Mincemeat Pie and other Traditional Thanksgiving Dishes

[disney212]

We are pretty traditional but coconut meringue pie is a family tradition as well as pumpkin, apple, pecan. I always serve a non-poultry option too but mix it up. Last year was smoked brisket, this year is a carver ham. I love to cook so I take Wednesday off and bake all day. I host every holiday and I can get cranky about that but then I think about how lucky I am to still have everyone that wants to come to our house for the holidays! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!

 

[lovesmurfs]

pumpkin pie but only the way I was raised on-double all the spices. anything otherwise tastes too bland to me.

 

[Forevermarypoppins]

As a child, I remember 2 distinct things ( along with the regular stuff ):

Mincemeat pie for my grandpa. I don't know if anyone else ever ate it but him!
My aunt's green jello, a combination of lime jello, pineapple, and cream cheese. I just know all of us kids LOVED that stuff!

 

[tvguy]

That's Great! I hand it to anyone who does all of that, but I save all my energy for Christmas Old English Feast where I do still go all out from Oysters Rockefeller as appetizers, standing rib roast with Yorkshire pudding, and English Trifle from scratch for dessert. I spend days ahead of time preparing and assembling everything, as that one's a little bigger for our family.

To anyone who goes to the max of making all the pies and stuffing and all the other accompaniments, good for you! I'm sure your efforts will pay off and it will all be wonderful.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, I hope everyone enjoys their day!

Yorkshire pudding was my mom's contribution to holiday dinners. Even our now vegetarian daughter admitted, it is soooooo much better when made with some sort of beef dripping or bacon fat.

 

[DisneyHardin]

I have never even tried Mincemeat pie. It's not something that was ever a tradition in our family.

Thanksgiving we usually have pecan pie and pumpkin pie. This year, due to my dad being in the hospital, we never celebrated my step sister and step mom's birthdays in early November, so we are having birthday cake for Thanksgiving dessert. My brother in law makes THE BEST birthday cakes, so no one would want to forfeit one of his cakes for boring ole pumpkin pie

 

[NotUrsula]

[snip]

My aunt's green jello, a combination of lime jello, pineapple, and cream cheese. I just know all of us kids LOVED that stuff!

Ah, the American Jello mold "salad" tradition. I grew up in an immigrant family, so we never knew those were a "thing" at holiday meals, though we had seen them at summer picnics we had been invited to. In the late 1980s, my first job out of grad school, I had moved to a new city and didn't plan to travel home for Thanksgiving; I was planning to just hang out at home and read and have a turkey sandwich. My boss found out about that and insisted that I go to her home for dinner.

I couldn't figure out a way to gracefully decline, so I went, bringing along a couple of loaves of good French bread, which I figured was generic enough that no one would object to it. We go into the dining room, and I encounter not one, but THREE versions of jello salad on the table. One contained mandarin orange slices, green jello, and some kind of white substance which was probably a cream cheese blend, but the other two appeared to be savory, and contained things like carrots and olives. I was simply speechless, and had no clue if I was supposed to treat them as a vegetable side dish or a dessert. I put bits of both on my plate but just moved them around without eating them. It was a large gathering and I didn't know a soul except my boss, who was busy playing hostess. I ended up with a headache and excused myself early to get out of there.

After that I made it a point to imply that I would be traveling home for the holidays even if I wasn't, because I didn't want to end up in that situation again. (It's one thing to go to a significant other's family home, but not your boss'.)

PS: FWIW, mincemeat was traditionally used as pie filling because the spices and orange peels were expensive, and by baking it in pie you could stretch it further, but it wasn't meant as a dessert, exactly; more like an appetizer or a party treat, and it didn't have any added sugar. It's actually middle-Eastern in origin: the original meat was lamb, and the idea for the filling was brought back to England by returning Crusaders centuries ago. It's really like a chopped, condensed version of a something similar to Tagine, that features meat cooked with a sauce of fruit and nuts. Suet (either rmutton or beef) is specific to it; no other type of fat will give you the same result. Like I said, my mom wouldn't even try if she couldn't get proper mutton suet.

 

[jlundeen]

And let us not forget Ambrosia - basically cool whip with fruit cocktail, coconut and mandarian oranges. My husband's mother served it at ever family gathering...although she probably cut up all the fruit and whipped the cream.

