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Serving traditional holiday foods can be a great way to bond with family members and create lasting memories. It can also become boring after so many years. Every once in a while, you want to change things around just for the sake of change. These five variations on traditional Thanksgiving foods might be hits, or they may make your meal one of those stories of disastrous holidays we tell for years to come. My advice is to try only one wacky menu variation per year, lest your guests end up leaving hungry.
1. Turkey with Anchovies
The idea of adding anchovies to a turkey arose when Regina Charboneau needed a way to add oil and salt to the top of a roasting turkey to keep it from drying out. Others have used bacon for this purpose. The recipe calls for only two ounces of anchovies, placed on top of the turkey as it cooks. The fish disintegrate and leave a pattern on the turkey breast, and the flavor it adds is so subtle as to be unidentifiable to guests who’ve tried Charboneau’s turkey. Before trying this, you might want to find out if any of your guests are allergic to fish.
2. Slider Stuffing
This recipe for turkey stuffing calls for “18 White Castle hamburgers (no pickles), chopped into 1-inch pieces,” (or you can substitute bread, but it won’t be the same). I suppose if you live in the southern part of the US, you could substitute Krystals. Both brands are commonly called sliders. The recipe is a part of Thanksgiving for Chicago chefs Chris and Jill Barron, who share their Thanksgiving cooking schedule. Personally, I see no problem with leaving the pickles in, but I am no chef.
3. 100 Proof Turkey
I received a press release over the weekend about an alcohol-infused turkey to be offered at a Manhattan bar. Are they soaking it in Wild Turkey bourbon? No, this recipe calls for 100-proof fruit flavored vodka.
Paul Hurley, A local Irish bar and tavern owner in Manhattan is bringing a new twist for the Thanksgiving Holiday by unveiling the nation’s first 100 proof turkey which is infused with fruit flavored and 100 proof Georgi vodka. The Turkey takes three days to prepare for the Holiday. 100 proof vodka is infused in the bird for three days before the final cooking. Peach, Raspberry, Cherry and Apple flavored vodka’s are also part of the turkeys base. 100 proof vodka is also lightly placed in the gravy as well. No one under 21 is allowed to join the feast. The bar is also including a free taxi ride in the city for those who order the holiday specialty.
Each 20-pound bird is injected with eight ounces of vodka. Hurley says a lot of the alcohol content evaporates while the turkey cooks, so more will be added to the gravy. The chef recommends a vodka martini to go with the meal. It’s a good thing the meal includes a cab ride home.
4. Ham and Banana Casserole
My mother told me you can make a casserole out of anything, just include bread or crackers, cheese, and some milk or cream-of-something soup. This works with most meats and/or vegetables, but bananas? Paula Dean, the queen of southern fried recipes, brings us ham and banana casserole for a touch of Hawaii in your feast. The bread, cheese, and cream are there, along with ham and four bananas.
5. Pecan-Apple-Pumpkin Pie
Can’t decide what kind of pie to serve after Thanksgiving dinner? Make them all in one pie pan! Cakespy tried combining pecan, apple, and pumpkin pie recipes to make this triple threat. The first experiment layered the three filling, the second mixed them together, and the third separated them pie-chart fashion with extra crust.
Have you made any Thanksgiving dishes that would fit into the “odd” category? Share your experiences with us by leaving a comment!
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Comments (20)
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Krystal for Thanksgiving? I’m in!
posted by LT on 11-24-2009 at 11:06 am
Umm…
I need to know how that turkey leg is balanced in that glass.
Especially the way shes holding it..
posted by Chrystani on 11-24-2009 at 11:54 am
So that triple threat pie… Pecumple Pie? Is that what you’d call it? I’m in!
posted by Molly W. on 11-24-2009 at 12:24 pm
Every year I make a pumpkin-pecan pie for my mother… she’s the only one who likes it, but it is her favorite.
posted by Sarah on 11-24-2009 at 12:46 pm
Thanks for the article…
We are definitely having some White Castle stuffing this year
posted by Mark on 11-24-2009 at 12:59 pm
check out cranberry relish on NPR.org. Sounds so crazy–cranberries, sour cream, onions, horseradish, all frozen together–but they swear its delicious!
posted by ac on 11-24-2009 at 1:12 pm
Just seeing those White Castles makes my mouth water. We don’t have them in AZ unfortunately :(
posted by sw on 11-24-2009 at 1:21 pm
I suppose turducken has gone mainstream and can’t be considered “odd” anymore?
posted by Mark on 11-24-2009 at 1:29 pm
Mark, these are all new to me this year. I wrote about turducken in a post a couple of years ago, check it out:
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/9573
posted by Miss Cellania on 11-24-2009 at 1:58 pm
In order to get my husband to eat peas on thanksgiving, I’ve begun to cook them in a skillet with bacon pieces and onions until the bacon is all the way cooked and chewy. I also put bacon in my Green Bean Casserole.
Another weird one I invented is deep fried batter’d pumpkin fingers. Instead of pumpkin pie (because my family prefers the berry and coconut cream), I’ve started dipping pumpkin ‘fries’ in extra thick cake batter and deep frying them. We dip them in cream cheese frosting.
posted by Kate on 11-24-2009 at 4:02 pm
Watergate salad is a staple on our Thanksgiving table. It’s whipped cream, pistachio gelatin mix, crushed (and drained) pineapple, and mini marshmallows. I’m not a huge fan of it, but the bowl is always empty when the meal is over.
posted by Kieran on 11-24-2009 at 5:17 pm
I guess it’s called ambrosia? My grandmother makes this… thing… with marshmallows, mandarin orange slices, coconut and who knows what else. Every year we all moan and groan about how gross it is, and every year, without fail, it is completely gone by the end of dinner. I don’t know that it could be considered “odd” but it’s definitely on the gross side. :-)
posted by Rachel on 11-24-2009 at 5:29 pm
having grown up in the South, but family ain’t from around here…green bean casserole…ew
posted by H on 11-24-2009 at 5:39 pm
I wouldn’t say it’s odd, but maybe that’s because we’ve always had it. My family’s German, so we have spaetzle every holiday. It’s a German pasta that’s kind of bland, but I love it. We make it from scratch, but you buy it boxed in the “ethnic food aisle” at the grocery store.
posted by penny on 11-24-2009 at 8:56 pm
This isn’t really odd, but it’s different. For the last several years, instead of the traditional marshmallow-laden canned yams, I’ve been following a recipe I found in Real Simple magazine. It calls for plain sweet potatoes, which you bake, then cut up. Boil maple syrup with whole cloves and a vanilla bean in it, then drizzle it over the potatoes. It’s so much better than the traditional sickly-sweet yams.
posted by Jin on 11-25-2009 at 12:30 am
That sounds delicious, Jin!
posted by Miss Cellania on 11-25-2009 at 6:03 am
My family is Norse – usually there’s beef & fishcakes, sausages & cheeses, ryekrisps, lots of butter, lefse, pickled & all sorts of baked herring dishes, cucumbers & onions in a dill sourcream, silte (a sausage), & for the daring – lutefisk – Desserts – krumkake, cardomum biscuits, & pfeffernusse — typical for the old Norwegians – quite new for us youngsters in the USA…
posted by dawn on 11-25-2009 at 5:33 pm
That stuff looks disgusting.
posted by Dave on 11-25-2009 at 5:57 pm
Wouldn’t congealed salad be more fitting for this list?
posted by Tiffany! on 11-25-2009 at 10:30 pm
That stuff looks gross and nasty.
posted by Chris on 11-26-2009 at 10:46 am