Rant Thanksgiving - Page 3

phatch · #31 10-10-2009, 03:37 PM

I'll happily admit to having experimented with cooking turkey, making stuffing and all at different thanksgivings. I got feedback from my family (wife) and have made further adaptations. I've even had some out and out failures.

So while I would describe it as tradtitional in that it is roasted turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes etc, I don't make any of it like any of my family or friends do or did. And it is now to the point where I don't use recipes. It's all by eyeball, memory and instant read thermometer.

petalsandcoco · #32 10-10-2009, 03:37 PM

Pete, a true gentleman .

As for the HISTORY of T-Day, this has been an interesting thread from all perspectives.

I enjoy the origin of a topic.

Petals

bughut · #33 10-10-2009, 04:11 PM

Just googled Succotash Susanne. Up till now, i've only known it from bugs bunny cartoons when the Moustached baddie Cries Suffering succotach. Forgive my ignorance. Your recipe sounds grand.

Obviously we dont have thanksgiving in Scotland.

I know from bitter experience re. chrismas, how stuck in a rut families can be and against all forms of evolution. But we've all evolved over the centuries. Surely the food great granny is tucking into now, is majorly different to what her own great granny would have enjoyed. And so on, back to the earliest days. I know Victorian/Edwardian Christmas dinners were a far cry from the supposed tradition we passionately strive for now and for what. The huge majority are bored with dried out turkey and all the trimmings.
I'm quite sure peasants in the middle ages would have been chuffed to bits with a chunk of anything resembling meat. Let alone a stuffed turkey.

So many of these posts resemble my husbands family attitude to christmas, but we've knocked it on the head. They always want to come to us for the holidays. And if they want our abundant fare. And they do. Believe me...roaring fire/presents and general ambience, they also enjoy curry. (we've done it twice and they've enjoyed it. Reluctantly at first, but eventually loved it) They've also had venison steaks with a red wine and rosemary reduction.

Mind you, they have also had (with the steaks) Crisp roast potatoes, mashed potatoes 3 or 4 veges and a clootie dumpling (Trad Scot) and mince pies. Shortbread with a cup of tea later to show i'm not entirely a heathen

Surely christmas and Thanksgiving are about being grateful for what we have. Some folk are stuck in a groove they will never get out of, and see it as a way of continuing a comfort zone with their family. Maybe its the only time they see their kids, or the only time they cook. Maybe its their first thanksgiving/christmas together and they want to make a show of it...

AT the risk of sounding cheesy, Enjoy. If you make an effort and cook with love your friends and famly will enjoy it too.

petalsandcoco · #34 10-11-2009, 10:29 AM

I know a chef who stuffs the cavity of a turkey with a small ham....
Has anyone heard of this technique ?

Then I met another chef.....who stuffs a different way.....
He said a turkey should be stuffed towards the neck end only leaving the cavity open and takes legs off . Does anyone do this ?

What is your technique ?

Petals

ps. Do you have a stuffing of choice ?

phatch · #35 10-11-2009, 10:44 AM

I don't stuff the turkey. Slows things way down, complicates things and is difficult to cook to food safe temps without overcooking the bird.

I do cook a small turkey a month or so before Thanksgiving so I can make turkeystock to freeze for the big day. This helps me prepare a good stuffing outside the bird that still tastes authentically of turkey, improves the gravy and can help out with the bird too.

petalsandcoco · #36 10-11-2009, 06:31 PM

Yes, very good idea.

teamfat · #37 10-11-2009, 06:50 PM

If you aren't organzied enough to do a whole turkey in advance, legs and wings make good stock and can be done the a day or two before. Having a good stock on hand really helps bring out the best flavors in lots of the traditional dishes.

mjb.

Order_Fire · #38 10-11-2009, 10:48 PM

I resist the temptation to get too creative with my Thanksgiving menu. Fresh food with thoughtful preparation works best for me.

