Just about every common food option for thanksgiving is mediocre. Turkey is dry and flavorless unless you drench it in salt. Cranberry sauce is awful. Not only does dressing (stuffing) look unappealing it also tastes just as bad. And pumpkin pie could be better. Casserole and mash potatoes are alright but nothing to just fond over. The only good meal is mac and cheese and that ONLY depends on who’s cooking it. The 4th of July is the superior holiday in terms of food.
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You’re doing it wrong. It sounds like you’re following some goofy rules about what Thanksgiving is supposed to be.
Turkey? Yeah, sure, we’ll have one. Ours wears a woven blanket made of bacon to cook. Never had it come out dry.
Ham too, why not. Lasagna, of course. Crab cakes, definitely. Maybe a beef roast or ribs.
Sides? No fewer than 12. Chestnut stuffing, potato filling, green beans, roasted potatoes, caprese salad, broccoli, asparagus, etc.
Desserts. Should be four or five. Pumpkin pie (don’t like it? Good. I wanted it all anyway). Cherry pie. Apple pie. Blueberry pie, chocolate cream roll, ice cream, etc.
Based on your description, whoever is cooking your food doesn’t know how to do it right. It’s not like Thanksgiving requires you to cook everything wrong.
So uh is your family looking to adopt? 🤤
All the foods I mention are standard Thanksgiving meals. It’s just mediocre. Don’t see it any other way.
Wasn’t this on Reddit yesterday?
How the hell would we know!?
I love turkey, but I’ve never had a turkey come out dry. Mother brines hers, I just baste it and mine is also nice.
Cranberry sauce is delicious but I home can that in advance, cranberry orange thing. Very tasty.
Overall I’d probably pick chicken being easier to cook, but the turkey is not bad and oh man cold turkey sandwiches later are just easy lazy meals for me.
Separate the breast from the dark meat and cook to different times. Reassemble on the cutting board. Enjoy perfect turkey.
Alternative: oven the breast and confit the dark meat with rosemary and garlic. You do it once a year so why not go the extra mile? Leftover confit meat can be made into ravioli filling.
You got a newsletter? I’d subscribe.
If you don’t care for a cranberry sauce’s tartness or oversweetness to compensate for that tartness, consider pomegranate seeds or red currant jelly instead. Much more balance between sweet, fruit, and tart.
One Thanksgiving my housemates and I all realized none of us were going home for Thanksgiving, and the richest of us offered to buy whatever I needed to make a proper Thanksgiving meal. I agreed on the condition that the kitchen was off limits to everyone except me the day before, and day of until 2:00 pm. They agreed.
I spent the better part of two days making the turkey, stuffing, four different potato dishes, (mashed potatoes, potato salad, au gratin potatoes and baked yams) turkey and beef gravy, green bean and ham hock casserole, mac and cheese, a pumpkin pie, a strawberry pie, a mince meat pie, and cranberry sauce. All from scratch, exept the pie crusts. That’s just unnecessary outside of competitive cooking.
They actually left me alone to cook, for the first time ever, and everything came out perfectly. I loaded up my plate, and decided to take a walk when I heard the benefactor of the meal pick up his phone, call someone, and say “Hey Grandma, happy Thanksgiving. Did you know that you can cook a turkey and have the breast be moist?”
Got pissed at one of them because he didn’t eat anything but the pies, and I was the only person that got any of the pies. Didn’t even get a piece of the strawberry pie. I made homemade whipped cream for that thing too!
This was over a decade ago, and yes, I’m still salty about that.
A lot of this is based on cooking skill and recipe, but I do agree with you on cranberry sauce. I hate it with a passion! Which is why I make my own, based on this recipe - cinnamon apple cranberry sauce by Aaron McCargo Jr. I saw it on a Food Network marathon and tried making it, and now its a staple recipe for Thanksgiving and Christmas in my house. I’ve massaged the recipe over the years, and I think I’m at half the sugar and double the cinnamon, but this is a way to try something new with a completely different taste profile if you’d like.
As others have said, it’s all based on how good the cook is. Since the food is so ubiquitous, everyone tries to make it, even when they’d be better off throwing a frozen pizza in the oven.
Except pumpkin pie, that is the only thing that is impossible to be bad. Mediocre, sure, but always worth eating. (Just drown the crust in whipped cream if it’s store-bought.)
I agree with you. And it’s not because of poor cooking. I just don’t like most Thanksgiving food.
On the other hand, pulled pork BBQ and grilled meats on the 4th are some of my favorites.
Many years ago I realized I can serve whatever I want on a holiday. I literally hate traditions that repeat every year for eternity. Move on, choose different foods. If other people don’t like it, it’s their problem. Life is too short not to enjoy it.
Disagree. Skill issue. Was going to tell a joke but you already roasted your own mother.
Grandmother, actually. And I consider her to have the best food I’ve had. Everyone’s trying to say “it’s the cook” instead of perhaps considering that certain things just don’t taste good. Never said it was horrible, I said it was overrated
Don’t taste good to you, maybe. That’s why taste is a matter of taste.
I love all those “low” savoury notes. Sounds like you probably like “brighter” or sharper flavours.
Legitimately, my mouth started watering just as I was typing this up lol
As a grudgingly picky eater, I agree with you
This isn’t about the food being bad, this is about your family being bad cooks.
lol I consider my grandmother (the cook) to be the best I’ve ever had. But when it comes to thanksgiving, it’s average at best.
Then she is not a good cook for Thanksgiving food.
it’s not always about the cook. Some food is just subpar. I’ve had it from her, my other grandma, other family members, cooks at school. Eating the same dishes every single year. It ain’t horrible but it’s not to die for either.
I suspect a lot comes from the ingredients being mediocre when you buy them at high demand periods.
I come from the French country side, my father raises poultry and makes his own foie gras and deli meats. When I see the shit they sell at Christmas, which most of my fellow countrymen eat every year… I wouldn’t be surprised reading a comment similar to yours about French Christmas food.
Maybe your grandma can’t afford the good stuff, or doesn’t have access to it ?
I second this. I thought I hated turkey until I went to my first long term significant other’s family thanksgiving in my 20’s…
Turns out my mom just always overcooked it.
Cranberry sauce is better with jalapeño. Miles better.
I’m just sayin
Best part of thanksgiving is the leftover turkey sandiwches
Hell. Yes.
Fry up that skin like a piece of bacon. Brine some tomatoes. Mix up some concoction of mayo/gravy/whatever suits your liking…
Or…
Dice up that turkey & skin. Press it together into discs with the leftover stuffing/dressing, and brown it up like a patty with some butter…
This goes surprisingly well with a bit of canned cranberry mixed with mayo.
Leftover Turkey sandwich time is the Holiest time of the year.
This post is such a skill issue it’s crazy. Get some gravy on the turkey, make some cranberry sauce and stuffing from scratch, and get some pie variety if you’re not a fan of pumpkin. Casserole and mash potatoes are mid, agree, and good mac and cheese is godly regardless of the time of year.
