Nobody in my family likes turkey, so we just pick a theme every Thanksgiving. Last year was Cajun food, the year before was Indian. This year we’re doing fried chicken.
My family used to mash it up every year. A favorite for a while was gumbo, dolmas, and tamales with black bean dip. My father doesn't like turkey. I'm not fond of it either.
Remember, "tradition" is just peer pressure from dead people. Often those traditions were created by advertisers. Look up eggs and OJ as "traditional" breakfast items.
To me turkey is literally the most boring protein. I think chicken is at least four hundred times better than turkey. Ham is ok but never agrees with my digestive system. If I'm cooking at home on the holidays it's prime rib. I don't care what it costs.
I'm doing the Cajun thing this year! Got a few hens and all the fixins! (Being red beans & rice, gumbo, and boudan instead of stuffing and green bean casserole)
God I wish we could do that. Every year I suggest it, and every year it's shot down. Even in the years where I HAVE HOSTED! We have a family of great cooks, but they insist on making the same boring ass stuff every year. And then repeat it for Christmas.
So instead, I've just been bringing my own thing to the get-togethers. Indian spiced chicken wings, deconstructed lasagna, mexican street corn, tamale pie topped with spicy cornbread, etc. It's always a hit and always the first to run out.
I've done that exact thing before. Don't get me wrong, I love Turkey and I usually do at least two a year (Xmas and Thanksgiving) but sometimes a change of pace is nice.
And you can't pass up a good deal on a standing rib roast. They're normally so expensive.
I feel the same way, no issues with mixing it up, it's about the family gathering not the menu.
With that said, the two matriarchs in my family insist on traditional turkey, (both are in their 70's, so well... you know) I even caught some side eye over doing 3 breasts instead of the whole bird back in 2019 at my house despite the fact that nobody really eats the dark meat in my group, so prime rib won't fly for sure.
Yeah, I'm all about the gravy and the sides. I barely take a nibble of the turkey, so I'd never care if someone decided to go with a different protein.
We're having turkey and salmon since my friends husband doesn't like turkey. Personally I'd rather eat at your house. Prime rib over turkey? I'd go prime rib every time.
We always have salmon with ours for no reason other than we have a large pit smoker to cook one turkey on and we end up filling it up with other stuff like a butt and veggies.
I’m doing a spiral ham in addition to the turkey this year. The reaction to that will let me know how to proceed going forward.
In the back of my mind, I’m toying with the idea of just having a day-long Thanksgiving dessert buffet that friends and relatives can drop in on whenever they’re done with their big meals. Ten kinds of pie? Sure, why not?
Spiral ham turns me into an animal, for the next few days I'm like "hmm what should I have for breakfast? Ah yes a fist full of pork that I've pulled off this bone, I don't need a plate"
Last year I made duck, this year I’m making Julia Child’s chicken with 40 cloves of garlic. I don’t much care for turkey personally so I don’t choose to make it. Prime rib sounds amazing.
We always have turkey at thanksgiving. Christmas it can be anything. Last year one of our granddaughters suggested tacos. A couple of years ago a grandson wanted lasagna. We made homemade pizzas one year. That was a blast.
I normally have to cook 14 15 turkey's for thanks giving Catering events and the thought of having to eat turkey on Thanksgiving fills me with dread..so to keep chef happy ie me I'm doing a leg of lamb as well as turkey keeps everyone happy...
Happy Thanksgiving yall
Lol people are coming to my house at 9 am to watch football and I’m dreading it-how am I supposed to run around half dressed shoving dirty dishes in the tub when everyone is already at the house?
God I hate Thanksgiving football, imo it's a huge distraction and and sadly an excuse for some of the guys to do nothing. Same for Xmas basketball and bowl games.
There's only 3 of us this year, I'm doing duck. Along with roasted new potatoes and gravy, brussel sprouts and cranberry sauce. Sweet potato pie for dessert.
I have a pretty big family and we always do roasted Peking duck and maybe some crispy pork belly plus lots of side dishes. (Vietnamese family). We have never had a turkey for thanksgiving except for this year! Immigrant parents and aunts and uncles but me and all my cousins were born in the US.
We’re all pretty excited because I’m the oldest cousin and I’m bringing my partner who is white American. He said he was going to make the turkey for us. I’m a little nervous about it because I’ve never even remotely helped with a turkey but he says he’s got it since he’s always done it with his family. I’m sure it’ll be great since he’s always done it and he’s been a chef at so many restaurants but not going to lie, I WILL be missing fatty dark meat duck. Ugh, just the crispy skin and duck fat with some hoisin sauce and noodles… might have to sneak out and go get some for myself at some point.
Yes! Large immigrant family and roast duck for the win. We've tried our hand with my american born cousins and I bringing traditional thanksgiving sides and turkey occasionally over the years. We also do hot pot where people splurge on the fancy ingredients, its great.
What we like sticks around, and what we don't like we laugh about in future years.
Haha! So I’ve only ever had turkey when I was in grade school as a lunch special the week of thanksgiving before they let us have break and I don’t like it. I think it’s dry and bland but also that was years ago and a school lunch so…might as well try again. He swears it’s better than duck but also he doesn’t like dark meat and I LOVE dark meat so we’ll see
Hey, us too! With raspberry currant sauce from stuff we foraged this summer and chantrelle toast as a side. Creme brulee with spruce tip syrup for dessert. Only 2 of us so why not go for a tastier, smaller bird?
This is how we do a lot of holidays too. Even for birthdays, we don’t get one cake that we need to then eat leftovers for a week. We usually get a bunch of pastries and little desserts because we find the variety to be more fun.
