What transforms a turkey dinner into Thanksgiving dinner? A turkey dinner may include mashed potatoes and gravy and lots of trimmings. But what transforms the meal, friends, is Tradition with a capital T, as in Thanksgiving. Here Tevye the milkman from “Fiddler on the Roof” and Norman Rockwell could agree.
Without tradition, Thanksgiving would be just another meal.
Good Eating asked you, our readers, to tell us what traditional dishes your family must have to make the holiday feel just right. Not surprisingly, turkey was high on the list. So were stuffings and dressings, and fresh-baked rolls, and baked sweet potatoes and cranberry concoctions from relishes to Jell-O fantasies.
Curiously, not one of you sent in a pumpkin recipe. Not a mousse. Not an ice cream. Not even a pumpkin pie. More about that in a moment.
We looked for longtime family favorites, and we looked for familiarity. Tradition, as Tevye would be the first to tell you, does not innovate.
The recipes looked appealing, and prompted mental images of beaming faces around the table, watching the proud cook usher in the beautifully bronzed turkey on a parsley-garnished white platter.
Maybe Deborah Riegler of Naperville roasted that beautifully bronzed turkey. Her sage, orange and clove roasted turkey could certainly win any beauty contest.
“This is by far the best holiday turkey recipe I have found. My family raves about it every year so I always host the Thanksgiving feast at my house,” Riegler said.
“And when you take your first bite of the meat, you get a hint of orange flavor and you’ll think you died and went to heaven,” she said, and she was right. Rubbed with a mix of dried orange peel, dried sage, salt and pepper, and stuffed with clove-spiked oranges, fresh sage and garlic, Riegler’s turkey was fragrant and moist.
You sent recipes for many stuffings and dressings, including one made with challah bread and turkey sausage; a potato dressing with the exuberant note, “Who says Irish cooking isn’t the greatest!”; several corn bread dressings; and a Louisiana dressing made with andouille sausage.
But P.B. Kral’s recipe caught our eye. Her vegetable stuffing features not only the usual onion, celery and carrots but also spinach and mushrooms. It’s colorful, and a great accompaniment to Riegler’s turkey. “I cut up all my veggies the night before and put them in Baggies so everything is ready to go in the morning,” said Kral, who lives in Lake Forest. “My family loves this recipe. I’ve been making it for 20 years.”
Of course, turkey and stuffing aren’t the only attractions on the table.
The Thanksgiving tablescape must include the obligatory cranberry. From the gelatin salads and the freezes and the uncooked relishes, we chose Cindy Antene’s cranberry-cherry relish, because it just seemed so doggoned Midwestern.
“These wonderful foods, that we only usually have at Thanksgiving, are part of what makes this time of year so special,” wrote Antene, of Brookfield. Her relish takes only a couple of stove-top minutes to cook, and the combination of orange or lime and dried cherries made it just right. And it’s adaptable: Make it days or weeks before the holiday; it keeps just fine in the refrigerator, closely covered, for up to a month, Antene wrote.
Lois Meier of St. Anne is apparently a woman of few words. She sent her sherried sweet potato recipe, a side dish that combines the best of all possible worlds: sweet potatoes in a light sugar-orange juice sauce, with the sophistication of a touch of sherry. Meier summed up her feelings about this dish in four words: “Wonderful aroma! Great taste!” We could only agree. Her recipe has a generous yield–it serves 12–and it’s easy to prepare, a boon on busy Thanksgiving Day.
Even people who rarely bake may try their hand at homemade rolls for Thanksgiving. We liked the 32-year-old recipe that Deborah England Daugherty of Waukegan relayed. Her butterhorn rolls are “from a home economics class at Fair-born Baker High School in Fairborn, Ohio, in 1973,” she wrote. “I have made them every Thanksgiving since then. Yum!” The easy rolls are light and delicately textured and on the sweet side; you can use more or less sugar, she added.
We waited and waited for a pumpkin pie recipe. Surely someone–anyone–shares our passion for pumpkin pie?
We waited in vain. Not a single person sent a single pumpkin recipe. Something had to be done. So we’ve contributed one of our own recipes. It’s a simple version of the Libby’s pumpkin pie you may remember from your mother’s or grandmother’s table. Ours uses half-and-half instead of evaporated milk; it also adds a little cozy ginger to the usual cinnamon, clove and nutmeg.