Phaedrus · #39 10-12-2009, 02:17 AM

I don't "mess with" Thanksgiving, but I have pared it down a bit. Up until about a decade ago we always got the family together and my aunt prepared an epic spread. We're talking the usual turkey and dressing, potatoes, yams, etc but also ham, four or five kinds of salad, three veggies, several casseroles- basically a ridiculous amount of stuff. Now our get-together is usually just immediate family. It's more about being together than having a huge spread so I keep it simple. I always make the turkey (with stuffing in the bird and a small pan on the side with no onions for my idiot brother who won't touch them

). There's always gravy & mashed potatoes, and I generally make one other veggie. We always have bread and jelled cranberries chilled from a can (what can I say, everyone likes it). Desert is usually pumpkin pie with fresh whipped cream. Often the pie comes from Sam's Club.

It's enough work to do dinner without making it a two day ordeal.

bubbamom · #40 10-12-2009, 10:36 AM

growing up, a friend's family didn't care for turkey (GASP), so for Thanksgiving, her mom made lobster - - two tails apiece, one for dinner and one "for later". Whatever floats your boat.

RPMcMurphy · #41 10-12-2009, 04:58 PM

I'll just sous-vide the turkey parts I have left over from easters "free supermarket turkey" i think this year.

greyeaglem · #42 10-13-2009, 02:07 AM

When I talk about tradition, I don't mean any tradition other than your own. Most people have turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy. I know people who take those items and roll them all up in a lefse. That's Thanksgiving tradition to them. If you have lobster, fish, ham or any other thing, that's your tradition and that's what I'm talking about. A basic meal that you can count on to be the same year in and year out without any surprises. As for the original, I don't know or care as I wasn't there. The origins of the Thanksgiving most people celebrate is based on Squanto and his tribe bringing food to some starving pilgrims. What the pilgrims labeled a Thanksgiving dinner came some years later and they were celebrating something entirely different, which I won't go into as I don't want to tarnish a holiday that is celebrated for the right reasons. I am Cheyenne, Irish and Norwegian in equal parts. The rest is composed of Dane, Romanian and other European goulash too numerous to mention. Indians generally don't celebrate Thanksgiving as they regard every day as Thanksgiving. They don't understand setting only one day a year aside for it and kind of resent everybody associating that holiday as originating with them. And sure, they didn't have green bean casserole at the first Thanksgiving. Neither did we. I think somebody made and brought it sometime in the '80s. Before that by about two years my mom melted Velveeta with some green beans and we loved it. Prior to that, we never had any green beans on the table. Now, we always do.This thread made me so hungry for green bean casserole that I have some in the nuke as we speak. It comes out fine in the nuke in 5 min. Pass the jellied cranberries please, I'll eat 'em right out of the can.

teamfat · #43 10-13-2009, 02:45 AM

Speaking of green beans, friend of mine is involved with a group that does a Thanksgiving potluck every year. Usually a pretty good spread, the host for the year does the turkey, the guests provide everything else.

I didn't attend the year in question, they are 900 miles away, but it was green beans. The host did the turkey, and *everyone* brought some sort of green bean dish. No potatoes, no bread, no salads, no cranberries, no pies - nothing but turkey and green beans. An amazing variety of green bean dishes, so I was told, but still....

mjb.

Koukouvagia · #44 10-13-2009, 07:49 AM

Thanksgiving is my least favorite holiday aside from the weather, partly due to my dislike of turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and yams. I could eat any one of those things by itself but somehow when they present themselves in combination I don't want them.

Since most of us didn't care much for turkey we ended up doing a pork roast or a prime rib for the main course and roasted a turkey breast as a side dish. That was our tradition.

Starting with Columbus Day through Thanksgiving I'm a little iffy on these American holidays and don't care for them as happy celebrations considering the truth of history. I do however like to think of this time as a celebration of the harvest and focus on that - thank goodness it's apple pie time in NY!

Theresa · #45 10-13-2009, 08:41 AM

The only thing I change on Thanksgiving is the sweet potatoes. Since there are only 4 of us, from 12, who eat them, I try to do them differently every couple of years. Two years ago I added a praline topping to the potato chunks.

We're not fans of turkey, so we only get a twelve-pounder. Our main meat is ham, with the secondary actually being a lasagna with meat sauce. The turkey is considered the third meat, and is there mostly for the two diabetics in the family.

Theresa