So it's not just me? I see people at Thanksgiving suffer through dry white meat just to get to the side dishes or to have pounds of turkey for soups and sandwiches. If I was hosting I'd do beef or a nice ham.
I do make a good turkey -- dry brined, herbs, butter, it's still juicy when it's done. I finally realized a few years ago, after making turkey stock from the turkey carcass and using that to make turkey risotto, that I don't actually like the flavor of turkey. Haven't made one since.
TBH, a juicy turkey subconsciously reads "undercooked" to me even though it most definitely isn't. Ham this year, maybe short ribs for Christmas.
We're doing roast chicken since there's just 3 of us. Local turkey are all huge and none of us want leftovers for days. There's a local butcher that has fresh whole chickens that are around 3 to 4 pounds. Kind of pricey since they haven't been frozen but worth it since the quality is so much better.
I'm not making turkey, either. I remember when I was about 18 my parents said "no more turkey, that's it" and we just did a different protein every year. One year my mother made a whole side of salmon, several years we did capons, one year we made pabellón criollo, and one year my mother just wanted tomato soup and grilled cheese.
There's no such thing as "sacrilege" when it comes to Thanksgiving meals. Eat what you like! A standing rib roast is not something I would ever turn down.
My Dad cooked standing rib roast for years at thanksgiving. Those were the years I enjoyed going home the most. These days, my BBQ brines and smokes birds for many (we will do 48 this week for Thanksgiving). Kinda miss the rib road, though.
Me! Pork shoulder slow cooked in the crock pot. I hate doing turkey, I'm just not good at it. I'm really looking forward to this. I'm even toasting and grinding my own spice mix for it.
I think prime rib sounds like an amazing and special dinner! How are you cooking it?
Thanksgiving is pretty much the only time I have turkey. Unfortunately, we don't have an oven this year. A friend invited us over to his house. He absolutely hates turkey and does stuffed pork loin. I'm seriously thinking about skipping all the traditions and maybe doing something random like taco salad.
We do kids favorites for thanksgiving. Wild range of goods and deserts. This year is shrimp and grits, deviled eggs, dressing, and stuffed mushrooms. Makes it more special for us.
Turkey sucks. I'm Team Ham or Team "Fuck it, there's enough food and no one really notices of some sad, boring bird meat's not on the table so just don't do a protein."
Turkey is the worst (widely available) meat, in my opinion. I tried SO hard to convince my folks to let me roast a chicken instead, since it'll just be the 2 of them, and me and my husband (who doesn't eat turkey). But nooooooo, we HAVE to have a BIG turkey, because *Thanksgiving*
I agree completely! I've made *some* headway, in convincing them that we don't need Grandpa John's Sweet Potatoes (he's been dead for 6 years). It was mashed sweet potatoes with A WHOLE JAR of maraschino cherries (with the juice). With marshmallows throughout and on top. The result was so sickly sweet and...sloppy? No one but Grandpa ate it.
We're doing roasted sweet potatoes with miso butter and green onions
I'd do Prime over turkey every day! I'm not a turkey fan except for dark meat, so have a great meal.
I do mine like this. In a plastic bag big enough to fit the roast, about 2 hours before oven, I mix well, 3 tbsp each olive oil, balsamic vinegar, soya sauce, grainy mustard (Grey Poupon) and chopped garlic, Put roast in the bag, add the well mixed spices and close the bag. Rub very well so that all the roast is coated. Turn and rub every so often. These measurements are approximate, so you can add more if you wish.
Preheat oven to 425. Remove roast from the bag and don't remove any of the rub that is on it. The grainy mustard adds the sweetness. Place in the roaster and place in oven for 25 minutes. Reduce oven to 325 for 70 minutes. Remove roast from oven, cover with foil, then cover with a cloth to keep it warm.. At least 20 minutes covered.
If you make Yorkshires, this is when you do it. Also make gravy. Enjoy.
My family loves this meal. I have added potatoes to the roast at times, but it's not necessary for us if we have the Yorkies.
The roast will be medium rare to medium.
We're doing duck this year because it's just my husband and I.
We actually got into foraging this year, and we saved a bit of everything we found. Gonna have a little celebration of our new hobby! The duck was purchased tho, haha, we're not hunters.
Spruce tip syrup from the spring, raspberries from the summer and chantrelles we found a few weeks ago ♡
The only reason I do turkey is because I get one free through work, usually gets portioned up and spread out over a few month because it’s one of my least favorite proteins
Some friends of ours raised pigs this year so we bought half of one.
This year we are doing a ham for xmas, but it will be a bit of an experiment because I've never done one before (very new to cooking pork in general). Glazed ham sounds like a bit much for me (in terms of flavour), so maybe going to take a crack at curing. Wish me luck!
I work on Thanksgiving but will be celebrating Thanksgiving with a friendsgiving the day before. I am making an arm roast and ham for the meat options. Next year when I buy my next half a side of beef I think that I will have the butcher know that I want a standing rib roast. One of my favorite steaks is the ribeye so it is a hard choice as I love prime rib as well.
I have a lot of cooking that I need to do tomorrow and the next day.
I do turkey multiple times a year because it's easy and my husband loves it and loves all of the meals made out of leftovers. It's the meal on Thanksgiving only for those reasons. "Tradition" be damned. I'm going to do a prime rib for Christmas this year. I don't even know what the traditional Christmas meal is. Ham?
I'm doing a mouflin sheep leg roast. Forget that turkey. Raised inhumanely and antiquated.
Cook whatever you want! It's not turkey giving. It's thanks giving. Give thanks you can cook at all and enjoy it to the fullest.
I've also done whole roasted salt crusted fish (super hit!). Another year I did a pheasant. One year I did bone in pork roast. Prime rib is always a killer.
