Food What's on the menu for Thanksgiving?

We are eating TGD here, traditional then football

 

I keep forgetting that you guys (Americans) have a longer season, and hold your Thanksgiving dinner late in the year. Ours (always on the 2nd Monday of October) is long past, and our sights are firmly set on Christmas holiday season. This year, the family enjoyed a turkey dinner with all the trimmings, but we decided to spatchcock the bird. Has anybody ever tried this? Usually we brine the bird overnight to get it juicy and then roast it in the traditional manner. But spatchcocking is very similar to the Chinese method of salted duck or chicken, where you split the bird, flatten it and then let it sit with a dry rub of salt overnight before roasting. Some call it a dry brine (oxymoron that that is) but what happens is all the meat cooks at the same rate, so you can leave it in the oven for a shorter time. Our 13 pound bird cooked in about 70 mins.

here's a pic before it went into the oven:



a related article:

How to Cook a Spatchcocked Turkey: The Fastest, Easiest Thanksgiving Turkey | Serious Eats


Happy Thanksgiving American Friends!

 

something in myrtle beach

 

I have federal jury duty the last two weeks of this month. It's over 2 hours from home, so whatever I bring for Thanksgiving dinner will probably be something I can just buy at a store the night before. I'm not sure what to bring. I'm open to suggestions.

 

I am just starting to get my head around this year's Thanksmas. I am pretty sure I will be making stock this weekend from last year's carcasses.

While it bubbles away, I will be settling my menu and assigning dishes.

Planning ahead!

 

I spatchcocked a couple chickens this summer. I wrote about it in the grill/barbecue/smoke thread. I will be smoking a turkey for thanksgiving.

 

One of my sisters is cooking: A ham, cornbread stuffing (storebought ), yam casserole.

We're cooking: A turkey stuffed with sage sausage, broccoli & cheese, homemade rolls, homemade apple pie. And a jug of fresh lemonade if our tree has enough lemons (seems to).

 

We had Eden's family gathering on Sunday. Pretty run-of-the-mill. Turkey, ham, sweet potatoes, corn, cranberry sauce, some other vegetable things I didn't try (made with bacon.) I made green bean casserole and pumpkin bread, Eden made mashed potatoes.

There was no pumpkin pie. The only thing pumpkin-related was the bread I made (from a box, and it sorta tasted more like spice cake.) I'll probably do Thanksgiving with my family next year, but the year after that? I am totally making pumpkin pie.

 

My wife is itching to make a pumpkin pie completely from scratch.

 

Thanksgiving dinner at my daughter's in Brooklyn and no idea whats on the menu.

And she scored two tickets to the Friday matinee of Allegiance, a new musical about the internment of Japanese Americans during WW II (yes, a musical) with George Takei and inspired loosely by his own experience in those camps.

 

Our traditional Thanksgiving breakfast with turkey, stuffing, cheesey potatoes and such. Parades, then football and frolicking with the grandson. Best day of the year.

 

Sounds like the making of a song.

 

We had a great success! I have literally never cooked a meal where every single dish turned out exactly how I wanted it to before this one. The menu I cooked was as follows:

Organic free-range turkey rubbed well with duck fat, sea salt and cracked pepper and paprika, and drizzled with maple syrup, roasted with several cut apples in the bottom of the pan. It was not too sweet, and egregiously moist and delicious.

Dressing (stuffing) cooked as a casserole, made with numerous kinds of bread cubes (white, challah, wheat, rye, pumpernickel), duck sausage, alheira sausage, beef bacon, herbs and onions, chestnuts, sweet corn, and free range chicken broth.

Mashed potatoes (three varieties) with soy butter and soy sour cream, sea salt and cracked pepper.

Puree of pumpkin, butternut squash, and carrot, with sweet spices, brown sugar, soy butter, and rum.

Brussels sprouts roasted with sea salt, EVOO, and garlic.

Fresh raw cranberry relish with raspberries and lingonberries, lime, pomegranate, mulberry molasses, sweet spices, and sumac.

Apple pie with raisins, dried cranberries, and rum.

We served everything with a 2011 California Zin and a 2004 Shiraz from Israel, and offered distilled mead with dessert.

 

Sandy made a traditional Wasp traditional meal just the way the TV tells us to do.