# The Perfect Thanksgiving Dinner Menu **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 17, 2001, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-perfect-thanksgiving-dinner-menu/94000 "2001-11-17T23:15:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ayesha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c0e974/32.png) [@Ayesha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ayesha)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2001, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-perfect-thanksgiving-dinner-menu/94000/21 "2001-11-19T01:45:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Revedge \* > \*\*Hey Aye, If I bring the mashed potatos and gravy, can I come to your house for Thanksgiving? 😃 \*\* Sure you can Rev-honey. In fact you can be my extra special dessert, and Aye can be yours. 😉 Your experimental turkey sounds yummy btw. SilkyThreat, I hear ya, I am cheating this year some of my dinner is coming pre-made from Kroger. I have revolted. I will cook for Thanksgiving or I will cook for Christmas not both. So Christmas I will cook ham with either a raisin sauce or a fruit sauce, a turkey and all the rest. Via La Revolution ! ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2001, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-perfect-thanksgiving-dinner-menu/94000/22 "2001-11-19T01:55:31Z")
I’m making everything for Thanksgiving this year. Roasted Turkey. The secret is to put a dozen or two cloves of garlic under the skin, brush with vegetable oil, sprinkle all over with salt and sage, and put a whole large onion and/or a granny smith apple in the chest cavity. Don’t bake with stuffing in, it won’t bake evenly and the breast will dry out. Get at least at least a pound and half turkey per guest, more for leftovers. Oh, and take the turky out about half an hour before serving, to let it rest. The cook and the cook ONLY is entitled to nibble bits of skin before serving. Get yer hands off that! Gravy. Take some rendered fat from the turkey and add flour and make a roux. Mix in the non-fat juices from the turkey, stirring all the time. Add some milk if desired, reduce until thickened enough for taste. Stuffing. Cube up some sourdough bread, or other interesting old bread. Saute onions, garlic, celery, water chestnuts, mushrooms, sage, rosemary, oregano. Mix with bread, add chicken stock or turkey drippings, bake in a pan with the giblets. If veg-heads are coming, use veg stock for one pan. You can also add chopped pecans, apples, raisens, prunes, or what have you for variety. Cornbread, sausage, or [shudder] oysters are RIGHT OUT and are not allowed. Mashed potatoes. Boil potatoes and mash them with milk and butter. Toss in some roasted garlic if desired. Oh, and make sure plenty of butter (from a cow, margarine is NOT BUTTER) is available. You’ll need at least one butter dish for every four people. Sweet potatoes. Bake sweet potatoes until soft the night before. Remove skins, mix with crushed pineapple and brown sugar, and bake in a casserole dish. Vegetarian Entree: Baked Squash. Cut acorn sqash (the green ribbed kind) in half and scoop out seeds. Fill cavity with brown sugar, chopped apple, raisens, cinnamon and spice, butter, and a little flour. Bake for about an hour. Cranberry sauce. A bag of whole raw cranberries, a whole orange including skin cut up, and ~1/2 cup sugar to taste. Puree in food processor. Have a couple cans of jell-style cranberry sauce available too. Sweet Potato Cheesecake. Make up a graham cracker crust (optional, you don’t really need a crust and no one cares anyway) in springform pan. Take about two of the sweet potatoes you baked the night before, mix with 3 8 ounce packages cream cheese. Add 1 cup sugar, mix. Add pumpkin pie type spices
cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice
and vanilla, lots of vanilla. Add one egg, mix. Add another egg, mix. Add another egg (that makes three), mix. Pour into springform pan and bake for an hour at 350F until set to desired firmness. Make this the day before for best flavor. Garnish with freshly made whipped cream made with vanilla and only a little sugar. This is basically pumpkin cheesecake, but I find that sweet potatoes taste more like pumpkin than pumpkin does. They are moister, sweeter, oranger, and more flavorful. If you suspect people will balk at yam cheesecake just tell them it’s pumpkin cheesecake and they’ll never know the difference. Hard Apple Cider: Pick up a six-pack or two of Spanish Peaks hard cider (the kind with the black dog, and paw print on the cap), or a couple bottles of Blackthorn Dry. These are the essentials. Feel free to add vegetable trays, olives, pickles, cheese plate with crackers, dilled pickled green beans, deviled eggs, rolls, soft sparkling cider, wine, beer, fruit salad (use real whipped cream, for crying out loud), apple pie, coffee, tea, vanilla ice cream, liqueur shots, etc, etc, etc as needed. Mmmmmm
Thanksgiving. I can’t wait. ---
**Author:** ![poohpah\_chalupa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/91b2a8/32.png) [@poohpah\_chalupa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/poohpah_chalupa)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2001, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-perfect-thanksgiving-dinner-menu/94000/23 "2001-11-19T02:16:47Z")
mmmmmmmmmmmmmm
 [sub]I’ve always wanted to eat at Ayesha’s “house”[/sub] This all sounds so good, it’s no wonder I love Thanksgiving so much
and this year especially. God bless us, everyone. ---
**Author:** ![phartizan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba8739/32.png) [@phartizan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phartizan)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2001, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-perfect-thanksgiving-dinner-menu/94000/24 "2001-11-19T02:38:44Z")
My Chinese wife hates turkey; I can take it or leave it. Although I don’t like the white meat when it’s dry. Anyway, when she suggested black bean burritos (just the 2 of us), I said OK. ---
