Thanksgiving without turkey...ideas?

[pastameshugana]

I'm just curious to see what kinds of creative things people who both a) Celebrate Thanksgiving and, b) Don't want to make a turkey, come up with.

 

We're in South Africa currently, and while I can find a turkey, it's a bit of a chore. And to be honest, I don't really love turkey all that much. It's just ... ok.

 

We'll be having an early TG because family will be visiting, so I want to start to get a menu and a plan in place.

 

There's obvious 'holiday mains' we can sub in, like a roast, a ham, etc.. Curious if anyone has any creative alternative ideas that might not be springing to my mind.

 

I also wouldn't mind trying something completely different, like co-opting an entire meal - from mains to sides to desserts - from a different holiday or even a different culture to create a truly unique Thanksgiving meal. For us, everything is already upside down, as we celebrate what are traditionally fall & winter holidays in the summer, so changing the menu shouldn't be any more shocking than going for a swim after a Thanksgiving meal.

 

Anyway, I'm open to creative ideas!

Edited November 9 by pastameshugana
spelling... (log)

[MaryIsobel]

During Covid when it was just the four of us for Thanksgiving, I did Cornish Game Hens. That worked out well.

[Smithy]

In an earlier life, my then-boyfriend and I weren't crazy about turkey. We substituted other fowl: goose and duck are what I remember, but Cornish Game Hens figured in our cookery fairly often. More recently, my husband and I also weren't crazy about turkey. We usually did prime rib, but sometimes we did beef short ribs or pork roast instead. 

 

As for the sides: why not pull from other traditions, as you suggest? I've usually changed things up since I'm not crazy about a lot of the traditional American Thanksgiving sides (pumpkin pie, sweet potatoes). 

 

Several years ago I attended a cooking class with some great ideas and recipes for making things in advance. You may get some good ideas in my writeup about it. Let me know if any of the recipes strike your fancy; I'm pretty sure I have them somewhere. The carrot roasted "salads" were a big hit for us, as was the panna cotta. There's a little about my work at them here.

[lindag]

How about duck?

[haresfur]

A quasi-traditional thing we like is stuffed pumpkin. Ideally you have a small American looking pumpkin, clean out the insides, cram in as much bread stuffing as you can and bake until heated through and the pumpkin is cooked. Slice into wedges to serve. You could probably do something creative with another kind of pumpkin/winter squash - might have to remove some of the flesh to make room for stuffing.

 

Some people in Australia do traditional Christmas but a most do a cold lunch with maybe ham, prawns, salads, charcuterie, whatever. Pavlova for dessert. So you could borrow that idea, particularly if it is hot.

 

[AlaMoi]

I did beef wellington one year - the butcher thought I was totally nutso buying four tenderloins . . .

 

when the kids were young, did the Christmas Goose thing - which worked, tasty - but be aware, a goose does not have much meat on it.

 

on a fling, I think I'd go for big lobster tails . . at ~$60/each, be careful with the guest list . . .

[Shel_B]

Robin Garr's Hairdryer (Blow-dry) Duck

 

https://www.cheftalk.com/threads/robin-garrs-hairdryer-duck.32389/

 

Be sure to expand the link for the technique and details.

 

 

 

Edited November 10 by Shel_B (log)

[JeanneCake]

In Hawaii, for example; a luau is a celebration and it has foods associated with it (kalua pig, poi, lomi lomi salmon come to mind) so perhaps there's a traditional South African celebration that has a menu or foods associated with it? 

[FrogPrincesse]

I don't like turkey much so I make cassoulet for thanksgiving. I use duck confit that I make myself, good Toulouse sausage, pork belly, a pigs foot, and white beans. It's a labor of love as it takes a few days. It's a very comforting and festive dish (also quite rich!). 

[Kerala]

Why not go All American? Chicken wings and other Superbowl stuff?

[Katie Meadow]

I've been having TG with my husband's family since before we were married. Some forty-plus years? Good God, I'm old. The group varied from 16 people more or less when there were grandparents and several grandkids and dwindled to two couples in the worst pandemic years. At least half the family are vegetarians, so there was always a veg entree. My MIL  and my husband are dedicated turkey traditionalists.  My husband now makes the turkey, even if he's the only one eating it. I'm only in it for carcass, otherwise I would happily have a vegetarian TG and would be thrilled to have a non-traditional meal of any kind, so I'm definitely in favor of switching things up, however it suits the cook. If turkey broth wasn't addictive I would say the hell with turkey. And I never put turkey in my soup. Twice cooked turkey is even worse than once cooked. As I've probably said before (remember me? I'm old) the secret to good turkey pot pie is chicken.

[Shelby]

I've advocated for years to do lasagna for either Thanksgiving or Christmas to no avail lol.  I think that we are no longer going to get together to do either any more (it's gotten to be too much and everyone seems to have at least two to go to.)

