.
I'll take that standing rib roast any day of the year, including Thanksgiving. Been a while since I've had a good one. Give me a choice on the table, I'm going with the rib every time.
I think as much as I drool over different food types, leftover standing rib roast sandwiches might bring me more endorphin juicing joy than any other food experience.
You won't eat cheese but you will eat pumpkin?
Turkey is overrated. There, I said it.
I have to agree with this. I put 1 piece of turkey on my plate and move on to over indulging in the sides.
I have turkey roasted, fried basically cooked anyway you can do it by multiple people. Injected, rubbed, different spices and it all just tastes the same to me and is always underwhelming.
Have you ever had a smoked turkey leg in Lane stadium? You guys are killing me with this "turkey is overrated" nonsense. We are the FIGHTING GOBBLERS dagummit!!!
HokieEnginerd smokes them in Lot 18 (and at our house).
This is deja vu but saying something is overrated implies that it is well regarded, but very few people eat turkey on a regular basis except as deli meat. A quick google search shows that the average American eats 16.7 lbs of turkey a year but 222 lbs of meat, which comes out to 7% of the meat consumed being turkey. That's pretty damn low. Thus I think saying turkey is overrated is essentially like saying playing ECU is overrated.
Only dark meat turkey is good, Creamed Onions are my favorite side, and I'll skip the pumpkin pie though and stick with a nice pecan one.
Creamed onions, WTF? Are you a 83 year old grandma?
I didn't even realize that was still a thing.
Old or not, they're still delicious.
Dark turkey meat is good hot or warm, with gravy, etc., but for a turkey sandwich? Only the white meat need apply. Cold, the dark meat, being more fatty which is why it tastes good, gets sorta congealy to coin a word and just doesn't work nearly as well as thinly sliced breast.
I am trying putting the turkey on the Joetisserie attachment on the green egg this year. We get the frozen yeast roll dough, thaw/rise all day - 2 to a muffin cup - brush with butter to finish. Our dressing is baked in the oven, but is closer in texture to a brownie than a bread. We cut the left overs into slices to for sandwich bread. Mashed potatoes, Homemade Mac-N-Cheese (stir as much cheese as will fit into a classic white sauce, mix in cooked pasta and seasonings and bake), Oyster Casserole (oysters, butter, cream, pepper and crushed saltines), and green beans simmered all day with bacon and butter. We have the canned cranberry stuff, but I don't eat it. Dessert is pumpkin pie with cool-whip or ice cream. Meal and pre-meal we drink wine, after dinner is bourbon.
Well, that's just downright civilized. I was hungry when I started reading this thread, but this put me over the top. Sounds like a feast.
Glad you posted this, been meaning to try a twirly bird. Pic below.
Gather round and let's talk about Cranberry Sauce for a minute. If your idea of an appetizing side is dumping out a cranberry can and calling it a day then may god have mercy on your soul. You have got to throw something in there to give it some life and make it remotely palatable. I highly recommend putting in fresh fruit, dried fruit, and some citrus juice to cut the sour.
+1
However the canned stuff should only be consumed the day after. You slather a generous layer on one slice of bread, JFG mayo on the other slice, turkey breast, tomato, onion and some dressing. BAM
Try this recipe one time and you'll never buy that crap from a can ever again. I've been making my own doctored version of this one for several years. I generally use a few more nuts, a little less sugar, a little more Gran Marnier, and will often add either some all spice or cloves to change it up a little.
Wayne's Cranberry Sauce
If you make mashed potatoes like Carla and Molly from BA Test Kitchen you deserve a throat punch.
If you are in NYC for Thanksgiving the pro tip is the Peking Duck House.
Not picky about my turkey, as long as I have some really good giblet gravy to go with it. We have roasted for Thanksgiving and deep-fried for Christmas, so I get it all.
Also, ham is a must.
Sides: Macaroni and cheese, collard greens, and candied yams or sweet potatoes. And rice with the aforementioned gravy. And my mom's homemade rolls.
For dessert, I always call my grandma and ask her if she's still making her German chocolate cake, because otherwise I won't come home. She knows I'm /s though.
For the best turkey it starts at the grocery store, when you see those giant piles of turkeys you just walk right on past them until you see the sign that says ribs. Then you pick up a couple slabs based on how many people you are feeding.
Sides:
The most important side is the rolls. Sister shuberts are great I like kings Hawaiian but not really for Thanksgiving.
Either mashed or stuffed potatoes will do. We are having stuffed this year.
The vegetable is throw away, nothing great is in season. Green bean casserole is terrible.
This brings me to yams ... no yams they suck.
Desert if you choose is pecan pie.
We never did Mac and cheese, but I'm not against it, my wife's is amazing
My aunt hosts every year and she makes two turkeys - a big one in the oven and my uncle deep fries a smaller one. One of my other uncles brings his latest hunting harvest, so if y'all ain't never had pheasant, y'all need to learn something today. Sometimes it's venison, sometimes it's... whatever else. Luckily, sometimes it's pheasant.
My one uncle takes pride in his soups and his drunken monologues, so I get a really good soup as an appetizer every year. The sides are always great and usually pretty standard - stuffing, green beans, pumpkin, potatoes and sweet potatoes...all the regulars.
Who the hell eats mac and cheese at thanksgiving?
I usually do a standing rib roast for a thanksgiving but the women decided they want rack of lamb this year so, I'm doing lamb ribs.
