Thanksgiving 2025

Centerpiece said:
Thawing while cooking is indeed one of the safest ways to thaw frozen, raw meat product. The other “best” way is thaw in the fridge just like the charts describe. Too many folks just thaw it out on the countertop for a day or two… not advisable.
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Completely agree, but we all know what happens if you drop a frozen turkey in a turkey fryer, we've seen videos on youtube of magas burning down their houses. 😁
 
nycfan said:
As someone required to eat a few bites every Thanksgiving for years as a kid, no, no it does not make sense.
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I'm so glad that I wasn't made to eat that thing, I remember how scary it looked. I have enough scars from childhood, that might have been the straw that broke the camels back.
 
Zoo_View said:
“A savory jello dish”

That makes NO sense.
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I went to a lady’s house for Christmas Eve dinner once and she was an elderly Polish immigrant and she went the full traditional dinner route and that included trout in aspic, which if we’re being honest, is nothing but a steamed trout served cold encased in a transparent mold of cold fish flavored jello. Wasn’t half bad. I liked it better than the hunter’s stew which is sauerkraut based, which is not my favorite, even if the sauerkraut was homemade, which made it better.
 
Ddseddse said:
I went to a lady’s house for Christmas Eve dinner once and she was an elderly Polish immigrant and she went the full traditional dinner route and that included trout in aspic, which if we’re being honest, is nothing but a steamed trout served cold encased in a transparent mold of cold fish flavored jello. Wasn’t half bad. I liked it better than the hunter’s stew which is sauerkraut based, which is not my favorite, even if the sauerkraut was homemade, which made it better.
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Yeah. We have friends from Moldova and Romania, and the whole ‘meat floating in gelatin’ thing is evidently a big deal.
 
Ddseddse said:
What's the most "old-timey" traditional thanksgiving dish in your family (or really any other dish you would never eat any other time of the year except on Thanksgiving)?

Mine is pearl onions in butter and cream. Passed down from my maternal grandmother. I don't even like it that much, but it's tradition.
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Corn pudding
 
nycfan said:
OMG my mom made one of those all through the 1970s and 1980s and still claims everyone loved it. So gross. Lime jello with sour cream mixed in plus canned peas and shredded lettuce and celery and nuts. Mortifying. Off-putting color.
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Ours was lime jello with crushed pineapple, chopped pecans, and miniature marshmallows. My mother just called it “congealed salad.”

I think that was the poor white southern version of Waldorf salad…..pistachios were way too fancy for our neighborhood back in the 60s.
 
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farce© said:
Ours was lime jello with crushed pineapple, chopped pecans, and miniature marshmallows. My mother just called it “congealed salad.”

I think that was the poor white southern version of Waldorf salad…..pistachios were way too fancy for our neighborhood back in the 60s.
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Yeah that was different from whatever the hell my mom made. I asked in a round about way today and it hat cottage cheese, not sour cream, but also “fancy” canned peas, celery, lettuce and pistachios. 😬
 
Centerpiece said:
It does seem weird for a “jello-type” dish to be thought of as something other than sweet, but Aspics as well as some gelatin salads can indeed be considered savory. But not usually a favorite amongst the kiddos.
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Yeah…..aspic dishes and jello dishes are similar.
 
doctor_octopus said:
Yeah. We have friends from Moldova and Romania, and the whole ‘meat floating in gelatin’ thing is evidently a big deal.
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Not necessarily a big deal so much as "meh". It's commonplace in Europe. It's to preserve. They add a little flavor to the gelatin - or "aspic" in culinary terms - to hopefully make it palatable. Es ist normal.
 
nycfan said:
Yeah that was different from whatever the hell my mom made. I asked in a round about way today and it hat cottage cheese, not sour cream, but also “fancy” canned peas, celery, lettuce and pistachios. 😬
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Check your Reader's Digest, Better Homes and Gardens or Lades Home Journal from the 1960's for the recipe. It was a thing. And your mom paid attention.
 
gregh1 said:
Also, thanks for the reminder that it's thanksgiving. A ton of homes in our neighborhood already have XMAS lights and decor setup and powered.
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Last weekend, I saw a number of homes with Christmas trees up already. And I’ve obviously seen many more since then. WTF people? I’m strongly opposed to the death penalty but I might make an exception here.
 
Ddseddse said:
I went to a lady’s house for Christmas Eve dinner once and she was an elderly Polish immigrant and she went the full traditional dinner route and that included trout in aspic, which if we’re being honest, is nothing but a steamed trout served cold encased in a transparent mold of cold fish flavored jello. Wasn’t half bad. I liked it better than the hunter’s stew which is sauerkraut based, which is not my favorite, even if the sauerkraut was homemade, which made it better.
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Aspic IS NOT 20th Century commercial jello.
 
Icky Mettle said:
Last weekend, I saw a number of homes with Christmas trees up already. And I’ve obviously seen many more since then. WTF people? I’m strongly opposed to the death penalty but I might make an exception here.
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Ha…I’m one of those people this year. We usually decorate Thanksgiving weekend and on occasion the week before if we are doing a combo Thanksgiving/Christmas with my wife’s side of the family (sometimes can’t get together twice). However, this year we have had the trees up for two weeks and did all the inside and outside decorations last weekend. I thought about not turning them on, but screw it, we all love Christmas…the longer the decorations are up, the better. We have something going on every weekend starting now through the next two weekends…and that’s just too late…and I’d rather be early than late.

And in keeping with the purpose of the thread…my MIL, may she rest in peace, always made a ‘dish’ consisting of pear halves with a spoonful of Dukes Mayo and then sprinkled with shredded cheddar cheese. I never tried it, but they all loved it!
 
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Centerpiece said:
Check your Reader's Digest, Better Homes and Gardens or Lades Home Journal from the 1960's for the recipe. It was a thing. And your mom paid attention.
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She was definitely a Better Homes & Gardens devotee back in the day and has a collection of about 100 cookbooks from the 1920s through 1980s.
 
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