 

[RedAngie]

Has she ever MADE pies from scratch? I used to, and years ago, decided that frozen was great since everyone is so full by dessert, they don't savor every bite anyway LOL

we have frozen pumpkin and pecan - the mincemeat I buy frozen pastry and jarred mincemeat - with RediWhip. Life's too short to live it in the kitchen instead of enoying the day with others.

No, DD says she never made a pie 100% from scratch but wanted to try this year.

She’s thinking of French Apple with raisins and a drizzled icing.

I’ll still be on standby to pick up some last minute dessert.

I once tried 100% homemade pie and the results weren’t pretty. Store bought refrigerated crust and canned filling is more my speed if I’m even motivated to make one at all.

 

[Minnesota!]

I have never had mincemeat pie. I would say non traditional. Growing up we had a vegetarian meal and dessert was not served. My dad would go hunting for the weekend and we had the meal with my aunt who is vegetarian. I’m not a big meat eater so I didn’t mind. Out traditional meal was walnut loaf with mushroom gravy, cheesy potatoes, roasted Brussels sprouts, and rolls.

My dad no longer goes away for the weekend (several of his hunting friends have passed away) and my mom now makes a Turkey and a more traditional meal. We still serve walnut loaf and I usually have that.

If you have it, I would LOVE the walnut loaf recipe. I made walnut balls as swedish meatballs one year and they were a hit, but I cannot find that perfect recipe again. All the others I have found don't taste the same.

Our menu is pretty standard. Heavy on veggie sides which I appreciate. Mashed rutabaga is my favorite. Plus lots of appetizers. I am doing an easy spinach dip/breadbowl this year vs my normal artichoke dip thing. Pies are the standard plus banana cream, peanut butter, and a panettone.

 

[Oneanne]

Growing up it was a very traditional Thanksgiving menu, including putting the cranberry sauce out in its "natural state" - still shaped like the can. And we had mincemeat pie at Christmas, along with fruitcake.

Last year my Niece and her husband hosted a Thanksgiving brunch, instead of dinner, and it was such a hit they are doing it again this year. They are mostly veg, so no bird will be served which is just fine. I like to try making new things each year, and this year I'm making mini-pumpkin pies with cardamon added to the spice mix, plus sweet and spicy roasted squash with burrata cheese. Sounds delish, fingers crossed it turns out ok.

 

[barkley]

got our son's traditional Thanksgiving meal ordered online to pick up tomorrow-


KFC

what can I say? my asd kid has never developed a taste for turkey and cringes at the concept of anything with a multitude of ingredients like stuffing or green bean casserole so we go with what works for him.


btw-anyone who is a KFC fan needs to sign up for the new 'membership' on their website-they offer some significant unadvertised deals and discounts.

 

[LoveDaisy]

If you have it, I would LOVE the walnut loaf recipe. I made walnut balls as swedish meatballs one year and they were a hit, but I cannot find that perfect recipe again. All the others I have found don't taste the same.

Our menu is pretty standard. Heavy on veggie sides which I appreciate. Mashed rutabaga is my favorite. Plus lots of appetizers. I am doing an easy spinach dip/breadbowl this year vs my normal artichoke dip thing. Pies are the standard plus banana cream, peanut butter, and a panettone.

I’ll reach out to my aunt to ask for the recipe. I was surprised I didn’t have it when I looked.

 

[NotUrsula]

And let us not forget Ambrosia - basically cool whip with fruit cocktail, coconut and mandarian oranges. My husband's mother served it at ever family gathering...although she probably cut up all the fruit and whipped the cream.

View attachment 915824

My eldest sister's DH was the person in our group who insisted on this. It has not made an appearance since he passed away.

 

[Simba's Mom]

We're kind of in the middle of changing traditions (in our 70s, but we can still change). Growing up, my mother always had mincemeat pie, as well as a homemade butterscotch pie, turnip, bread stuffing made with homemade bread, and a Butterball Turkey. When our kids grew up and moved too far away to come back for Thanksgiving (besides my son is a professional musician at Radio City in NYC, so he's super busy), we started going to Hilton Head and getting our meal from a particular bakery. Sadly, the owner retired and passed away a couple years ago, so we're kind of without a traditional meal (but still at HHI)