To be clear, I’m not talking about mashed potatoes or mac and cheese or rolls or any other regular food. I’m talking about the foods that most people only eat on Thanksgiving.
Sweet potatoes? Fine on their own but mixed with marshmallows and brown sugar? Gross.
Cranberry sauce? A red blob of gross.
Green bean casserole? I want to like it but every time I’ve tried it it’s just not good.
Pumpkin pie? Not gross but very overrated.
Even turkey. Almost always dry and bland.
The only thing I’m really here for are the deviled eggs. And before y’all say, “well you just haven’t had it made right!” no, I’ve had 40 years worth of Thanksgivings with many different people making the food and these foods have never been good.
Go ahead and come at me. That’s what we’re here for.
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You need to have better turkey if it’s always dry. How you cook it matters.
>Even turkey. Almost always dry and bland.
I was predicting this one at the title, before i clicked on it. If that’s your experience with turkey, you’ve never met a good cook; sorry you’ve spent your life with people with skills that poor in the kitchen
Agreed. Mashed potatoes are the only good Thanksgiving food.
You need better cooks in your life
Hey now…the cranberry sauce I make is actually pretty good, because I add orange zest and juice to it, so it has that perfect combination of sweet and tart
Turkey tastes like wet paper towels. I will fight you on sweet potatoes but agree the marshmallows are a no. Green bean casserole is the only way I’ll consume green beans. Pumpkin pie can go right in the trash. Canned cranberry sauce isn’t worth talking about.
Popular opinion with me
Cranberry sauce shouldn’t come from a can. The pumpkin in a pumpkin pie shouldn’t come from a can. Turkey isn’t dry and tasteless if it isn’t overcooked and is properly brined.
Sounds like Thanksgiving foods aren’t your family’s forte, and that’s okay.
Stuffing is the greatest food ever! And I’m pretty sure I’d kill for some pumpkin pie.
But cranberries and green bean casserole are truly gross.
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I’d would agree with you, except for the fact that my mother is an excellent cook. I agree that Thanksgiving food is generally over-hyped, BUT the way my mom makes food is something else. She could make canned pickled fish lips taste like the greatest cuisine in the world.
We know what type of person is cooking at his Thanksgiving.
If you’ve been eating bland, dry turkey, then it’s definitely suffering from poor preparation.
Some year I want to make open-face turkey sandwiches with gravy on bread, but like a bread made of stuffing, with maybe some fresh cranberry marmalade. Mashed sweet potatoes with a touch of nutmeg, twice baked potatoes with the green bean casserole on top and pumpkin cheesecake. I’m still working it out, though…
Ha, I couldn’t agree more, to all of that. Still going upvote though because we are definitely in the minority on this one.
I’m with you on marshmallows with sweet potatoes, that is in fact gross. Everything else tells me you just don’t know anyone that knows how to cook good food.
It’s not that turkey always tastes bad to me but every time I’ve had it I’ve thought that I would rather be having chicken.
I’ve never heard of deviled eggs or macaroni and cheese as traditional Thanksgiving food.
My mom makes the cranberry sauce herself and it’s way better than the store bought canned ones. Turkey is also good but the breading is also self made and not store bought. Then baked russets with butter or hot sweet potato, yummers. No one in my family likes pumpkin pie except for me and she prefers pecan and my father gets peach so often times we get 3 different pies (2 for my parents, a small slice for me because I don’t eat as much) but lately pumpkin pie hasn’t tasted good from the store.
I’ve seen way too many popular opinions on here lately, this opinion is terrible! Great post!
Don’t let bob from bobs burgers hear you
Out of curiosity, what is your nationality/ethnicity? Thanks
Pumpkin pie is great. Apparently you just don’t like anything good
Here’s the thing with Thanksgiving food. More often than not it’s made by people who either don’t cook very often, or by people who don’t make those particular dishes very often and haven’t gotten good at making them. When someone knows what they’re doing, every one of those dishes you mentioned are great. I’ll say, green bean casserole is pretty much impossible to mess up, and I can understand how it might not be for everyone. It’s pretty much just a bunch of canned shit mixed together and then heated up. Personally, it’s my favorite thing at Thanksgiving, but it sounds like it’s just not for you.
Every food post here reinforces 2 things. People have different tastes and people don’t know how to cook.
If you or whoever is making turkey and it’s dry and/or bland, that just means you/they suck at cooking a turkey.
The only thing I can argue is turkey dry and bland.
All your other points are valid opinions. The turkey you have had might very well be dry and bland, but that absolutely is a skill issue on the part of the chef in question. Juicy, savory turkey does exist. It’s just that the traditional method of whole bird filled with dressing in oven over 4 hours is a universal recipe that everyone’s mom and grandma used, and it’s a terrible way to do it.
Do a dry or wet brine. Spatchcock the bird. You’ll change your mind.
Chandler?
Green bean casserole is blah without good seasonings. No one adds seasonings to it but me!
I have long felt this way. Even worse are the specialty things guests bring for their traditions – creamed pearl onions, stuffing made with craisens… gah!
Fried turkey with Cajun seasoning injection…neither dry or bland.
Sweet potato casserole…with pecans. Marshmallows on sweet potatoes should be a war crime.
I eat a lot of turkey all year but it’s cold cuts. Green beans are great if they are done well and horrible if done poorly. Mashpos are not my favorite kind of po, but they are better than no po. I just prefer some chunk.