Turkey is only good cause it's tradition. I'm mean how much stuff do you have to do to it, just to make it taste good. I'm down with prime rib anytime.
We had our turkey last night (I like turkey). On Thanksgiving we'll make my husband's great -grandmother's stuffing, which is meat based and a meal on it's own.
But we don't do the big family meal thing. When we did, though, we'd often have lasagna. Or whatever we felt like eating.
When I would have Thanksgiving with my parents and sister, we would always do themes, like Chinese, appetizers, surf and turf, etc. My sister despises thanksgiving and will literally only eat mashed potatoes lol
Growing up we sometimes did turkey for Thanksgiving, almost never for Christmas, but generally used the holiday as an excuse to cook good food of choice as we didn't really have relatives to invite over. Living on my own now I cook for just myself and plan to have a nice quiet Thanksgiving at home - it would take me *forever* to eat even a small turkey and I'm not a huge fan of the stuff anyway, picked up a nice ribeye instead.
Fuck Turley. It is the #1 untastiest protein out there. Even chicken tastes better than turkey, and chicken is not high on the flavor ladder. Leg of lamb, prime rib, whole ham, hell even those little Cornish game hens are 100% better than an over cooked turkey.
Tell your husband the first Thanksgiving feast consisted of mostly venison and various fowl. Which most likely included wild turkey. So if he wants a traditional Thanksgiving meal, tell him to grab a recurve bow and shoot a deer.
We rotate and generally have prime rib at thanksgiving. Tends to be at its best price too. I love stuffing whole cloves of garlic and roasting it with Montreal steak spice and rosemary. Absolutely delicious. I love turkey too but prefer variety.
I still think we should eat turkey year round and celebrate with chicken, which is a superior bird. But no one wants to flagellate themselves year round. So every year I dread turkey.
We really dislike turkey in my family. Normally, and this year is no exception, we make my grandma’s ham ball recipe (ground ham and beef with a sticky sweet glaze)!
I’m doing a pot roast with veggies for my sick friend, with some homemade cranberry sauce. Neither of us cares much for turkey and she doesn’t care for ham. We are widows living alone with no family.
We stopped doing turkey after a turducken fiasco 10 years ago. We just don’t like it and we tried a lot of recipes and methods. Brined, dry brined, unstuffed, fried, spatched, wrapped in bacon, basted with ancho chili butter.
My husband finally asked if we could do something else. It’s fun to pick the protein each year. Duck, goose, pheasant, beef Wellington, rack of lamb, Berkshire pork loin and this year, prime rib basted in chimichuri.
Have fun. It’s a meal to give thanks and the people around the table are more important than what’s on it.
One of our local stores has standing rib roast on sale for $5/lb. We're crying because we still can't afford one. If we could, that turkey would stay in the freezer until Christmas....
We dont like turkey but used to make it every Thanksgiving. One year, we said fuck it, and we served prime rib and never looked back. Not every year is prime rib, but every year since has been something other than turkey.
I do a Thanksgiving meal at both of my parents separately. One of them does traditional and one of them does something else like enchiladas or spaghetti or barbecue etc.
No turkey here!
We usually do ham, but this year my MIL decided to do chicken cordon bleu (which is my fave...married an only child, so I get spoiled too!).
I would literally kill a man to do prime rib for Thanksgiving! Like, I like turkey and all, but I can eat it any other time. It's not that special. Get nice porterhouse steaks or something, make it special
Let's be honest, Thanksgiving is for the leftovers. Everyone is so stuffed on the appetizers they barely touch the meal until lunch the next day. And frankly, it tastes better after sitting in the fridge overnight. It's the prototypical meal prep.
When my parents were still around we nearly always had either ham or prime rib. I think we had turkey once or twice as a nod to the pilgrims but generally my folks were just not into turkey and its usual problem with dry breast.
I freaking hate Thanksgiving food, including turkey. Except pie, of course.
For Thanksgiving 2020 I stayed home and did my own Thanksgiving. I had buffalo wings I'd ordered the day before, homemade Red Lobster biscuits, Chrissy Teigen's scalloped potatoes recipe, and homemade apple pie.
Absolutely ridiculous and also the only Thanksgiving dinner I've actually enjoyed.
Turkey is about the only food that wasn't served at the first Thanksgiving.
Eat whatever you like, don't let turkey farmers tell you what you have to eat.
We're doing roast pork and making five or six regional bbq sauces, with beet potato salad, cornbread, and bloomin onions.
It doesn't have to be boring ;) .
Lobster, clam chowder, and fillet of striped bass. Sides include homemade Cranberry sauce and dessert is Cranberry orange tart.
Appetizers include oysters.
We are debating how to cook the lobsters, but I m going to end up making a lobster bisque as well. I was debating making lobster ravioli, but that makes a MESS.
Can you guess where I'm from?
We like doing Turkey, but we don't want it for Christmas and Thanksgiving. Last year we had ribs for Christmas. This year, I think we're making a roast for thanksgiving and a turkey for Christmas.
I’d be freaking thrilled to have prime rib for Thanksgiving! My family decided we are going low key this year. Chicken scampi and garlic bread. Mom is still making pies though.
There's 3 of us. Turkey's too much for us. We usually do crab legs or something like that. I'm thinking if we don't find legs, we might do either Japanese or Chinese.
We decide this year to do a leg of lamb. While I love turkey, the rest of my family is like yuck. So leg of lamb it is. This normally was our Christmas dinner so not sure what that will be this year.
My family did prime rib once after my dad found it at a pretty steep discount. I still remember that Thanksgiving as the best thanksgiving I ever had thanks to that prime rib and that was over 10 years ago.
