Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

i think i might be the only american in recent history that has never had cream of mushroom soup in any form (which also rules out the green bean casserole that seems to grace the majority of tables). i guess that's what happens when your dad is an environmentalist and has the family eating organic unprocessed food before anyone thought that was cool.

"The homage to Christopher Columbus—and his big Italian eyes that discovered America..."?? Right. What did Vikings eat, again? I mean, if we're gonna push this "discovery of America" connection to Thanksgiving (though I don't know why you would), let's go further back.

And this: "...Aunt Esther's sweet potatoes might contain traces of skeletal systems." So, presumably, might that fried chicken that's being advocated.

Thoughts on the canned cranberry sauce:

1) My opinion is that if you have to eat the stuff, mash it up so that it can be applied like a sauce to the turkey or whatever else. But the common preparation around here (Memphis) is to slop it out in one solid mass and cut it into half-inch slices that are served as a separate side dish to be eaten like a weird Jell-O. I've actually been yelled at before for "messing up the sauce".

2) On that note, I once got a bunch of angry looks by bringing fresh, homemade cranberry sauce (I even made an extra batch with mint and orange zest!). People liked it once they tried it, but thought it was some sort of cranberry salad rather than a fruit sauce.

I can't stand the campbell's green bean cassarole, only because my grandmother makes it with truck loads of cheddar cheese, which is amazing.

I am pro canned cranberry sauce. I don't care if it's not sauce. it's good.

I never even bother with the turkey, I leave more for the rest of the family. my thanksgiving plate it mounded with dressing, mashed potatoes, green beans, sweet potatoes, and pillsbury cresent rolls. all covered in gravy. yummm.

I guess I don't understand the snarky marshmallow/bones remark...surely there are recipes on serious eats containing gelatin? and therefore bones? just sayin'.

If you don't have mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving Dinner, I'm not coming!

I live in the UK now, and my wife and I are having a risotto with saffron, smoked haddock and peas tonight. We're both mostly vegetarian, she's English by birth and I am via immigration, so T-day has never really figured in to our lives much. I'll pour a good bottle of San Giovese in honour of Chris, but that's as far as it goes.

The family's all coming over for Christmas, so we'll go all out then.

This is an amusing article.

I love Campbell's cream of mushroom soup. I love homemade cream of mushroom soup. I don't discriminate. :P As for green bean casserole. I had never had it until I moved to the mainland. My dad/family considers the dish an oddity as it's not really served traditionally in HI, at least not when I grew up. He actually makes a scratch version of it to take on Thanksgiving just to be weird.

I hate onions and turkey so that hasn't been on the table for years at home. I've never seen pearl onions other than in a jar, pickled, at people's homes.

I like marshmallows in very small doses. Too sweet alone, let alone with potatoes and that syrupy stuff.

I don't care for fresh cranberries. Ugh. I thanked someone for giving 2 lb of fresh cranberries to me while they were in WI, but I threw it in the trash after they left. I don't mind the canned stuff once a year. I prefer Jell-O with mandarin oranges inside, which I have ~3 times a year.

I'm sure I've eaten giblets in one form or another...? Is that the stuff they put in dirty rice? Or is that gizzards?

i love canned cranberry sauce!! i can't help it.

Funny, I wrote about a few of these things on my blog last week (esp. Green bean casserole, the marshmallows, etc.)...

http://tinyurl.com/5ncaxy

"an ideal invite to a dance party" I love it!

And funnily enough, I came home to homemade green bean casserole last night, everything made from scratch by my roommate. When I said, "Craving thanksgiving?" She was perplexed. She had no idea it was a common Thanksgiving dish, she had only recently heard of it at a BBQ restuarant here in Manhattan and when she looked it up she (somehow) came upon a "from scratch" recipe!

@teenagefoodie, there are recipes on Serious Eats containing bones in a much more prominent way: Whole birds. And racks of lamb. And pork chops. I mean, are we really frightened of bones?

As far as turkey goes, I'm not a huge turkey guy, but I do enjoy a turkey burger from time to time or a turkey sandwich. I guess the reason why I don't usually roast a turkey when it's not Thanksgiving is because being single, how the hell am I going to eat a turkey alone?

I absolutely agree on dumping the Thanksgiving turkey! In my house we have gone to the Thanksgiving crown roast of pork. Unlike a turkey where the sizes generally run from large to ginormous, you can have the crown roast done with any number of bones from 12 on up, depending upon the size of the crowd you have (you can even go smaller with a "prayer roast" where the bones are overlaid like praying fingers instead of sewn into a circle). No thawing required -- crown roast comes oven ready! Instead of hours of brining, injecting, buttering and basting, just give the roast a quick spice rub the night before. No roasting marathon where half of the turkey is overdone or Barbara Kafka method cooking where you have to ventilate the kitchen by opening evey door and window in the forty degree cold -- crown roast cooks up to medium rare in about 90 minutes and finishes under a tent of aluminum foil on the counter while you bake the biscuits. You still can do a great table presentation by mounding dressing in the center and surrounding the roast with fresh herbs and currants and the crown roast always carves into perfect chops. I promise, if you have the crown roast with all of the usual sides, noone will miss the bird!

LOL. Funny post, Erin. I hate pearl onions. Thanks for takin' 'em down a notch.

my middle-america born-and-bred grandmother taught my mom to make thanksgiving dinner the week after she arrived from thailand: standard green bean casserole, canned yams with marshmallows, jellied cranberry sauce, potato buds, powdered gravy mix, ambrosia with canned fruit cocktail, cool whip and MORE marshmallows.
i don't care what anyone says, I LOVE IT! it's the same meal she's made for christmas, easter and thanksgiving for over 34 years and there may be alternatives, but you can keep them.
oh, and other peoples' attempts to 'fancy up' the casserole via fresh green beans, made from scratch soup: FAIL!!!!!