**Author:** ![Ayesha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c0e974/32.png) [@Ayesha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ayesha)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2001, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-perfect-thanksgiving-dinner-menu/94000/25 "2001-11-19T03:03:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by poohpah chalupa \* > \*\*mmmmmmmmmmmmmm
 > [sub]I’ve always wanted to eat at Ayesha’s “house”[/sub] > > This all sounds so good, it’s no wonder I love Thanksgiving so much
and this year especially. God bless us, everyone. \*\* I’m saving you for Christmas Poohpah darlin’, (so many men, so little time). You are so special. And yes May God bless us and may we all remember how much He already has. ---
**Author:** ![Ruby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/13edae/32.png) [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2001, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-perfect-thanksgiving-dinner-menu/94000/26 "2001-11-19T03:30:54Z")
[sub]Hate to repeat myself - Sorry, this was already in another thread[/sub] I’m making what every good wife should on Thanksgiving
 
reservations! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Winnie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e480ec/32.png) [@Winnie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winnie)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2001, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-perfect-thanksgiving-dinner-menu/94000/27 "2001-11-19T16:17:16Z")
I’m hosting for the 3rd year in a row **Appetizers:** Chilled shrimp with horseradish/cocktail sauce Celery stuffed with blue cheese and cream cheese Mixed nuts with shell on Misc. chips/dip Vegetables with dip Crackers with german summer sausage **The Main Event:** Deep fried turkey courtesy of Mr. Winnie 🙂 Honeybaked ham Sausage stuffing Sweet potato souffle Mashed potatoes & homemade gravy Green beans cooked with bacon pieces Corn casserole 24-hour salad (like ambrosia) Creamed pearl onions Deviled eggs Potato rolls **Dessert:** Sweet potato pie Pumpkin cake with cream cheese glaze Pumpkin cheesecake Misc. cookies Frozen custard ---
**Author:** ![Skelji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b38774/32.png) [@Skelji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skelji)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2001, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-perfect-thanksgiving-dinner-menu/94000/28 "2001-11-19T16:48:25Z")
Thanksgiving will be at my house this year, where I don’t have to go anywhere and can be in charge of the TV. 🙂 I am smoking pork tenderloins on the BBQ out back, and in the kitchen I will be making a Super-Colossal Everything-On-It Homemade DeepDish Pizza. Hopefully, guests will bring side dishes and dessert, and leave their annoying-relative tendencies at home this year. ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2001, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-perfect-thanksgiving-dinner-menu/94000/29 "2001-11-19T17:37:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lemur866 \* > **Cornbread, sausage, or [shudder] oysters are RIGHT OUT and are not allowed.** You don’t know what you’re missing
! I’m with you on the oysters, but proper cornbread dressing is a wonder to taste! Of course, I never experienced _proper_ cornbread dressing until I met Mrs.Tranq, so maybe you’ve just been deprived
 🙂 > [@](#): > > **Sweet potatoes. Bake sweet potatoes until soft the night before. Remove skins, mix with crushed pineapple and brown sugar, and bake in a casserole dish.** Other than forgetting the butter and the covering of mini-marshmallows, that’s just about perfect. > [@](#): > > \*\*Sweet Potato Cheesecake. \*\* I’ve just added this to my menu, thankyouverymuch! I’m the sweet potato guy in the family, and now I’ve a new recepie. Thank you! > [@](#): > > **Hard Apple Cider.** Ah! Forgot this. Essential for any celebration. ---
**Author:** ![OxyMoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e9a140/32.png) [@OxyMoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OxyMoron)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2001, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-perfect-thanksgiving-dinner-menu/94000/30 "2001-11-19T18:36:08Z")
My immediate family will be visiting cousins in Charlottesville this year so it’s out of our hands. The cousins do deep-fried turkeys, which I really like, but the rest of the stuff is so unmemorable that I, um, can’t remember a blessed thing and we were only down there 3 or 4 years ago. So what follows is my ideal, fantasy menu, which is balance of gourmet and white-trash. **Baked lump crabmeat dip** Really stunning. **Smoked salmon mousse** Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. **Melted Velveeta-Rotel Tomato dip** (See? Balance :D)Rotel is a brand of tomato packed with jalapeno peppers. **Roasted, butterflied brined turkey** I haven’t had this before but am itching to try it. **Chestnut dressing** Means a favorite family project - boiling and peeling chestnuts before hand. **Home-made, well-browned gravy** **Sweet Potato SoufflĂ©** More like a whip, but a great flavor with cream, butter and orange **Real cranberry mold with bourbon** Really easy! **Basic Ocean Spray canned smooth cranberry jelly** Yup, even with the homemade I love this stuff too. **Green beans sautĂ©ed with lemon, sliced garlic and oregano** Frugal Gourmet recipe - pre-cook the beans a bit first, then sautĂ© in a hot skillet. My dad’s the expert. **Fried sweet corn** My step-mom kernels and then freezes a hundred or so ears’ worth every year to save for birthday and holiday dinners **Mashed white potatoes**. I’m allergic to regular potatoes and get asthma when they boil, so I include this only on sufferance. 🙂 **Home made rolls**. Mmmmmm. Or cornbread. **Cole slaw**. **Pumpkin cheesecake**. Much better than pumpkin pie. **Ambrosia cake**. Basic yellow cake topped with Cool Whip, pineapple and coconut. **Pecan pie**. Or tuxedo pie, which has chocolate, bourbon and walnuts and is assembled like a pecan pie. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-perfect-thanksgiving-dinner-menu/94000.md?page=1)