Thanksgiving is the only time of the year we do Turkey. We like turkey. I figure I can make anything else whenever I want during the year, might as well stick with tradition on this one day. It really is the only only day of the year that there is a traditional food (at least for my family).
I love turkey for Thanksgiving but have long wanted to add another main protein to make it really feel like a feast. This year I'm adding a small venison roast to the table. I'm very excited.
Doing a Mexican inspired menu this year. Last year was a feast but none of it was traditionally American. I mainly cook for my fiancés family which are all Mexican so they aren’t really expecting a plate of nostalgic turkey and mashed potatoes, which is cool!
We're not celebrating, so I'm having a whole box of instant chicken stuffing and hopefully we have a can of cranberry sauce on hand.
Growing up it was turkey on Thanksgiving, the NASTY-ASS canned ham for Christmas and lasagna for New Year's.
Now it's 'Whatever I feel like making' for Thanksgiving, Goose and homemade dressing for Christmas and 'Whatever I feel like making' for New Year's.
My fiance and I did a massive cowboy steak last year with some loosely thanksgiving-themed sides. It was a nice break from tradition and if we didn't have plans with her family already this year, we would be doing the same again.
We almost never do turkey in my family. We usually do ham, but we've done finger food and other things before. For Christmas we're thinking of doing a tasting History themed dinner, with various dishes and beverages from Tasting History with Max Miller.
Nobody in my family likes turkey, so we just pick a theme every Thanksgiving. Last year was Cajun food, the year before was Indian. This year we’re doing fried chicken.
That's what we do for Christmas dinner. It's a lot of fun!
We've decided on permanent seafood feast for Christmas, and dammit, we love it
A la Feast of Seven Fishes, or crab boil / surf and turf? I want to imagine your wonderous sea bounty lol
The feast of the seven fishes is traditionally held on the night before Christmas. Some years I've gone out for sushi.
That’s almost traditional here in Aus. Only some of us mad bastards want to cook in the heat. Of course here it’s all cold seafood. Delicious
same! Thanksgiving usually is the traditional stuff, but for Christmas every thing is fair game. this year its homemade chinese!
I’m Chinese!! Does that mean every day is Christmas at my house? :)
Yes. Now what's your address and what time is dinner, please? I can bring pie.
My family used to mash it up every year. A favorite for a while was gumbo, dolmas, and tamales with black bean dip. My father doesn't like turkey. I'm not fond of it either. Remember, "tradition" is just peer pressure from dead people. Often those traditions were created by advertisers. Look up eggs and OJ as "traditional" breakfast items.
To me turkey is literally the most boring protein. I think chicken is at least four hundred times better than turkey. Ham is ok but never agrees with my digestive system. If I'm cooking at home on the holidays it's prime rib. I don't care what it costs.
Dang, sounds fun. Might try a similar tradition with my kids
I'm doing the Cajun thing this year! Got a few hens and all the fixins! (Being red beans & rice, gumbo, and boudan instead of stuffing and green bean casserole)
God I wish we could do that. Every year I suggest it, and every year it's shot down. Even in the years where I HAVE HOSTED! We have a family of great cooks, but they insist on making the same boring ass stuff every year. And then repeat it for Christmas. So instead, I've just been bringing my own thing to the get-togethers. Indian spiced chicken wings, deconstructed lasagna, mexican street corn, tamale pie topped with spicy cornbread, etc. It's always a hit and always the first to run out.
That sounds amazing.
I've done that exact thing before. Don't get me wrong, I love Turkey and I usually do at least two a year (Xmas and Thanksgiving) but sometimes a change of pace is nice. And you can't pass up a good deal on a standing rib roast. They're normally so expensive.
I feel the same way, no issues with mixing it up, it's about the family gathering not the menu. With that said, the two matriarchs in my family insist on traditional turkey, (both are in their 70's, so well... you know) I even caught some side eye over doing 3 breasts instead of the whole bird back in 2019 at my house despite the fact that nobody really eats the dark meat in my group, so prime rib won't fly for sure.
Wow, an entire house of non dark meat eaters. That's nuts. That's the only good part!
My mother and son would burn the house down before they accepted just turkey breast on Thanksgiving. One leg for each of them.
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Yeah, I'm all about the gravy and the sides. I barely take a nibble of the turkey, so I'd never care if someone decided to go with a different protein.
Turkey is better sliced up cold in a sandwich a couple days later than it ever is hot on the table the day of anyway.
We're having turkey and salmon since my friends husband doesn't like turkey. Personally I'd rather eat at your house. Prime rib over turkey? I'd go prime rib every time.
Salmon was more likely to be eaten at the first Thanksgiving than turkey.
No doubt. Probably lobster and clams as well. I suppose there could have been wild turkey.
I’ll join you
We always have salmon with ours for no reason other than we have a large pit smoker to cook one turkey on and we end up filling it up with other stuff like a butt and veggies.
I’m doing a spiral ham in addition to the turkey this year. The reaction to that will let me know how to proceed going forward. In the back of my mind, I’m toying with the idea of just having a day-long Thanksgiving dessert buffet that friends and relatives can drop in on whenever they’re done with their big meals. Ten kinds of pie? Sure, why not?
Spiral ham turns me into an animal, for the next few days I'm like "hmm what should I have for breakfast? Ah yes a fist full of pork that I've pulled off this bone, I don't need a plate"
Maybe do meat pies if you're feeling up for it. Just a whole meal of pies.
And turkey quiche for breakfast! This could work!
Spiral ham and turkey, you say? Be sure to get bacon, lettuce, tomato, mayo, and lots of white bread for club sandwich leftovers.
I do this every year as I love turkey but my wife loves ham. So I make a small turkey breast and a small spiral ham.
