# Does Anyone Else NOT Like Thanksgiving Food? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 17, 2017, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-not-like-thanksgiving-food/801835 "2017-11-17T01:32:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![golffan1963](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4af34b/32.png) [@golffan1963](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/golffan1963)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2017, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-not-like-thanksgiving-food/801835/1 "2017-11-17T01:32:48Z")
Don’t get me wrong…I enjoy Thanksgiving…I like the Macy’s Parade, the football games, and gathering with family. That said, I cannot stand Thanksgiving dinner. A couple of things are OK, I guess…but turkey? Blah. The trimmings…nothing there as well. For years it was a source of nervousness to have to demur and not eat anything, making me the subject of great derision at our annual gathering. Thankfully, I have solved the problem…either I show up after dinner…or, the past two years I have gone to my nephew’s, and they allowed me to bring a steak and grill it. Problem solved! Am I the only one? Please tell me I am not alone! If you’re in the same boat as me…how do you handle it? Whether you live in the United States, or are an American overseas…or even if you are from a country that does not celebrate the holiday…good Thanksgiving wishes to one and all! ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2017, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-not-like-thanksgiving-food/801835/2 "2017-11-17T01:34:54Z")
If you don’t like turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing all smothered in turkey gravy, you hate America. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2017, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-not-like-thanksgiving-food/801835/3 "2017-11-17T01:39:10Z")
I: -hate parades -loathe football -am indifferent to what family remains -don’t particularly care for turkey The fixings, OTOH, I crave. Skip the bird - just give me dressing and gravy and cranberry sauce and potatoes and peas and…you get the picture. For 30 years I (and later the wife and I) skipped town and camped with friends in the desert over Thanksgiving. The last several years we have foregone that exercise and now spend the holiday comfortably ensconced in a 4-star hotel, eating Thanksgiving dinner at a 5-star restaurant. This year it’s [Delmonico](http://emerilsrestaurants.com/delmonico-steakhouse). Traditional meal for the wife, rare rib-eye steak for me. With nary a relative or football game in sight! ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2017, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-not-like-thanksgiving-food/801835/4 "2017-11-17T01:50:07Z")
I’m not really a fan of oven-roasted or fried turkey, which is why I always smoke it. I don’t like dressing/stuffing at all, and cranberry sauce tastes like someone managed to make jelly out of steel cans. Mashed potatoes are a waste of calories and an ephemeral sculpting medium. However…I have the aforementioned smoked turkey, as well as bread, salad, and pumpkin pie. I’m happy with that. (Football and parades bore me, but I will probably spend at least part of the holiday playing video games with my family, which I enjoy.) ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2017, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-not-like-thanksgiving-food/801835/5 "2017-11-17T01:57:12Z")
My fave thanksgiving foods, in order of fave-ness: Stuffing Wadding Dressing Gravy Sauce Drippings The rest is ‘meh’. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2017, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-not-like-thanksgiving-food/801835/6 "2017-11-17T02:07:53Z")
I’m a little ick with sweet-potatoes/yams, but my b.i.l. does the cooking and loves 'em, so… No harm, really, but if I could slip 'em to the dog, I’d be a little happier. The rest of the conventional fare is yummy and makes me very happy indeed. ---
**Author:** ![MoonMoon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moonmoon/32/2959_2.png) [@MoonMoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MoonMoon)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2017, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-not-like-thanksgiving-food/801835/7 "2017-11-17T02:24:51Z")
I don’t care about any of it, except for pumpkin pie, which is the reason for the season. I always had a plate with a tiny slice of turkey, and tablespoon sized helpings of mashed potatoes and stuffing. Then a healthy slab of pie. While everyone else moaned about how full they were, I was absolutely fine. These days I opt out of all holidays, so I don’t need to worry about it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2017, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-not-like-thanksgiving-food/801835/8 "2017-11-17T02:48:34Z")