Call it a Good Eating tradition.
Sage, orange and clove roasted turkey
Preparation time: 25 minutes
Cooking time: 3 3/4-4 1/2 hours
Yield: 15-20 servings
– “This is by far the best holiday turkey recipe I have found,” wrote Deborah Riegler of Naperville. “My family raves about it every year.”
2 tablespoons dried orange peel
1 tablespoon each: vegetable oil, dried sage, coarse salt
Freshly ground pepper
1 turkey, 14- to 20-pounds, thawed if frozen
3 small oranges
12 whole cloves
3 medium garlic cloves, crushed, peeled
1 bunch fresh sage, tied with kitchen string
1. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Combine orange peel, oil, dried sage, salt and pepper to taste in a small bowl; set aside. Remove neck, giblets and any excess fat from the turkey.
2. Pierce each orange four times with a sharp knife tip; insert whole cloves into each hole. Place the oranges, garlic and fresh sage into the turkey cavity. Truss the turkey, if you like; place in a roasting pan. Rub the entire outside of the turkey with the spice mixture. Add one inch of water to the pan.
3. Roast until a meat thermometer inserted deep in the meat of the thigh registers 170 degrees, about 33/4-41/2 hours, depending on size. Tent the meat with foil if skin browns too quickly.
4. Set aside to rest, loosely covered with aluminum foil, 15-20 minutes. (Temperature should rise to 180 degrees.) Discard oranges, garlic and sage. Carve the turkey.
Nutrition information per serving:
323 calories, 33% of calories from fat, 11 g fat, 3 g saturated fat, 193 mg cholesterol, 0.2 g carbohydrates, 52 g protein, 470 mg sodium, 0.1 g fiber
Vegetable stuffing
Preparation time: 50 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour
Yield: 8 servings
P.B. Kral of Lake Forest starts preparing this stuffing the night before, cutting up the bread and spreading it out in a pan to dry. She also chops the vegetables, putting them in food storage bags. Kral has been making the stuffing for 20 years.
12 slices stale white bread, cut into cubes
1/4 cup olive oil
1 each, chopped: onion, small celery rib, small carrot
1 box (10 ounces) frozen chopped spinach, thawed, squeezed dry
1 package (8 ounces) sliced mushrooms
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon crushed dried rosemary
Freshly ground pepper
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup fat-free chicken broth
1. Place bread cubes in a large bowl; set aside. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat; add onion, celery and carrot. Cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are softened, about 9 minutes. Add spinach and mushrooms; cook, stirring, until mushrooms soften, about 4 minutes.
2. Stir in salt, rosemary and pepper to taste. Add vegetable mixture to bread cubes. Stir in the beaten egg until well mixed. Add chicken broth slowly, tossing after each addition until mixture is moist.
3. Use stuffing in turkey, if desired. Alternately, heat oven to 325 degrees; spoon stuffing into a greased 13-by-9-inch baking pan. Cover; bake until top is golden and stuffing cooked through, about 45 minutes.
Nutrition information per serving:
199 calories, 41% of calories from fat, 9 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 26 mg cholesterol, 23 g carbohydrates, 6 g protein, 633 mg sodium, 2 g fiber
Autumn sherried sweet potatoes
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes
Yield: 12 servings
Lois Meier of St. Anne adds a touch of sherry to this casserole. If you like, you can begin with raw sliced sweet potatoes; just increase the baking time to about 1 hour.
2 large cans (40 ounces each) sliced sweet potatoes, drained
1 1/2 cups orange juice
1/2 cup each: packed brown sugar, raisins
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon each: orange zest, salt
1 3 cup sherry
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) butter, cut into tablespoons
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Transfer sweet potatoes to a greased 13-by-9-inch baking pan; set aside.
2. Combine orange juice, sugar, raisins, cornstarch, zest and salt in a saucepan over medium heat; cook, stirring, until thickened and clear, about 9 minutes.
3. Stir in the sherry, butter and walnuts; cook, stirring occasionally, until butter is melted, about 1 minute. Pour over sweet potatoes. Bake until heated through, about 30 minutes.