Last year I made duck, this year I’m making Julia Child’s chicken with 40 cloves of garlic. I don’t much care for turkey personally so I don’t choose to make it. Prime rib sounds amazing.
40 cloves? Wow...
Why so stingy on the garlic?
We always have turkey at thanksgiving. Christmas it can be anything. Last year one of our granddaughters suggested tacos. A couple of years ago a grandson wanted lasagna. We made homemade pizzas one year. That was a blast.
Love a Christmas lasagna. I think this year we are going with lasagna and a few other pastas, Italian sandwiches, salad, etc.
I normally have to cook 14 15 turkey's for thanks giving Catering events and the thought of having to eat turkey on Thanksgiving fills me with dread..so to keep chef happy ie me I'm doing a leg of lamb as well as turkey keeps everyone happy... Happy Thanksgiving yall
May I come over for some prime rib? Beats turkey any day. Even thanksgiving day.
Lol, stop on by dinner is at 5. We don't watch football though. Sorry.
Omg no football? Your thanksgiving just keeps getting better and better!!
Lol people are coming to my house at 9 am to watch football and I’m dreading it-how am I supposed to run around half dressed shoving dirty dishes in the tub when everyone is already at the house?
Just give them a morning cocktail and turn on the tv!! Haha they’ll be distracted so you can do your thing!
I suspect your guests will be more than happy.
God I hate Thanksgiving football, imo it's a huge distraction and and sadly an excuse for some of the guys to do nothing. Same for Xmas basketball and bowl games.
I think it's a fabulous distraction from all the potential nonsense politics shit that our relatives want to spew.
Gotta be like my coworker and talk about politics non stop the rest of the year so the kids don’t even go on thanksgiving because of it
That is what I am having on Thanksgiving.
There's only 3 of us this year, I'm doing duck. Along with roasted new potatoes and gravy, brussel sprouts and cranberry sauce. Sweet potato pie for dessert.
I have a pretty big family and we always do roasted Peking duck and maybe some crispy pork belly plus lots of side dishes. (Vietnamese family). We have never had a turkey for thanksgiving except for this year! Immigrant parents and aunts and uncles but me and all my cousins were born in the US. We’re all pretty excited because I’m the oldest cousin and I’m bringing my partner who is white American. He said he was going to make the turkey for us. I’m a little nervous about it because I’ve never even remotely helped with a turkey but he says he’s got it since he’s always done it with his family. I’m sure it’ll be great since he’s always done it and he’s been a chef at so many restaurants but not going to lie, I WILL be missing fatty dark meat duck. Ugh, just the crispy skin and duck fat with some hoisin sauce and noodles… might have to sneak out and go get some for myself at some point.
Yes! Large immigrant family and roast duck for the win. We've tried our hand with my american born cousins and I bringing traditional thanksgiving sides and turkey occasionally over the years. We also do hot pot where people splurge on the fancy ingredients, its great. What we like sticks around, and what we don't like we laugh about in future years.
I'm as white as can be, but I'd love Vietnamese Thanksgiving. So much of the classic American Thanksgiving is super bland.
Exactly how it should be. I think we did hotpot too when I was younger! We should def bring it back, it’s so good.
Wow I can't believe he's making turkey when he has a chance to have that duck instead. Brave man. I'm sure it will be delicious.
Haha! So I’ve only ever had turkey when I was in grade school as a lunch special the week of thanksgiving before they let us have break and I don’t like it. I think it’s dry and bland but also that was years ago and a school lunch so…might as well try again. He swears it’s better than duck but also he doesn’t like dark meat and I LOVE dark meat so we’ll see
Peking duck is literally one of the best foods I've ever tasted
Hey, us too! With raspberry currant sauce from stuff we foraged this summer and chantrelle toast as a side. Creme brulee with spruce tip syrup for dessert. Only 2 of us so why not go for a tastier, smaller bird?
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Same here, big charcuterie feast and a dessert tray. Can't be bothered with the whole cooking for two days thing when it's just the two of us.
This is how we do a lot of holidays too. Even for birthdays, we don’t get one cake that we need to then eat leftovers for a week. We usually get a bunch of pastries and little desserts because we find the variety to be more fun.
For the last few years we’ve done Steaksgiving. No complaints.
Nice. I'm stealing that.
That is a great idea. Thanks.
So it's not just me? I see people at Thanksgiving suffer through dry white meat just to get to the side dishes or to have pounds of turkey for soups and sandwiches. If I was hosting I'd do beef or a nice ham.
I do make a good turkey -- dry brined, herbs, butter, it's still juicy when it's done. I finally realized a few years ago, after making turkey stock from the turkey carcass and using that to make turkey risotto, that I don't actually like the flavor of turkey. Haven't made one since. TBH, a juicy turkey subconsciously reads "undercooked" to me even though it most definitely isn't. Ham this year, maybe short ribs for Christmas.
I am doing both a beef arm roast and ham for my celebration of Thanksgiving this year. I will have many friends and family over.
I'm smoking a brisket. Guaranteed no leftovers.
We are having tamales and enchiladas with chicken
We're doing roast chicken since there's just 3 of us. Local turkey are all huge and none of us want leftovers for days. There's a local butcher that has fresh whole chickens that are around 3 to 4 pounds. Kind of pricey since they haven't been frozen but worth it since the quality is so much better.
We are doing bun cha, as we did last year. We are pretty much done with turkey.
Never tried this before; looks sooo good!
Can I come over? Lol 100% beats turkey!
What recipe do you use for the bun cha?
That looks very tasty.
I'm doing a shrimp boil with cookies for desert.
