I love cooking, and I love a roast dinner, especially Christmas dinner, which in the UK is very similar, in some respects, to what you guys have for Thanksgiving.
And on this day, I’m jealous, because you’re all having a long boozy lunch, and I’m at work.
But there are some distinct differences in our feasting habits, and I’ve never seen or eaten a proper American Thanksgiving dinner in the flesh, so some things leave me puzzled.
• I worked out that stuffing and dressing are both what we’d just call stuffing.
• I’ve noted that green bean casserole comes with a dousing with Campbells soup which sounds a little 1970s but hey, tradition.
• I’ve digested the idea of the astonishing sweet potato casserole with marshmallows - a dish invented by toddlers, for certain. I don’t have any plans to try it any time soon.
But talk me through the rolls-thing. Are these just normal bread rolls? Or something different/sweeter? Do you just have them on the side during your main course, or at some other point in the meal? And if the former, aren’t they just a bit filling considering you’ve already got an enormous plate of meat, potatoes, cranberry and veg? (and marshmallows, lest we forget).
I thought you were asking about the rolls that appear around the waistline after a season of indulging in treats.
The rolls-- of any kind-- are for sopping up gravy. Also for making on-the-spot sandwiches (*sarnies *to the likes of you ) at the table with a little turkey, gravy, cranberry sauce. This is for when your arms are too tired to use knife and fork.
Right, so they really ARE just bread rolls. You guys are insatiable - there’s no room for bread after my Christmas dinner. Although turkey sarnies are a staple for tea, generally accompanied by the Doctor Who Christmas Special and a random relative trying to get us all to play charades.
I must confess, mopping up your dinner plate with bread rolls or making a sandwich at the table, when you’re supposed to be having a nice dinner with table cloths and wine does seem a little - gauche? But that’s because my mother taught me table manners, and she’s like an extra from Downton Abbey.
Okay, that sounds more palatable, I would give that a nibble.
Oh, we have that too. I also eat it year round with roast chicken, although I’m not sure that’s typical behaviour. We’re supposed to have bread sauce, but I just can’t get on with it.
They can be regular bread rolls, or here in the South, they can be biscuits, which are not like your biscuits but like this.
They are flaky and split apart easily, which means they make great carriers for leftovers - split one in half, slap a slice of ham or turkey on, add whatever other ingredients you want (cranberry sauce, gravy, a slice of cheese, etc.), top with the other half of the biscuit, and that’s some mighty fine eating right there.
They are similar to some types of unsweetened British scones. (First time I had a proper scone up in Scotland I was surprised by how much like a biscuit they were. I’m a Northerner, though, so it’s quite possible a true Southerner would think I’m nuts, but damned if I could tell much of a difference.)
I had biscuits* when I was in Key West and agree, they are a bit like scones. Which makes me worry how I’d eat a great big biscuit sandwich without it falling apart. Knife and fork?
(*Bit sweet for my tastes, like a lot of ‘savoury’ US food stuff. TBF I thought the same about the bread and butter)
Here’s a traditional dinner roll recipe if you ever care to try them. This recipe makes 30 dinner rolls if you follow it exactly and they are rich! I usually cut the recipe in half, make the rolls a little bigger and do a dozen at a time. Alternatively, you can make the whole recipe and freeze what you don’t eat, either the dough or the finished rolls. They freeze beautifully either way.
Dinner Rolls
Ingredients
• 1/4 cup warm water (115 degrees)
• 2 packets (1/4 ounce each) active dry yeast
• 1 1/2 cups warm whole milk (115 degrees)
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted, plus more for bowl and pans
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 3 large eggs
• 6 to 6 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for work surface
Directions
Place water in a small bowl; sprinkle with yeast, and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. In a large bowl, whisk together milk, butter, sugar, salt, and 2 eggs. Whisk in yeast mixture.
Using a wooden spoon, stir in 6 cups flour, 1 cup at a time, until you have a soft, shaggy dough (if necessary, add up to 1/2 cup more flour). Turn dough out onto a floured work surface; knead until smooth and elastic, 5 to 10 minutes. (If you’re lazy like me, use your stand mixer with the dough hook for about 6 minutes.) Butter the inside of a large bowl; place dough in bowl, turning to coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap; let stand in a warm spot until dough has doubled in size, about 1 1/4 hours.
Butter two 13-by-9-inch baking pans. Divide dough in half. Roll each half into a 15-inch rope; cut each rope into 15 1-inch pieces. Press each piece into a disk, then shape into a ball. Arrange dough balls in prepared pans. (To make ahead: Wrap pans well, and freeze, up to 2 months.) Cover pans loosely with plastic; let stand in a warm spot until rolls have doubled in size, about 1 1/4 hours (2 hours more if frozen).
Preheat oven to 375 degrees, with racks in upper and lower thirds. In a small bowl, beat remaining egg until blended; brush onto rolls. Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes, rotating pans back to front and top to bottom halfway through. Let rolls cool 15 minutes before serving.
They are a little sweet, which I don’t usually like in rolls, but these are the traditional Thanksgiving rolls I had most often at many Thanksgiving dinners through the years in many parts of the country so I always serve them. They are nice.
And yeah, it’s a ridiculous carb load to serve bread rolls at a dinner that already features bread stuffing, potatoes, some concoction of corn (in my traditional dinner, corn fritters) and pumpkin pie, among many other things… but that’s really the point of Thanksgiving. Way too much!!
Rolls have never been a major part of my family’s holiday meals.
At most, some brown & serve rolls may be on the table. Purchased at the store. We often serve them at dinner meals. But there’s so much food at the holiday meal that rolls get ignored. They go stale overnight. I don’t like seeing food wasted and we haven’t served rolls on Thanksgiving in years.
This year my nephew made fresh-“churned” butter for the rolls right before the meal. Not in a real churn or anything, He just puts cream and a little salt in a jar and shakes it until it’s butter and buttermilk.
Sweet potatoes are also delicious with butter and maple syrup (or maple sugar). My daughter (age 24) prefers sweet potatoes to plain potatoes.
One of the best lines in Corner Gas came when Dog River was having a potluck and town idiot Hank volunteered to bring the sweet potato pie:
HANK: [Talking to Karen on the phone] I don’t know about this sweet potato pie. The potatoes aren’t sweet. KAREN: Did you buy sweet potatoes? HANK: It’s hard to tell until you get 'em home and taste them.
Oh, yeah: The difference between stuffing and dressing is that stuffing is actually cooked inside the bird. Dressing may be made out of the same ingredients, but it’s usually cooked and served in its own dish.
The last time I cooked a holiday dinner, there was wild rice stuffing and three dressings: oyster, chestnut, and corn bread.