Nutrition information per serving:
296 calories, 17% of calories from fat, 6 g fat, 3 g saturated fat, 10 mg cholesterol, 59 g carbohydrates, 4 g protein, 326 mg sodium, 4 g fiber
Butterhorn rolls
Preparation time: 45 minutes
Cooking time: 18 minutes
Chilling time: 12 hours
Rising time: 11/2 hours
Yield: 12
Deborah England Daugherty of Waukegan contributed this simple yeast roll recipe that she learned in a home economics class in 1973.
1 package (1/4 ounce) dry yeast
1 cup plus 3 tablespoons warm water
1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar, depending on desired sweetness
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups sifted flour
3 tablespoons melted butter
1. Dissolve yeast in 3 tablespoons of warm water in a small bowl; set aside. Place shortening, sugar, 1 cup of warm water, eggs and salt in a large bowl; stir in the yeast mixture. Stir in flour to blend. Cover; refrigerate at least 12 hours.
2. Remove dough from refrigerator. Knead several times until dough comes together. Roll out into a 16-inch circle on a floured surface; brush dough with melted butter. Cut into 16 wedges with a knife or pizza cutter.
3. Roll up each wedge, starting at the large end; form into crescent shape. Place rolls on a greased cookie sheet; cover lightly. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 11/2 hours.
4. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Bake rolls until golden, about 18-20 minutes.
Nutrition information per roll:
280 calories, 39% of calories from fat, 12 g fat, 5 g saturated fat, 43 mg cholesterol, 36 g carbohydrates, 6 g protein, 227 mg sodium, 1 g fiber
Cranberry-cherry relish
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Cooling time: 31/2 hours
Yield: 12 servings
Cindy Antene of Brookfield likes to add dried cherries to this relish.
1 pound fresh cranberries
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cranberry juice
Juice and zest from 1 orange
1 cup dried cherries
1. Combine cranberries, sugar, juices and zest in a medium saucepan; heat to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook until most of the berries pop open, about 10 minutes.
2. Skim foam off the surface with a metal spoon; stir in the cherries. Set aside to cool to room temperature, 30 minutes. Transfer to a medium bowl; cover. Refrigerate at least 3 hours.
Nutrition information per serving:
198 calories, 0% of calories from fat, 0 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 49 g carbohydrates, 1 g protein, 0.3 mg sodium, 2 g fiber
Fresh pumpkin tart
Preparation time: 45 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour, 50 minutes
Cooling time: 21/2 hours
Yield: 8 servings
Preparing fresh pumpkin puree to use in a pie is simple. Just give yourself enough time for the pumpkin to cool. For the holiday, you could bake the pumpkin and puree it up to three days ahead. Refrigerate it, tightly covered. You also can use a 29-ounce can of puree instead of fresh. Bake this in a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. If you would rather use a pie dish, you’ll need to bake the pie longer–add 10 minutes, and then, if it’s still not done, 10 minutes more.
1 pie pumpkin, about 2 pounds, halved, seeded
1 1/2 cups half-and-half
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon each: ground ginger, coarse salt
1/4 teaspoon each: ground cloves, freshly grated nutmeg
1 9-inch unbaked pie shell
1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the pumpkin halves, cut side down, on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or lightly greased. Bake until tender, about 1 hour. Set aside to cool, 30 minutes.
2. Increase oven temperature to 425 degrees. Scoop the flesh out of the pumpkin into a food processor or blender; puree. Reserve 2 cups of the pureed pumpkin; refrigerate remaining puree for another use. Return reserved pumpkin to food processor or blender. Add half-and-half, sugar, eggs, cinnamon, ginger, salt, cloves and nutmeg; process to combine.
3. Line a tart pan with pastry; trim edges. Place pan on a baking sheet; fill with pumpkin mixture. Bake 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees. Bake until a knife inserted near the center comes out nearly clean, about 40 minutes. (Custard will finish cooking as it stands.) Cool on wire rack 2 hours.
Nutrition information per serving:
293 calories, 43% of calories from fat, 14 g fat, 6 g saturated fat, 69 mg cholesterol, 37 g carbohydrates, 5 g protein, 307 mg sodium, 1 g fiber
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A special Sunday Good Eating
Part two of our series shakes things up by turning the traditional holiday courses upside-down.
