Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and you know what that means…
Christmas is right around the corner.
Seriously though, Thanksgiving is a great holiday, that brings together families over
an absolutely incredible meal.
What do we really know about Thanksgiving, though?
Obviously, there is the dinner, football, parades, and Black Friday, but everyone knows
about those things by now.
So what else is there to know?
Well, plenty.
So here are the top ten untold truths about Thanksgiving dinner.
What people ate at first Thanksgiving (it wasn't turkey)
We all associate certain foods with thanksgiving: Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, pumpkin
pie, but what did the pilgrims and Native Americans really eat at the first Thanksgiving?
You might be surprised to learn that the very first Thanksgiving dinner was actually quite
a bit different from what you get today.
For one example, there was more than just turkey when it comes to the birds people were
eating.
According to historians, Pilgrims likely ate goose or duck along with some wild turkeys
(which, unlike the domestic turkeys we know now, are actually quite small).
There may have also been small birds like passenger pigeons.
That’s right, pigeons at Thanksgiving.
On top of that, there would have been potatoes, but sorry, no sweet potato pie.
In fact, there were no pies of any sort.
The pilgrims wouldn’t have had any of the flour or butter to make a crust, meaning that
the meal was most likely comprised almost entirely of meat.
There are worse things than that!
The birds might have still been stuffed as well, however, due to the lack of any bread
(other than a rudimentary cornbread), the birds were most likely stuffed with onions,
herbs, and possibly even chestnuts.
This method of cooking a turkey, without stuffing, but instead being filled with aromatics is
making a comeback.
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Canadians do Thanksgiving for the food
Canadians celebrate their own Thanksgiving.
That’s right, Americans may think they have a monopoly on the holiday, but it simply isn’t
true.
Canadian Thanksgiving occurs on the second Monday of October, as decided by Parliament
in 1957.
Thanksgiving in Canada is a celebration of explorer Martin Frobisher’s ambitious but
ultimately unsuccessful attempt to chart a Northwest Passage.
Though the crew had their spirits dampened by their immense losses, Frobisher sat them
all down and celebrated the fact that they would make it back home alive.
Thus, Canadian Thanksgiving was born in earnest.
While it has only really been an official holiday for 61 years, the truth is that Canadian
Thanksgiving is not at all dissimilar from American Thanksgiving.
There is still Turkey with all the trimmings, football, and of course, family gatherings.
However, for Canadians, the holiday is on a Monday, which means only a three-day weekend.
There also isn’t any sort of Black Friday shopping frenzy that goes along with Canadian
Thanksgiving.
While some people look forward to that, not having to deal with that kind of pressure
allows Canadians to just sit back and enjoy their meal without having to go to Best Buy
at midnight and possibly get pummelled for a flat screen TV.
That allows Canadians to focus on what is really important: delicious Thanksgiving food.
The rest of the world does Thanksgiving too
Canada isn’t the only country with their own version of Thanksgiving, though.
It may be called Thanksgiving in North America, but it’s ultimately nothing more than a
harvest festival.
There are plenty of harvest festivals worldwide, typically taking place in fall or just before
winter.
For example, in China, the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival marks the time in the Chinese lunar
calendar when the moon is at its brightest and fullest.
This typically occurs in September or October.
In Germany, where Oktoberfest reigns supreme as the holiday everyone in the world knows,
a lower key harvest festival called Erntedankfest takes place on the first Sunday after September
29th.
There is a parade, a church service, and typically a big feast.
However, one of the only foods that they don’t eat at the Erntedankfest dinner is turkey.
Even in warmer climates, a harvest festival is integral.
The holiday of Crop Over is celebrated in Barbados from June all the way until the first
week of August.
The holiday is bittersweet there, as it marked the end of the sugar cane harvest, which meant
that slaves were finished with their labor for the year, and so could celebrate.
The holiday saw a brief pause in the 1940’s due to the second World War, but it was revived
in 1974.
Finally, in Lithuania, October 5th of each year is Nubaigai.
This is also known as “the Festival of the Old Woman.”
So what is the key to this particular celebration?
Making a scarecrow is a tradition, as is eating rye bread and beets.
Some of your favorite restaurants are open on Thanksgiving
You might think that on Thanksgiving, there’s no way that any restaurants would be open
and serving food.
After all, who is going out to eat on Thanksgiving?
Well, you would be mistaken.
After all, not everyone has the capability to make themselves a Thanksgiving dinner,
and for those who are unable to visit their family for any reason, it’s nice to know
that you can go somewhere and get a good meal.
There are plenty of restaurants where you can get a Thanksgiving style meal, such as
Cracker Barrel, Denny’s, Boston Market, and Bob Evans.
Each of these restaurants will serve up everything you would expect on a Thanksgiving plate,
including turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and of course, plenty of hot gravy.
If turkey isn’t your thing, or you just really have an aversion to Thanksgiving, there
are plenty of other restaurants you can go to that will serve you an alternative meal
on the long weekend.
For example, head over to your local Waffle House, which always seems to be open.
Or, you can go to good old McDonald’s for a Thanksgiving Big Mac.
Otherwise, you can visit your local TGI Friday’s for endless apps and a good old-fashioned
plate of nachos.
So there you have it.
Thanksgiving may be known as ‘Turkey Day,” but you’ve got options.
Not everyone eats the same things on Thanksgiving
We may all think that Thanksgiving dinners are identical at every table, but come on,
this couldn't be further from the truth.
Everyone has their own Thanksgiving traditions, and that also applies to the food that is
served every year.
Have you ever spent a Thanksgiving at someone else’s house, and wondered where your favorite
side dish is?
Or why they’re serving ham instead of Turkey?
It’s because food is unique to every family, and across the United States, people are eating
all kinds of different foods at Thanksgiving.
