Thanksgiving side dishes by region

[utrecht]

Here’s What Your Part Of America Eats On Thanksgiving | FiveThirtyEight

This is an interesting article on which parts of the country prefer certain side dishes on Thanksgiving.

I found squash in the upper NE of the country to be rather strange as their main side dish that others don't each as much of. I lived in Pittsburgh until I was about 8 and we never had it. Probably because my father doesnt like hardly any veggies I guess. I also didnt know people in the south ate cornbread as their main non traditional side...until I moved to Texas.

 

[Ronstar]

Interesting. We fit the Midwest with rolls, but also go with the green bean casserole. I like the Southeast with the mac and cheese though.

 

[MichaelB]

We have lots of family from Pittsburgh and surrounding areas going back many generations, and I wouldn't exactly call that "Northeast", at least from a cultural perspective. They wouldn't either. They are all very much in the "biscuits" category.

I love food, and eating, so it all works well for me.

 

[aja8888]

Being a Connecticut Yankee stuck in Texas (with a Midwest wife), cornbread is not on the menu around here. Squash?

 

[ERD50]

It all sounds good, but we have lots of sides, so hard to say where we fit. We have Pumpkin bread and Cranberry bread, not sure those count as 'rolls' though. Mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes (does that count as squash - almost?). The green vegetable varies, green beans this year, but could be broccoli or roasted Brussels Sprouts. Cranberry relish and cranberry sauce, and salad, and 'stuffing' (but cooked separate, not 'stuffed').

Cornbread and/or Mac & Cheese sound good though, never had Mac & Cheese at Thanksgiving, probably have had cornbread muffins in the past?

Have several wines and a champagne chilled and lots of different beers, both home-brew and commercial, plus soft drinks ( a big array of different ginger ales from World Market to taste test). Our favorite accompaniment for Turkey dinner is a Peach Lambic - nice and tart and more almond than peach. Just works with turkey.

-ERD50

 

[pb4uski]

Our sides today are salad, glazed carrots, whipped potatoes, meat dressing, stuffing. DW wanted squash and broccoli, but i talked her out of it.

As an a-side (pun intended), I find each Thanksgiving that I love turkey and often wonder why we don't have it more often.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Squash? Really? I think that would just take up WAY too much real estate on my plate and that is NOT acceptable. Mac n' Cheese in the South seems to be a fairly new phenomenon. I am seeing it more and more on menus, particularly as a fancy-dish (made with gouda cheese instead of Cheeze-Wiz). As a matter of fact, I saw that the Honey Baked store had Mac n' Cheese available, but the supply looked short compared to the traditional sides.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Our sides today are salad, glazed carrots, whipped potatoes, meat dressing, stuffing. DW wanted squash and broccoli, but i talked her out of it.

As an a-side (pun intended), I find each Thanksgiving that I love turkey and often wonder why we don't have it more often.

Funny you mention having turkey more than once a year. I think some of it might be the preparation. Since we started cooking our in an infrared fryer (that is very easy and very tasty!) we tend to do turkey 2 or 3 times a year.

 

[BBQ-Nut]

Having been an AF brat and crisscrossed homes from east to west coast, sides for Thanksgiving in our house include biscuits, cornbread stuffing, and steamed veggies.


Gobble gobble!

 

[braumeister]

I grew up in NYC (yes, I know that's another planet) and never heard of squash on the menu.

We always had mashed turnips though. Same size bowl as the mashed potatoes.

 

[eytonxav]

regular and sweet potatoes, cranberry, sausage stuffing, green beans, followed by pumpkin spice cookies and apple pie for dessert

 

[rodi]

Hey - we're on the west coast and eat salad pretty much every dinner... except Thanksgiving - too many other dishes.

Our menu tonight:
- Turkey
- stuffing with pecans and sausage
- homemade gravy
- Mashed potatoes with roasted garlic, parm, and goat cheese.
- green beans dressed with sesame oil and almond slivers.
- cranberry sauce with orange zest and ginger
- fruit salad (no marshmallow... just diced up fruit - my sister's contribution)
- fresh baked rolls
- pumpkin and pecan pies (just came out of the oven.)

Oh - and wine.

 

[Midpack]

Salad? Squash? And cornbread & rolls/biscuits are side dishes? Huh? But it's on the internet so it has to be true...

I never knew our family tradition was so far off the mark. I grew up with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes w gravy, candied sweet potatoes & cranberry sauce. The sides I grew up with didn't top the list in any region.

I can't remember what we had for dessert, probably lefse or krumkake.