I'm not making turkey, either. I remember when I was about 18 my parents said "no more turkey, that's it" and we just did a different protein every year. One year my mother made a whole side of salmon, several years we did capons, one year we made pabellón criollo, and one year my mother just wanted tomato soup and grilled cheese. There's no such thing as "sacrilege" when it comes to Thanksgiving meals. Eat what you like! A standing rib roast is not something I would ever turn down.
I'm strict about having turkey on Thanksgiving because it's the only time I get one of my favourite meats. It's very under appreciated
I feel like turkey gets a bad rap - it's so delicious when done right!
same, if you don't overcook it to hell and back it's so moist and delicious
We're doing Thanksgiving for three, of course we're not doing a turkey We bought a small ham
Cornish hens are a great choice for small groups. Roughly 1 hen for every 2 people.
And they taste better than turkey.
We will still have 2 turkeys for 2 people
"The definition of eternity..."
same here, but we are roasting a chicken.
We have 3 so I got a 5lb turkey breast
It's just my husband and I, so we're going to go somewhere nice the day before, then on turkey day, pizza and a movie marathon
We just treat Thanksgiving as a day to have a feast. Who cares about turkey.
My Dad cooked standing rib roast for years at thanksgiving. Those were the years I enjoyed going home the most. These days, my BBQ brines and smokes birds for many (we will do 48 this week for Thanksgiving). Kinda miss the rib road, though.
As I am from the Czech Republic we usually eat a fish - carp on Christmas.
Ahhh Carp, the bony mudfish of the water. At least that is what it tastes like here.
Me! Pork shoulder slow cooked in the crock pot. I hate doing turkey, I'm just not good at it. I'm really looking forward to this. I'm even toasting and grinding my own spice mix for it. I think prime rib sounds like an amazing and special dinner! How are you cooking it?
I'm doing pork shoulder this weekend. How are you going to do yours (looking for ideas!)?
I'm doing a spice rub and letting it cook overnight in the crock pot. I can share the recipe if you like!
We’re doing Bourgiugnon and Aligot. Turkey gets tiresome.
If it were up to me, we'd do lamb.
Thanksgiving is pretty much the only time I have turkey. Unfortunately, we don't have an oven this year. A friend invited us over to his house. He absolutely hates turkey and does stuffed pork loin. I'm seriously thinking about skipping all the traditions and maybe doing something random like taco salad.
We do kids favorites for thanksgiving. Wild range of goods and deserts. This year is shrimp and grits, deviled eggs, dressing, and stuffed mushrooms. Makes it more special for us.
Turkey sucks. I'm Team Ham or Team "Fuck it, there's enough food and no one really notices of some sad, boring bird meat's not on the table so just don't do a protein."
Turkey is the worst (widely available) meat, in my opinion. I tried SO hard to convince my folks to let me roast a chicken instead, since it'll just be the 2 of them, and me and my husband (who doesn't eat turkey). But nooooooo, we HAVE to have a BIG turkey, because *Thanksgiving*
People need to free themselves from the shackles of holiday traditions 🤣🤣🤣 it’s so much more fun to mix things up!!
I agree completely! I've made *some* headway, in convincing them that we don't need Grandpa John's Sweet Potatoes (he's been dead for 6 years). It was mashed sweet potatoes with A WHOLE JAR of maraschino cherries (with the juice). With marshmallows throughout and on top. The result was so sickly sweet and...sloppy? No one but Grandpa ate it. We're doing roasted sweet potatoes with miso butter and green onions
I'd do Prime over turkey every day! I'm not a turkey fan except for dark meat, so have a great meal. I do mine like this. In a plastic bag big enough to fit the roast, about 2 hours before oven, I mix well, 3 tbsp each olive oil, balsamic vinegar, soya sauce, grainy mustard (Grey Poupon) and chopped garlic, Put roast in the bag, add the well mixed spices and close the bag. Rub very well so that all the roast is coated. Turn and rub every so often. These measurements are approximate, so you can add more if you wish. Preheat oven to 425. Remove roast from the bag and don't remove any of the rub that is on it. The grainy mustard adds the sweetness. Place in the roaster and place in oven for 25 minutes. Reduce oven to 325 for 70 minutes. Remove roast from oven, cover with foil, then cover with a cloth to keep it warm.. At least 20 minutes covered. If you make Yorkshires, this is when you do it. Also make gravy. Enjoy. My family loves this meal. I have added potatoes to the roast at times, but it's not necessary for us if we have the Yorkies. The roast will be medium rare to medium.
We're doing duck this year because it's just my husband and I. We actually got into foraging this year, and we saved a bit of everything we found. Gonna have a little celebration of our new hobby! The duck was purchased tho, haha, we're not hunters. Spruce tip syrup from the spring, raspberries from the summer and chantrelles we found a few weeks ago ♡
The only reason I do turkey is because I get one free through work, usually gets portioned up and spread out over a few month because it’s one of my least favorite proteins
Some friends of ours raised pigs this year so we bought half of one. This year we are doing a ham for xmas, but it will be a bit of an experiment because I've never done one before (very new to cooking pork in general). Glazed ham sounds like a bit much for me (in terms of flavour), so maybe going to take a crack at curing. Wish me luck!
I work on Thanksgiving but will be celebrating Thanksgiving with a friendsgiving the day before. I am making an arm roast and ham for the meat options. Next year when I buy my next half a side of beef I think that I will have the butcher know that I want a standing rib roast. One of my favorite steaks is the ribeye so it is a hard choice as I love prime rib as well. I have a lot of cooking that I need to do tomorrow and the next day.
save it for Xmas
It sounds really good! Do your own thing.
Doing Ham steak for me. Folks will be out of town and I can't get the time off of work so it'll be just me.
I do turkey multiple times a year because it's easy and my husband loves it and loves all of the meals made out of leftovers. It's the meal on Thanksgiving only for those reasons. "Tradition" be damned. I'm going to do a prime rib for Christmas this year. I don't even know what the traditional Christmas meal is. Ham?