My husband is in somewhat the same boat - he does not like squash, pumpkin, nuts, sweet potatoes, or cranberries. Thus, a traditional Thanksgiving Day dinner almost always includes some foods he doesn’t care for. Surely “how you handle it” isn’t that big a deal, though. When my son was a kid I tried to teach him to eat at least small portions of food he didn’t like without grimacing. As I told him, “you don’t have to like every food you try, but you have to be able to be a polite guest, which means not gagging at every mouthful of food you don’t like.” So handle it by taking small portions of things you find “meh,” skipping one or two things you really can’t abide, and mostly eat whatever you find acceptable. (Most Thanksgiving meals include one or more of the following: rolls, cornbread, corn, string beans, salad … can you really not stand to choke down a few mouthfuls of EVERYTHING on the list?) Anyway, a small meal is healthier and will leave you feeling better than the people who stuff their faces. ---
**Author:** ![Tzigone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Tzigone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tzigone)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2017, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-not-like-thanksgiving-food/801835/9 "2017-11-17T03:04:48Z")
I’m not fond of turkey, cooked as it is on Thanksgiving (okay in sandwiches occasionally). I do like mashed potatoes, but they are not common Thanksgiving food here. Do not like shoepeg corn casserole (our variant of green bean). Or stuffing or dressing (well, I have had _plain_ cornbread dressing I like once, but that was a special effort an aunt made for a cousin, as it normally has onions). I don’t like the sweet potato casserole with marshmallows on top, but do like the sweet potato souffle with nuts on top (don’t really know what makes it a souffle, though). Don’t care about cranberry sauce (don’t dislike, but don’t like it either). I usually end up eating ham, macaroni and cheese (dish I’m designated to bring), sweet potato souffle, and a roll. Will eat mashed potatoes or chicken and dumplings if present. Will eat turkey or smoked pork if no ham available, even though they are “meh” to me, usually. I do like Thanksgiving, though. Don’t watch football or parades (though parents will have game on sometimes), but I like going over the sale papers with sister, aunt, uncle, and mom. Though that’s less of thing now, since so many are on [bfads.net](http://bfads.net) ahead of time. ---
**Author:** ![Asylum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/53a042/32.png) [@Asylum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asylum)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2017, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-not-like-thanksgiving-food/801835/10 "2017-11-17T03:07:31Z")
I don’t like turkey. I’ve solved that problem by always offering to make a roast as an addition to the turkey. Bonus: the roast gets seasoned and cooked the way I like. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2017, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-not-like-thanksgiving-food/801835/11 "2017-11-17T03:16:02Z")
It’s OK. I do eat and I enjoy the food pretty well, but it’s not a meal I would rank as one of my favorites. It’s unique/special and that makes it worthwhile. I do like turkey, though. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2017, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-not-like-thanksgiving-food/801835/12 "2017-11-17T03:22:20Z")
It’s good once a year, like the McD’s McRib. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2017, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-not-like-thanksgiving-food/801835/13 "2017-11-17T03:28:28Z")
I like mashed potatoes, but I like them with butter and Parmesan cheese, so I don’t like them with a meat meal. I like sweet potatoes, so if I go somewhere for Thanksgiving, I usually end up with bread, salad, and sweet potatoes, unless it’s some goyisher place where there’s marshmallow on the sweet potatoes. My mother always baked them in the oven, and served them cut in half with a little margarine. I’ve been a vegetarian almost my whole adult life, but even when I did eat meat, I didn’t like turkey. Oddly, I LOVE tofurky. I am much happier with the vegetarian meals we make than with anything I’ve ever been served anywhere. I also hate pumpkin pie. My mother didn’t usually indulge special tastes, but she did make more than one kind of pie on Thanksgiving. I’m not sure why, but Thanksgiving was at our house a lot. My aunt on my father’s side got Passover, my grandmothers got Hanukkah-- one would get the first day, and one would get the last day, and Purim was usually at my other aunt’s-- my mother’s sister-- we’d go to a party at the synagogue, and then to a small dinner at her place, and the adults would get drunk. That aunt didn’t have to do as much cooking, but she had to put out lots of cots and sleeping bags, and then we’d all go some place for breakfast in the morning, and we kids would get to school late. Yom Kippur break-the-fast would be at my aunt’s parents, but she would invite everyone. She’d lost all her extended family in the Holocaust, and so had her husband, so she was always happy to bring her children’s in-laws and their families into her home, and recreate the big gatherings of her childhood that she couldn’t give her children, but she wanted to give her grandchildren. I called her Bobbe, and her husband Zayde. I called my father’s parents Saba and Safta. I called my mother’s parents Grandma and Grandpa. They were the ones really into assimilating. Every time my mother would bitch about getting stuck with Thanksgiving, my father would remind her that there were no halakha (Jewish rules) about how to celebrate Thanksgiving. It’s kosher, you say one blessing, then dive in. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2017, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-not-like-thanksgiving-food/801835/14 "2017-11-17T03:28:56Z")
