Americans! Thanksgiving!

Francl27

ar9179 wrote: »

I've used this method for turkey, and chicken, and it's the best way to make sure that the breast isn't over-cooked. An oven probe or instant read thermometer makes it fool-proof. You'll need garden clippers to get through a turkey's backbone, though. Poultry shears aren't tough enough! It cooks fast, so your oven isn't occupied all day.

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/11/butterfiled-roast-turkey-with-gravy-recipe.html

I will dry brine and let it sit in the fridge for 24-48 hrs. The skin will be crispy, which is a must. The meat is juicy and cooked to the right temp for white AND dark meat. You get goodies for gravy, too, but I love Ina Garten's recipe for make-ahead gravy.

I'm another who recommends, and prefers, dressing instead of stuffing. It's impossible to cook stuffing to the correct temperature without over-cooking the turkey...and I don't like mushy, either.

Lol I love the descriptions. Awesome. Will have to bookmark this.

treehopper1987

My family:
Turkey
Stuffing
Mashed potatoes (thankfully, I am not a fan of sweet potatoes due to them being too sweet and despise the sweet potatoes with marshmallows, but a lot of families have this)
Green beans
Corn
Crescent rolls
Mac n' cheese (sometimes)
Cranberry sauce/whole cranberries
pumpkin pie (some people have sweet potato pie)

MsJulesRenee

We make bread stuffing from scratch with little crumbles of breakfast sausage and extremely good quality sage. Smells amazing when it is cooking!

triddering

anewday23 wrote: »

Almost everyone has the following menu:
Roasted turkey with stuffing
Mashed potato with turkey gravy
Cranberry sauce (canned usually)
Sweet potatoes (the mini marshmallow recipe is super traditional)
Green bean casserole (Campbell's recipe usually)
Pumpkin pie

Of course everyone does it a bit differently but this is the most traditional American spread.

These plus "stuffing" or "dressing"... There are many recipes for these too, and the key difference between the two is the texture. The stuffing goes inside the bird when cooking, it is more moist and mushy, kind of like the texture of bread pudding. You have to make sure it cooks thoroughly because it had come in contact with the raw bird. The dressing can be a bit firmer and even a bit dry/crispy on top and cooks faster, comes in contact with the bird on the plate, so no worries about cooking time

TheSunshineQueen

Well, I come from a Puerto Rican family so our Thanksgiving meals have quite a few items that aren't likely to be found on a regular T-day table, lol. Spanish-dishes exempted, we always have:

- turkey w/ stuffing
- mashed potatoes (w/ turkey gravy)
- corn on the cob
- cheddar-garlic biscuits
- potato salad or macaroni salad - we usually vote, lol
- regular garden salad that no one ever, ever touches
- honey-glazed ham (w/ pineapple and cherries)

as for dessert:
- pie (cherry, apple, pumpkin, lemon meringue, etc)
- vanilla ice-cream (for the heathens who like to ruin good pie by smothering it w/ ice-cream)
- some variety of cookie
- some variety of cake (last year it was cherry cheesecake)

and snacks, of course:
- seasonal fruits
- every single nut you can think of
- salted crackers w/ American cheese





oddly enough, only one or two people in my incredibly large family actually likes cranberry sauce--we've tried several varieties, including a few homemade concoctions, to no avail--so no one bothers to bring/make it. what does one even do with cranberry sauce, anyway?