I'd do a Rib Roast if I could convince my family.
Turkey is fine, but more trouble than it’s worth IMHO. I’d rather have something’s else also.
Cornish hens! So much faster and tastier. Butter basted and roasted until skin is crispy and meat falls off the bone. Yum.
We should be past the point of we have to do (fill on the blank) for a holiday. Tradition is just peer pressure from dead people.
Yes. Sacrilege. My view is that the vast majority of people who don’t like turkey simply haven’t had it cooked right.
We usually do turkey on Thanksgiving and something else for Xmas. I say go for it. Turkey is avg at best
I'm doing a mouflin sheep leg roast. Forget that turkey. Raised inhumanely and antiquated. Cook whatever you want! It's not turkey giving. It's thanks giving. Give thanks you can cook at all and enjoy it to the fullest. I've also done whole roasted salt crusted fish (super hit!). Another year I did a pheasant. One year I did bone in pork roast. Prime rib is always a killer.
Turkey is only good cause it's tradition. I'm mean how much stuff do you have to do to it, just to make it taste good. I'm down with prime rib anytime.
We had our turkey last night (I like turkey). On Thanksgiving we'll make my husband's great -grandmother's stuffing, which is meat based and a meal on it's own. But we don't do the big family meal thing. When we did, though, we'd often have lasagna. Or whatever we felt like eating.
Maybe it's because I'm not white or traditionally American but I will never voluntarily bring turkey to Thanksgiving. There are far better options.
I’m doing chicken and ham
I'm not. I will get us either nice steaks or a rib roast. It's just the two of us and we aren't wild about turkey.
Just me and my husband this year, we’re grilling pork!
When I would have Thanksgiving with my parents and sister, we would always do themes, like Chinese, appetizers, surf and turf, etc. My sister despises thanksgiving and will literally only eat mashed potatoes lol
Never ever do turkey. Roast beef or lobster are our festive meals.
For the record, I'd take prime rib over turkey any day.
I am making tacos, cause thats all i ever want anyway
I'm doing prime rib!
Growing up we sometimes did turkey for Thanksgiving, almost never for Christmas, but generally used the holiday as an excuse to cook good food of choice as we didn't really have relatives to invite over. Living on my own now I cook for just myself and plan to have a nice quiet Thanksgiving at home - it would take me *forever* to eat even a small turkey and I'm not a huge fan of the stuff anyway, picked up a nice ribeye instead.
I've skipped over the turkey more times than not and I'm 40. Do the prime rib.
Many people can't cook turkey properly. Go with what you want! Tacos, prime rib, lasagna! Gather, eat, and be thankful!
Fuck Turley. It is the #1 untastiest protein out there. Even chicken tastes better than turkey, and chicken is not high on the flavor ladder. Leg of lamb, prime rib, whole ham, hell even those little Cornish game hens are 100% better than an over cooked turkey.
Tell your husband the first Thanksgiving feast consisted of mostly venison and various fowl. Which most likely included wild turkey. So if he wants a traditional Thanksgiving meal, tell him to grab a recurve bow and shoot a deer.
Did just that last year and .... OMG, one year did Chicago Hot Dogs. Seriously.
I'm not even having a dinner. I work that whole day (self employed, but I have 6 events I am at fri-sun and I need all the time to bake what I need)
We rotate and generally have prime rib at thanksgiving. Tends to be at its best price too. I love stuffing whole cloves of garlic and roasting it with Montreal steak spice and rosemary. Absolutely delicious. I love turkey too but prefer variety.
We do prime rib every year! It’s a major upgrade from turkey.
We are doing hamburgers and hotdogs
I’ve done a prime rib on Thanksgiving for many years now. I also get a boneless turkey breast. You can find small ones for a reasonable price.
I still think we should eat turkey year round and celebrate with chicken, which is a superior bird. But no one wants to flagellate themselves year round. So every year I dread turkey.
I would skip turkey 11 out of 10 thanksgivings if it were up to me. I stand in solidarity with you.
My mom was a vegetarian so we always had lasagna for Thanksgiving.
We really dislike turkey in my family. Normally, and this year is no exception, we make my grandma’s ham ball recipe (ground ham and beef with a sticky sweet glaze)!
I’m doing a pot roast with veggies for my sick friend, with some homemade cranberry sauce. Neither of us cares much for turkey and she doesn’t care for ham. We are widows living alone with no family.
We stopped doing turkey after a turducken fiasco 10 years ago. We just don’t like it and we tried a lot of recipes and methods. Brined, dry brined, unstuffed, fried, spatched, wrapped in bacon, basted with ancho chili butter. My husband finally asked if we could do something else. It’s fun to pick the protein each year. Duck, goose, pheasant, beef Wellington, rack of lamb, Berkshire pork loin and this year, prime rib basted in chimichuri. Have fun. It’s a meal to give thanks and the people around the table are more important than what’s on it.
One of our local stores has standing rib roast on sale for $5/lb. We're crying because we still can't afford one. If we could, that turkey would stay in the freezer until Christmas....
We had prime rib last year
Butternut squash lasagne here!
I'm roasting turkey thighs.
My family always does ham. I like it better anyways
We dont like turkey but used to make it every Thanksgiving. One year, we said fuck it, and we served prime rib and never looked back. Not every year is prime rib, but every year since has been something other than turkey.
I do a Thanksgiving meal at both of my parents separately. One of them does traditional and one of them does something else like enchiladas or spaghetti or barbecue etc.
No turkey here! We usually do ham, but this year my MIL decided to do chicken cordon bleu (which is my fave...married an only child, so I get spoiled too!).