We’ve had numerous threads about non-traditional Thanksgiving meals, including [this one](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=801350) from last year. But there are many more. Sure, lots of folks prefer something other than turkey. ---
**Author:** ![GESancMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gesancman/32/2923_2.png) [@GESancMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GESancMan)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2017, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-not-like-thanksgiving-food/801835/15 "2017-11-17T04:51:56Z")
My wife, my daughter, and I don’t care for turkey. Our Thanksgiving tradition is to order scads of pizza the night before, and spend all weekend eating it. ---
**Author:** ![anomalous1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e56c9b/32.png) [@anomalous1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anomalous1)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2017, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-not-like-thanksgiving-food/801835/16 "2017-11-17T06:27:34Z")
I only care of the turkey legs (if they’ve been injected with brine prior to cooking) when it comes to eating the turkey. If you ever had one of those Disney World Turkey Legs, try brining your own, amazing. The side dishes are where it’s at. You can make those any time though. Everything else about it sucks, especially since my Father passed away years ago, he made it fun. I don’t like football I don’t drink I don’t care for the mindless chatter unless its filled with good jokes and fun stuff I LOATHE “game-night” stuff. I could probably get away with eating a Hungry Man Turkey TV Dinner by myself and call it a thanksgiving and be absolutely fine with that. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2017, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-not-like-thanksgiving-food/801835/17 "2017-11-17T06:44:30Z")
Never a fan of roasted turkey, I always make a ham. Was always turkey of some sort, for tradition. A few years ago I brined a turkey with salt and sugar and cloves and oranges. That came out so well, I changed my mind about not really liking turkey. Last year my son made a spatchcocked dry brined turkey. Holy splerking shnit! What a delicacy! He is making it again this year. Side question: Do you have to eat everything? All Thanksgiving dinners I’ve ever been to have been of the make-your-own-plate variety. Don’t like the dry turkey? Don’t put it on your plate. Always so much to choose from, there’s gotta be at least one dish you can stand. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2017, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-not-like-thanksgiving-food/801835/18 "2017-11-17T07:04:38Z")
Roast the turkey upside-down first, then flip to brown the breast. The fat flows from the dark meat down into the breast and keeps it moist, and allows the thighs and drumsticks to fully cook. That said, I am thoroughly SICK of Thanksgiving food, and of most US holidays in general. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2017, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-not-like-thanksgiving-food/801835/19 "2017-11-17T07:54:41Z")
I don’t love the thanksgiving food, but I don’t hate it. It’s the one time each year I make gravy, and I rather like home made turkey gravy. > [@Biggirl](#): > > … > Side question: Do you have to eat everything? All Thanksgiving dinners I’ve ever been to have been of the make-your-own-plate variety. Don’t like the dry turkey? Don’t put it on your plate. Always so much to choose from, there’s gotta be at least one dish you can stand. This. Volunteer to bring a side dish that you like, take tiny token portions of the foods you don’t despise, and mostly eat the thing you enjoy. ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2017, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-not-like-thanksgiving-food/801835/20 "2017-11-17T08:36:00Z")
Ohhhh, man. I LOVE Thanksgiving food. Turkey smothered in gravy, stuffing smothered in gravy, biscuits to dip in the gravy, jellied cranberry sauce to cleanse the palette before I slurp down some more gravy. I can’t have gluten any more. Found this out after one Thanksgiving, and having several days of leftovers. Didn’t know what was making me sick until I had a whole bunch of it every day for several days. Thanksgiving just isn’t the same without biscuits and stuffing. I worked out some decent cornstarch gravy, though. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-not-like-thanksgiving-food/801835.md?page=2)