 

[MBAustin]

I'm from the mid-Atlantic and can confidently say I've never had cauliflower on Thanksgiving. And DH is a native Texan and we've never had cornbread either (even when we were at his parents' or siblings' homes).

One side I've encountered frequently in Texas that just strikes me as odd is deviled eggs.

We're pretty simple: turkey, giblet gravy, mashed potatoes, un-stuffed stuffing, homemade cranberry sauce are the "every year" items. This year the veggie is roasted brussels sprouts and butternut squash with dried cranberries (saw the recipe last week and it sounds very yummy) and the pie is pumpkin (it's most often apple but DH requested pumpkin). Roasted or sautéed green beans is more often the veggie.

I just got the pie out of the oven - almost had a cooking disaster when I had a brain fart and put 2 teaspoons of paprika instead of cinnamon in with the pumpkin. I was able to scrape most of it out and the mix tasted ok so hopefully so will the pie.

 

[Sarah in SC]

Our part of the south leans heavily on the carbs. We will have two kinds of dressing (never called stuffing), one with sausage and one without. My personal favorite is oyster dressing, but I got downvoted on that.

Also Mac and cheese, broccoli casserole, sweet potatos with candied pecans on top, and a pecan pie. Plus rolls and cornbread. Is gravy a side dish?

 

[braumeister]

Is gravy a side dish?

It's the only absolutely essential item on the table IMHO.

 

[34rlsa]

We have lived in Alaska for over 30 years. We eat salads regularly... but have never had salad as a side dish for Thanksgiving.

thats just wrong

 

[turbo89]

From the northeast here, squash is definitely a staple at thanksgiving. We had squash,mashed potatoes, turnip, carrots, stuffing, candied yams, green beans, cranberry sauce and rolls...

Everyone I know around here minimally has squash, rolls, mashed potatoes, stuffing and cranberry sauce. Im actually surprised that the rest of the U.S. Doesn't have squash... But cornbread seems like a good addition.


Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum

 

[GravitySucks]

An easy menu this year.

Roast Turkey with stuffing (in the bird like the government warns not to do.).
Mashed potatoes.
Corn
Lettuce salad.
Baked sweet potatoes.
Squash.
Broccoli with cheese sauce.
Ambrosia.
Rolls.

Family brings dessert, probably cheesecakes and apple pie.

Years when I have more guests I add a small smoked turkey and a few racks of pork ribs.

This is in Central NY.

 

[razztazz]

Fortunately being Italian we always started with hand-made, fresh dough pasta or ravioli before the turkey. Sides were mashed potatoes, stuffing and a salad.

Even though I am from the Northeast I, personally, would not eat anything called "squash."

 

[FI by 2024]

Our side dishes this year are mashed potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes, grilled carrots and green beans, crescent rolls, stuffing (both in and out of the turkey), mac & cheese, and creamed onions. We aren't having squash this year but we have in the past and I've never thought it was strange. Butternut squash is perfect fall food.

Plus the turkey, four pies, ice cream, caramel corn, and assorted appetizers.


Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum

 

[Philliefan33]

Mashed potatoes, stuffing (done in the bird, no matter how many times the experts warn me I risk poisoning the family), sweet potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, and crescent rolls. We normally have squash but I forgot this year. Pumpkin pie for dessert.

 

[FIREd]

Fascinating to see how strongly people feel about their Thanksgiving side dishes. I did not grow in the US but married into an American family of German descent. On my first Thanksgiving dinner, the side dishes spanned from candied yams to pickled red cabbage and potato dumplings. Over the years, I have developed my own tradition when it comes to side dishes for Thanksgiving dinner. Mashed potatoes, green beans, roasted butternut squash, and dinner rolls. Looks like I borrowed ideas from all over the place.

 

[audreyh1]

We had turkey at a get together on Tuesday, so today we had king salmon.

 

[WhoDaresWins]

Growing up here in western PA we had a turkey with wild rice- sausage stuffing (stuffed in the turkey), giblet gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans (steamed, as my first-generation American parents were not fond of casseroles made with mayo or canned soup), and cranberries (made from the whole fruit boiled with some sugar). The wild rice was ordered from somewhere in MN (where my father discovered it during one of his frequent fishing trips). My Dad also made oyster dressing in a separate pan and this was enjoyed by everyone except my sister. If we had dessert, I don't recall it. I don't recall rolls or biscuits either, but the day after Thanksgiving we always enjoyed hot turkey sandwiches with gravy and mashed potatoes.