Cranberry sauce is something I look forward to without fail at thanksgiving. And I eat a lot of it. However, I have never tried to incorporate cranberry sauce into any other kind of dinner. Like, I’m not sure how it would be on meatloaf, or arroz con pollo, or a burrito, or on a hamburger, etc. Seems less appetizing, oddly. And yto add I loe cranberry juice at breakfast.
Pumpkin pie is better than no pie, but apple pie is my favorite, and my father usually makes a shoo fly pie, which I also like.
I’m not a huge fan of thanksgiving foods, don’t hate most of them, but they’re mostly just, meh. But the deviled eggs are the crime here.
I totally agree with you and don’t even want the deviled eggs, Turkey is disgusting! Any way it’s cooked it not good. mashed potatoes are good & if you can get someone that serves the alternative option of ham instead of turkey and apple pie instead of pumpkin that can be good, but nothing special really and everything else served on thanksgiving sucks
I feel the exact same way about turkey. We do ham here in our little family 🙂
I agree w everything but the sweet potatoes 😭 I love me a good yam casserole 🤤
Not a thanksgiving-er. But the few times I’ve done it. It’s been a little overrated. Honestly if you don’t like certain foods. There isn’t much more to be said.
I’ve had mostly bad turkey. And I think turkey as a meat is generally just too dry no matter what you do. But I’ve had some damn good gravy and sauces that make turkey shine.
I still have no damn clue what cranberry sauce tastes like and I’m not ever going to want to find out.
Sweet potatoes with marshmallows sounds crazy to me. I dunno what green bean casserole is either. I may have had it but I don’t think so. My step grandma and great step grandmother were wicked cooks and they made some amazing thanksgiving meals. I miss them so much… the only good thing that step side of the family ever brought me.
I don’t know about marshmallows but sweet potatoes with brown sugar is like crack cocaine to me.
Sorry your family can’t cook.
I look forward to Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners every year.
Stop doing ‘traditional’ foods and make tasty sides
(Also try smoking your turkey)
Sorry your people’s can’t cook babe
If you don’t know how to cook the bird just say that.
You clearly have never had a good Thanksgiving dinner. It’s maybe my favorite holiday. And the leftover sandwiches?!? Good lord
Cranberry sauce and greenbean salad are both really good if made with good ingredients. I also used to hate both. But homemade cranberry sauce or greenbean salad with fresh green beans instead of canned changed my mind.
I love green bean casserole lol. I used to feel the same way about turkey but my dad puts it on the smoker and it’s so much better this way but don’t get me wrong I’d still rather be eating a steak or pasta lol. Agree on sweet potato’s they just always look gross to me .
I’m with you on the sweet potatoes, I prefer them roasted with butter and salt and pepper. And the older I get I don’t prefer turkey, I do a rib roast or a chicken.
I like turkey. I do, truly. But for a celebration meal, I believe it should be prime rib roast because prime rib fckin rules. That being said, get a turkey from a good farm, 100% better.
100000%. I don’t really like any of the stuff served for traditional thanksgiving dinner and it’s never been an enjoyable meal. It’s a plate of different shades of earth toned and beige mush covered in brown sauce creating mud out if the mush. Yuk. Then you have leftovers for days that you have to east the same things for all meals or else you’re a jerk for wasting it.
I have no idea what to make as a substitute..no restaurants are open in my area that day. And there’s wierd fomo Pressure to make an epic meal or else it’s a hallmark holiday fail. By far my least favorite holiday.
At least there’s football.
Who’s forcing you to put marshmallows on your sweet potatoes? Ewww
I love sweet potato casserole.
I feel seen
Most of them aren’t stuff I would eat all the time, but most are alright
I don’t get the hate for green bean casserole, it’s pretty much mushroom and onion soup flavored green beans
Pumpkin pie with whipped cream or ice cream is good
The only Thanksgiving turkey I ever cared for was deep fried, and those are pretty rare. Green bean casserole I can take or leave, but I leveled that shit up a couple years ago by making everything from scratch. Whole different ball game. Idk if it was worth the effort but it was a big hit at work so I might do it again sometime.
I could live off of my mother’s Italian stuffing and homemade cranberry sauce. It’s the most perfect combination of flavors on this planet.
I think most of what you listed as bad is just frequently done poorly. People treat the hideous can of cranberry sauce being notoriously bad like it’s a running gag and green beans aren’t even in season in late November so nobody’s making it with the best ingredients. Turkey can be amazing but people who don’t know what they’re doing try to make it and cut corners. All these things can be super delicious with the right recipe, ingredients and preparation.
Sweet potatoes and marshmallows is just awful though. I can’t defend that at all.
I have been trying to tell my wife this for years. If it was good we would have it more than once a year.
>Sweet potatoes? Fine on their own but mixed with marshmallows and brown sugar? Gross.
I have barely any opinion on this post because Thanksgiving is not an important holiday here (my family doesn’t celebrate it), but that is disgusting, and I’m really worried for all of America after reading that. I’m a lover of sweet potatoes, but that is an abomination.
You didn’t even mention the dressing which is the best part.
I agree with everything except green bean casserole. Make a nice homemade one without all the canned stuff and it’s awesome.
I love mashed potatoes and stuffing though
Everything you listed I love, it’s all subjective! I feel bad for you though tbh