The chosen side dish of Californians is Macaroni and Cheese.
That may seem like an odd choice to some, but wouldn’t the creamy, cheesy goodness
of a solid Mac be great with some turkey and gravy?
In Maryland, there’s crab cakes, because that’s just what you eat in Maryland.
Then in Texas, the side dish of choice is something called Chicken Spaghetti.
That seems like the strangest side dish yet, considering that you’re already eating one
kind of poultry, but also then adding spaghetti to a Thanksgiving dinner.
Then again, Thanksgiving dinner is a meal free from judgment, so whatever side dish
your family chooses to serve, have at it.
There’s a Flaming Hot Cheetos Turkey
There are at least two different ways to cook a Thanksgiving turkey, chiefly frying and
baking.
However, the steps taken before the actual cooking of the bird determine how it tastes.
Some people go traditional, basting their turkey with butter and stuffing it.
Others go a little classier, maybe sliding some herbs and butter under the skin and stuffing
it with onions, carrots, and other aromatics.
Then there are the serious turkey cooks, who brine their turkey for days before butterflying
it and throwing it in the oven for a fast bake at a high temperature.
However, none of these compare to the absolute craziness that is the turkey coated with crushed
Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.
Yes, that’s right.
Reynolds provides a recipe for this absolutely bonkers bird on their website, which requires
the bird to be cooked in an oven bag and then finished off on its own for the coating to
get crispy.
Now, if your family was made exclusively of fifteen-year-old boys and you’re serving
this with a side of Mountain Dew soup, then it would make perfect sense.
However, for any regular family, this would be a horror to behold on the table.
Imagine trying to explain this one to Grandma.
People have NO idea how to prepare Turkey (Call the Butterball Hotline)
Speaking of cooking a turkey, do you realize how many people have no idea what they’re
doing?
Every year, people are putting the birds in their oven with little to no knowledge of
what they’re doing.
That’s why Butterball, which is the brand name turkey, set up the Butterball hotline.
Every year, calls come pouring in from around the country, asking about how to prepare a
turkey properly, and what to do in turkey-related emergencies.
You probably wouldn’t believe just how clueless people can be when it comes to preparing a
turkey.
Whether it’s not knowing how to thaw it out, how to stuff it properly, or even which
side of the turkey has all the meat, it must be a tiring and unrewarding job to be an operator
at the Butterball hotline.
How many times do you think you could keep answering all of the crazy questions people
have about cooking a turkey?
John Madden put Turducken on the Thanksgiving map
For some people, Thanksgiving just isn’t complete without the king of birds, the turducken.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with this Frankensteinian dish, a turducken is a turkey
stuffed with a duck, and also a chicken.
Hence the name.
There are disputed tales of the dish’s origin.
The late chef Paul Prudhomme claimed to have invented the dish at a New Orleans restaurant
back in the 70’s.
He also trademarked the name in 1986.
However, another story goes that in 1986 a man asked a local butcher shop to combine
all three birds together.
The latter tale is where things get interesting.
Apparently, word of the butcher’s creation reached none other than John Madden.
Madden instantly fell in love with the turducken and began ordering two every year for Thanksgiving
and Christmas.
He would constantly talk about turducken during any of the Thanksgiving football games, and
could usually be seen with one on the air.
Ever since Madden popularized the creation, it has found its way into other people’s
homes.
Is it good?
It’s hard to say, as it’s possible that the flavor of all three types of meat might
just get lost in each other, but one thing is for sure: Madden was a huge fan and had
to have one every holiday.
Since his initial order, the same butcher shop went from selling 250 turduckens a year
up to five or six thousand.
The $76,000 Thanksgiving Dinner
Why should Thanksgiving dinner have to be a humble experience you have at home?
Why not go all out, completely hog wild, just over the top crazy with the $76,000 Thanksgiving
dinner from the Old Homestead Steakhouse in New York’s meatpacking district?
The meal includes turkey so good it costs over $100 a pound, stuffed with wagyu beef
and foie gras.
There’s also the regular staples, like sweet potatoes (although those are topped with caviar)
and regular old mashed potatoes (made with Swedish moose cheese).
You also get things like king oysters, which cost around $100 each, and Japanese slab bacon.
Still, even for ten people, all of that shouldn’t cost $76,000, right?
Well, on top of the food, you also get tickets to Hamilton, a chauffeured limo, a two night
stay in a luxury hotel suite, $7500 for a Black Friday shopping spree, a guided tour
of New York complete with a carriage ride through Central Park, dance lessons, and a
Ulysse Nardin watch valued at $20,000.
Then again, you could always just enjoy a butterball and some gravy with your family.
You wouldn’t get to experience all of the perks of this expensive dinner, but you would
also get to keep pretty much all of your money.
Finish it all off with Turkey-Flavored Ice Cream
Pumpkin Pie is typically the signature dessert of Thanksgiving, but there are some people
who would rather have something else, like a heaping bowl of ice cream.
And there are some ice cream flavors available that would be perfect for Thanksgiving.
A west coast ice cream shop called Salt and Straw released a line of ice cream flavors
that are all thanksgiving themed.
We’re not just talking pumpkin spice, either.
You can get ice cream that tastes like stuffing, mashed potatoes, and even turkey.
These flavors blend together sweet and savory elements to make all new flavors of their
own, however, they might be a little strange to people who just want a normal dessert.
Even if they don’t taste that good, you would get to say that you tried them, and
that would be a worthy Thanksgiving brag.
The turkey ice cream especially is very creative.
Turkey stock is boiled down with sugar and spices until it is almost a caramel consistency.
Then, on top of that, turkey skin is fried until it is crispy and added into the ice
cream with the caramelized stock.
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Happy Thanksgiving!