Article Digest:
Every November, millions of Americans get together for Thanksgiving Holiday. On the evening of the fourth Thursday of November, days of culinary preparation come to a climax in the traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Need some ideas for what to serve at your Thanksgiving? Let Cooking For Engineers provide some recipe suggestions.
Start your feast with a salad made of hand torn romaine lettuce and a homemade vinaigrette dressing. A turkey noodle soup made from homemade turkey stock, diced carrots, egg noodles, and seasoned with salt & pepper is a great way to start everyone's appetite.
While the turkey is resting, finish up a Giblet Pan Gravy. In addition to the gravy, Thanksgiving turkeys love to be accompanied with some Cranberry Sauce.
For side dishes, Garlic Mashed Potatoes or Garlic Roasted Red Potatoes are both winners. In addition, Campbell's Green Bean Casserole is such a regular guest to the dinner that recently a television commercial was made presenting the awkward situation of all the guests brining a Green Bean Casserole to the feast. (But, I think it's better to have too much green bean casserole than too little.) A bit of sweet corn bread might also welcome.
Joined: 10 May 2005 Posts: 1654 Location: Austin, TX (USA)
Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2005 3:22 am Post subject:
I post-dated the article so it way stay ontop while I post new articles in the next couple weeks. I'm planning on releasing a chef's knife review and a recipe for dirty rice before Thanksgiving (if all goes well).
Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2005 4:04 pm Post subject: Boring!
How about something not so traditional? There is nothing worse than green bean casserole. In the south, we serve rice and sweet potato casserole (NOT with marshmallows -- yech!), and of course cornbread. Of course, as one professor friend observed at Thanksgiving, its the only time when all Americans are likely doing the same thing -- eating the same meal at about the same time, etc. We have varying traditions for other national holidays, but Thanksgiving is our only truly consensual tradition.
Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2005 11:19 pm Post subject: THANKSGIVING DINNER
I MYSELF WOULDN'T WANT TO HAVE TURKEY SOUP AS AN APPETIZER. IN FACT, WITH AS MUCH FOOD THAT WILL BE SERVED FOR THE MAIN MEAL, THE SOUP WOULD FILL ME UP. THUS, LIMITING ME ON TASTING EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THE SIDE DISHES (WHICH DOESN'T INCLUDE GREEN BEAN CASSEROLE) AND OF COURSE THE TURKEY.
Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2005 3:29 pm Post subject: Turducken
A lot of grocery stores carry this in the frozen foods section. It costs around $65. Its a very old concept -- this was common in the middle ages. Personally, I would not take on trying to make one, but maybe one day I would buy one, just to try it.
Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2005 5:39 pm Post subject: Blackened Turkey (also Turducken)
My main question is whether anyone has experimented with Morton's Blackened Turkey (you'd know it if you had--it's a long, complicated recipe involving "painting" the elaborately stuffed turkey with an egg paste several times during baking to achieve a crust that blackens; I can provide the recipe on request). I like the recipe, but cannot seem to achieve the predicted break-off-able crust that I am supposed to get, which breaks off to reveal crisp and delicious skin. Any hints on temperature control or other physics-type stuff that could help me with this?
As for turducken, it takes longer than a regular turkey, but is very good (depending on who makes it) and quite expensive (around $200 in California for a large one, which comes frozen). The ones I have cooked have a rice stuffing somehow tucked in and around the bird(s), and the fun part is carving as you would slice bread, getting concentric layers of different meats.
Joined: 10 May 2005 Posts: 1654 Location: Austin, TX (USA)
Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2005 1:23 am Post subject: Re: Preventing the crack in the middle of the pumpkin pie...
Kaydub wrote:
What causes the crack in the middle of a pumpkin pie? How do you prevent it?
The most common cause of cracks in pumpkin pies is overcooking. If you bake the pie until the center has completely set, chances are during cooling, it will develop a crack. The trick is to bake it until the center just jiggles (like Jell-O) when you twist the pie gently. It should fully set while it cools off.
If it does develop a crack, cover it with fresh whipped cream (whipped with sugar and a few drops of vanilla extract; or use almond extract for a nice twist).
Joined: 13 May 2005 Posts: 12 Location: Tustin, CA
Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2005 5:57 am Post subject: another side dish for Thanksgiving
My mother-in-law makes a Chinese sticky rice (no mai fon) to accompany her turkey at Thanksgiving. It has bacon, Chinese sausage, onion, green onion, celery, shiitake mushrooms and oyster sauce. I made it for our church Thanksgiving potluck today, and went home with an empty dish! Good thing I doubled the recipe so we have some in the fridge at home.
I made Eric's Chocolate Pecan Pie as one of my desserts last year, and liked it so much that I may repeat it for this year!
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