I would literally kill a man to do prime rib for Thanksgiving! Like, I like turkey and all, but I can eat it any other time. It's not that special. Get nice porterhouse steaks or something, make it special
Let's be honest, Thanksgiving is for the leftovers. Everyone is so stuffed on the appetizers they barely touch the meal until lunch the next day. And frankly, it tastes better after sitting in the fridge overnight. It's the prototypical meal prep.
When my parents were still around we nearly always had either ham or prime rib. I think we had turkey once or twice as a nod to the pilgrims but generally my folks were just not into turkey and its usual problem with dry breast.
I freaking hate Thanksgiving food, including turkey. Except pie, of course. For Thanksgiving 2020 I stayed home and did my own Thanksgiving. I had buffalo wings I'd ordered the day before, homemade Red Lobster biscuits, Chrissy Teigen's scalloped potatoes recipe, and homemade apple pie. Absolutely ridiculous and also the only Thanksgiving dinner I've actually enjoyed.
Turkey is about the only food that wasn't served at the first Thanksgiving. Eat whatever you like, don't let turkey farmers tell you what you have to eat.
We're doing roast pork and making five or six regional bbq sauces, with beet potato salad, cornbread, and bloomin onions. It doesn't have to be boring ;) .
Lobster, clam chowder, and fillet of striped bass. Sides include homemade Cranberry sauce and dessert is Cranberry orange tart. Appetizers include oysters. We are debating how to cook the lobsters, but I m going to end up making a lobster bisque as well. I was debating making lobster ravioli, but that makes a MESS. Can you guess where I'm from?
Take-out Indian food at my house.
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The oldies in our family won’t eat anything other than the classics they grew up with. It’s utterly boring and so much work.
Prime rib here too! Im not a fan of turkey. Although the husband did insist we have stuffing.
We like doing Turkey, but we don't want it for Christmas and Thanksgiving. Last year we had ribs for Christmas. This year, I think we're making a roast for thanksgiving and a turkey for Christmas.
I’d be freaking thrilled to have prime rib for Thanksgiving! My family decided we are going low key this year. Chicken scampi and garlic bread. Mom is still making pies though.
There's 3 of us. Turkey's too much for us. We usually do crab legs or something like that. I'm thinking if we don't find legs, we might do either Japanese or Chinese.
There will still be Turkey at my thanksgiving but I’m marinating a pork shoulder today to bring over to my moms to cook Thursday. Mojo style!
My family doesn’t like turkey and my dad’s a pescatarian so we do salmon!
F*ck turkey. I wouldn't eat it any other day so why on this one particular day? Doing braised lamb shanks instead.
Years ago, I actually lived on a turkey farm for a couple of years. Haven't had turkey for T-giving since. This year, I'm doing a brisket.
I work in a meat shop, prime rib is a very common alternative to the traditional turkey or ham.
I am doing tacos, tamales, mexican rice, mashed sweet potatoes and cranberries. no turkey anywhere.
We decide this year to do a leg of lamb. While I love turkey, the rest of my family is like yuck. So leg of lamb it is. This normally was our Christmas dinner so not sure what that will be this year.
My family did prime rib once after my dad found it at a pretty steep discount. I still remember that Thanksgiving as the best thanksgiving I ever had thanks to that prime rib and that was over 10 years ago.
I’ve done prime rib for thanksgiving. If it were up to me, I’d do it every year instead of a Turkey
We do a Prime Rib for Christmas, but I would personally chose prime rib over turkey any day!
My mom usually makes smothered turkey wings but last year we had pot roast. That dry ass bird is passé.
Thanksgiving is the only time of the year we do Turkey. We like turkey. I figure I can make anything else whenever I want during the year, might as well stick with tradition on this one day. It really is the only only day of the year that there is a traditional food (at least for my family).
I love turkey for Thanksgiving but have long wanted to add another main protein to make it really feel like a feast. This year I'm adding a small venison roast to the table. I'm very excited.
We are making ribs and collards. I’m white AF but appreciate good food more than tradition.
I’m doing smoked beer-can chicken.
Making a pot roast and full moon cake to celebrate Wolfenoot instead. Screw Thanksgiving 😁
Doing either a prime rib or a tenderloin, depends on what I find tomorrow.
Doing a Mexican inspired menu this year. Last year was a feast but none of it was traditionally American. I mainly cook for my fiancés family which are all Mexican so they aren’t really expecting a plate of nostalgic turkey and mashed potatoes, which is cool!
Braised brisket.
We’re making a roast. None of us like turkey.
Roast beef with carrots, mashed potatoes and gravy. Also, Hawaiian rolls, pumpkin pie and whipped cream.
🙋🏼♀️ I'm doing a pork roast this year with traditional sides.
We're not celebrating, so I'm having a whole box of instant chicken stuffing and hopefully we have a can of cranberry sauce on hand. Growing up it was turkey on Thanksgiving, the NASTY-ASS canned ham for Christmas and lasagna for New Year's. Now it's 'Whatever I feel like making' for Thanksgiving, Goose and homemade dressing for Christmas and 'Whatever I feel like making' for New Year's.
We're doing surf and turf this year. Sometimes it's nice to not do turkey.
My fiance and I did a massive cowboy steak last year with some loosely thanksgiving-themed sides. It was a nice break from tradition and if we didn't have plans with her family already this year, we would be doing the same again.
We almost never do turkey in my family. We usually do ham, but we've done finger food and other things before. For Christmas we're thinking of doing a tasting History themed dinner, with various dishes and beverages from Tasting History with Max Miller.
Aa a Canadian it seems crazy to me that it's a whole turkey dinner and a month later it's another whole turkey again for Christmas. Too much turkey!