@Dee--OMG, those creamed pearl onions sound heavenly. I am totally trying those next week.

Ok, lets start at the top. Cream of Mushroom soup is good as an ingredient. Green bean cassorole with the cream of mushroom soup and canned fried onions are one of my favorite side dishes. I am going to try to make homemade green bean cassorole one of these days though with the Good Eats recipe (modified a bit though more than likely).

Canned cranberry jelly (sauce) is great too. It is very easy because you just pop it out of the can and slice it up. I have actually made homemade cranberry jelly (just basically filter out the seeds and skins with a mesh strainer) and that puts the canned stuff to shame though the homemade stuff still has the same texture.

My mom's dressing is the best in the family because she cooks up the giblets (neck and gizzards anyway) the night before and then chops it finely to put in the dressing.

Pearl onions and marshmallows have never been at the family dining room table and I don't even like sweet potatoes really.

And turkey, well I love the turkey when it is nice and juicy. I like turkey the most though in sandwich form. Just two pieces of white bread, helmanns mayo, a sprinking of Lawry's seasoned salt, and a nice pile of turkey is the perfect sandwich.

Aw, man, I love the giblets! In my family, the gizzards are so well-liked that my mom buys an extra package. And they're sooooooo good - she boils the crap out of them (Hi, Chef Anne!) until they're soft, and then roasts them with the bird. So good.

Our yearly morning treat while watching the Macy's parade is picking at the neck, and eating the heart and liver that my mom's got on the stove for gravy base. Gah, I love Thanksgiving.

Like a lot of you, I hate white meat. I barely take turkey anyway, but what little I do take is stuff from the thigh area.

@ Benitowine

I got a kick out of your post. That is me all of the way.

I don't know what it is, but I like the canned cranberry sauce, and I like it cut into slices as mentioned. It takes me back to being a kid, and I only eat it one time of the year.

My mother in law brought some homemade sauce last year, and couldn't understand why I didn't want any. I tried it of course, but still, I want the stuff from the can on my plate, rammed right up next to my mashed taters. I don't get it, but that's the way it is.

She asked if she should bring the homemade stuff this year, and I said yes. I wouldn't want my tastes to cause others to not have any. The funny thing is, last year all the canned sauce was whiped out, and the homemade sauce was barely eaten.

Now onto the turkey.

I don't care if it wasn't part of the first Thanksgiving. If cooked right, it's damn good and juicey to. My wife has turkey down to a science.

We're having deep fried and oven baked this year.

Giblets are fine for the gravy, but I don't want them in my stuffing. No way.

I've eaten green bean casserole (made with canned mushroom soup and the canned fried onions) once. It was awful. Yuck.

Once in a while I'll buy a can of cranberry jelly and just eat it with a spoon, straight from the can. There's something about the texture, the crazy sweetness and the not natural tanginess that brings me back to being a kid in the 70's. One of my jobs was to plate the jelly and cut it into slices. O course, I used the ridges to determine just the right thickness.

one of my friends smokes his turkey in one of those japanese egg shaped barbeques. it is {to quote sarah silverman} beyond beyond.

@megannesta: I've never had tinned cream of mushroom soup, either... partly because my parents too went the health-food and organic route, and partly because it just looks frightful...

Cranberry gel may be a bit sickly, but somehow, champagne in cranberry sauce feel like it belongs in the same category as hot-dogs with truffle mayonnaise... why tart up something that is perfectly good in its simple state (and yes, this is purely subjective)?

Canned cranberry sauce is ok on a sandwich or something, but I hate it with the meal. I've been making my own for the past couple years and changing up the ratio of other fruits. One year, I did a multiberry cranberry sauce. Another year I used apples and spices. That one was kinda like a 'real' version of that cranberry apple compote crud they put in TV dinners.

Thank goodness we don't all have to eat together on Thursday.

The green bean casserole is awful. I can't even eat it to be polite. I'll take a little and hide it under some other food. The green beans are mushy and the onions are disgusting. I do understand, though, that for many it's an easy-to-prepare comfort food. I just can't go there.

But why anyone eats the so called cranberry "sauce" is a real mystery to me. It's so simple to throw a bag of cranberries in a saucepan with a cup of water and a cup of sugar. Boil until the little darlins pop open. And if you've got 60 seconds to spare, add the zest from an orange. Yum. Guaranteed wonderful flavor and texture.

I agree with Expat, Thanksgiving is not about complaining about food, it's about being thankful. Thankful that you food at all, and family to share in "traditions".

I personally can't live without the cranberry sauce from the can. We always get 2 cans. One for each candle the adorns the table setting each year. lol

This tradition started when one of my kids asked why I always put the tradition can of sauce on the table when no one ate it. I told him it was to use as a candleholder and promptly stuck one of the candle in it.

Now that's the first thing asked each year, "Who's bringing the candleholders?" Enjoy your holiday and thanks.

Pumpkin pie is the best. I don't care about what else is on the table. My Mother makes these pies twice a year: Thanksgiving & Christmas. She gives one pie to my brother and one to me. I can eat the whole pie. MMM! Nothing better. This is the only pie I eat.

Hey all and happy Thanksgiving - why on earth is it even called cranberry sauce anyway?? It's jam (or jelly - depending on if you removed the skins and pulp). And even the canned stuff is pretty natural - all that pectin in the boiled skin gives it that 'punch it and it comes right back up' texture. Sigh. Turkey just isn't turkey without good 'ol Cranberry sauce-jam. (doesn't have the same ring to it though.....)