Not sure what else yet. i'll Figure it out.
Leftovers are grilled lamb ribs because I'm buying an extra rack and bourbon with hootears.
My grandma (Tidewater woman through and through) used to make an oyster casserole that was so good. Primary ingredients were oysters, butter, and breadcrumbs I believe. I would love to come across that recipe somewhere.
There are a ton of recipes for oyster stuffing (dressing, whatever), and it seemed to be a mountain folk favorite as all the little country stores stocked oysters just before Thanksgiving for just that purpose. Go Googling and good luck.
Try googling scalloped oysters - lots of similar recipes. The one we use is called oyster casserole from a 1940's cookbook I inherited from my grandmother. It is very similar to Paula Deen's, but does not have the bread crumbs, celery or nutmeg, and uses a full stick of butter, more saltines (I use low sodium), and some hot sauce.
Best dish is simply turkey, mashed potatoes, and stuffing all stirred into a big pile or bowl. Best turkeys are wild ones brought from the woods that morning.
Best side is fruit salad homemade. Recipe is simple, big can of fruit cocktail, sour cream, and lots and lots of marshmallows. Runner up is always good deviled eggs.
Best dessert is french silk pie no questions asked.
If you put any of that red cranberry crap on I'm secretly judging your soulless existence.
My turkey brine has evolved steadily over the 3 years I've been in charge of the turkey. It's where I like it now.
I give it a good hard smoke for 2-3 hours before draping 1-1.5 pounds of pecan wood bacon over the bird and finish the smoke that way. The bacon can then be used to enhance whatever potato and greens dishes may be made that day.
Best side is stuffing and properly prepared stuffing has a pound of breakfast sausage in it.
Turkey should be DRY brined overnight and spatchcocked. Wet bring makes for a moist, but flavorless bird. Spatchcocking allows the breast and thigh to be done at the same time so the breast is still moist when the thigh is cooked.
Leftover turkey makes for GREAT enchiladas.
Leftover stuffing should be waffled and served under a fried egg and maple syrup for breakfast.
Turkey: as long as it's dark and moist I couldn't give a rats ass how it's cooked. Day after, that shit needs to be stuffed on a roll with some gravy.
Ham: Sure.
Greenbean Casserole: Don't understand the hate for this. Include a pound of crumbled bacon, bacon drippings, and a cup of cheese and you've got something special going.
Mac 'n Cheese: Baked, obviously, with a splash of mustard. My wife told me last year she didn't believe this to be a Thanksgiving side dish. She got the kids.
Dressing: not stuffing. This should have the consistency of thick mashed potatoes, not some crumbly dry bullshit.
Mashed Taters: Smothered in turkey-stock gravy.
Sweet Potato Casserole: Soft, creamy sweet taters with a crispy layer of pecans on top.
Dessert: Only kids eat dessert on Thanksgiving. Grown ass men don't save room for this shit. Decent for the morning after, though.
always stuffing...and hoping to bag a wahoo the next day
So I discovered people don't eat the turkey skin? To me that's the best part.
Knew a guy who worked at Tech and his favorite sandwich was a chicken skin sammie. He also once registered so high on the cholesterol scale that his doctor sent a nurse to find him and get him in for retesting that very day. Highest they'd ever encountered, and visible as a big band in the vial after blood centrifuge. Me, I like turkey skin, chicken skin, duck skin, pork fat...but I know my limits. My buddy was relegated to nuts, twigs, leaves and berries for quite a while. I mean, why bother to roast a turkey with a brown and crispy skin if you aren't gonna eat it?
twirly bird....
Yep - that's what mine looked like if you replace the bottle of rub with a can of Atmospheric Disruption by Heist Brewery. General consensus from the fam was it was the best yet - similar flavor to the smoked on a can of fosters for 12 hours with a crispier skin, and juicier then the deep fried. I propped a drip pan up on two narrow bricks to catch the run off and create more indirect heat, stuffed it with split oranges and apples, seasoned the inside with a rub but only hit the outside with salt and pepper. Used a mix of Pecan and Applewood chips. Ran it about 350 for right around 3 hours. After sitting for an hour before carving (finishing the sides), the white meat ran clear juices when squeezed between a thumb and finger, and the meat came clean of the thighs.
Apple and cherry chips here, and it is my new favorite way to cook Turkey. I was afraid that it was going to have too much smoke, but not the case.
On a separate note, does anyone know how they sell spit roasted chickens at the groceries for less than what they charge for the chickens?
I assume Kville is Knoxville? I travel through there when I visit my folks. How do you stand the vol fans? Must be a real challenge.
I really like the color Pecan chips add to poultry. More of a lighter, golden color.
Pretty sure that they sell at cost to get people in the door. They are always run the low cost special on days when most busy people would shop.
Actually Kernersville, NC. About 5 minutes from where Jalen Cone grew up in Walkertown, about 20 minutes from where Divine grew up north of Winston, and 25 the other way to Herndon's and Tre's home in Greensboro, so right in the middle of the Triad. Most football fans here root for VT or App, with a bunch of ACC fans who don't come out until hoops start.
Since we're working until the 9th on rotation, our resident Cajun cooked us a Gumbo feast.
It was superb; especially for this cold ass climate
And yes, that is Hokie Bird on my hardhat! Let's Go, Stomp the Hoos!!!
Livin' large here!
Two turkeys this year, many sides. This guy showed up on the back patio so I guess we could have had pheasant too