 

Anyway, I'd do a big lasagna, a nice salad,  good bread.....antipasto.....Italian themed.   Doing a lasagna is also nice because you can make it ahead of time and just pop it in the oven.

 

That's my 2 cents.

[TdeV]

@haresfur mentioned a stuffed pumpkin which reminded me of a delicious Swiss Savoury Stuffed Pumpkin. I enjoyed it so much I set out to find a recipe to replicate that fabulous dinner, and came up with this Pumpkin Recipe from Ruth Reichl. Mine differs from haresfur's because of the addition of Swiss cheese – Emmenthaler, Gruyere or Appenzeller.

 

More than the sum of its parts.

 

 

 

Edited November 10 by TdeV
Grammar (log)

[gulfporter]

Mi esposo isn't a fan of turkey or carb heavy meals.  Last T-Day I made individual Chicken Wellingtons with grilled veg on the side and some cranberry sauce.  If you can buy sheets or chunks of puff pastry, it's a fun meal.  

[lindag]

I've been thinking I  might just do a turkey tenderloin with stuffing and gravy.

[pastameshugana]

Thank you for all the great ideas to ponder!

[TdeV]

@Shelby, you mentioned wanting to do lasagna for Thanksgiving. Yotam Ottolenghi has a wonderful Zucchini and Fennel Lasagna in his new cook book  COMFORT (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) . This recipe cooks the fennel and zucchini for a long long time making the dish very rich. If you're interested, send me a PM and I'll send you a photograph of the recipe & dish.

 

 

Edited November 11 by TdeV
Formatting (log)

[TdeV]

Another dish which might be quite interesting is Tourtière, a meat pie from Québéc, Canada. Made with ground pork, cider, and warming spices. Send me a PM about this and I'll forward several recipes.

[Tropicalsenior]

59 minutes ago, TdeV said:

Tourtière, a meat pie from Québéc, Canada

Our own @Ann_T has a great recipe on her website. Wish I could find it but right now I can't so maybe she could post a link for it. I have used it and I will be making it for Christmas because it is great.

For our own Thanksgiving, since there will only be two of us this year, I plan to just stuff a chicken and have the usual Thanksgiving sides with it. I don't like the idea of even a small turkey because we would be having leftovers forever.

 

Edited November 11 by Tropicalsenior (log)

[Ann_T]

53 minutes ago, Tropicalsenior said:

Our own @Ann_T has a great recipe on her website. Wish I could find it but right now I can't so maybe she could post a link for it. I have used it and I will be making it for Christmas because it is great.

For our own Thanksgiving, since there will only be two of us this year, I plan to just stuff a chicken and have the usual Thanksgiving sides with it. I don't like the idea of even a small turkey because we would be having leftovers forever.

 

@Tropicalsenior.  Thank you.  I was just thinking that I should get ahead start on making the Chile Sauce that Moe likes to have with his Christmas Eve Tourtiere.    Here is a link to

the Tourtiere recipe.   

https://thibeaultstable.com/2023/12/26/christmas-eve/

[Tropicalsenior]

3 minutes ago, Ann_T said:

Here is a link to

the Tourtiere recipe. 

Thank you, Ann.

By the way, if there are any of you unfamiliar with this site I highly recommend it. Beautiful photography and great recipes. I was a fan long before I joined eGullet and I have spent many happy hours perusing her pages.

 

.

[Rickbern]

On 11/9/2024 at 12:55 PM, pastameshugana said:

I'm just curious to see what kinds of creative things people who both a) Celebrate Thanksgiving and, b) Don't want to make a turkey, come up with.

 

We're in South Africa currently, and while I can find a turkey, it's a bit of a chore. And to be honest, I don't really love turkey all that much. It's just ... ok.

 

We'll be having an early TG because family will be visiting, so I want to start to get a menu and a plan in place.

 

There's obvious 'holiday mains' we can sub in, like a roast, a ham, etc.. Curious if anyone has any creative alternative ideas that might not be springing to my mind.

 

I also wouldn't mind trying something completely different, like co-opting an entire meal - from mains to sides to desserts - from a different holiday or even a different culture to create a truly unique Thanksgiving meal. For us, everything is already upside down, as we celebrate what are traditionally fall & winter holidays in the summer, so changing the menu shouldn't be any more shocking than going for a swim after a Thanksgiving meal.

 

Anyway, I'm open to creative ideas!

I think going back to the original idea of the holiday would work well. Deer was almost certainly served at the first thanksgiving, why not feature springboek at yours?

[pastameshugana]

22 hours ago, TdeV said:

@haresfur mentioned a stuffed pumpkin which reminded me of a delicious Swiss Savoury Stuffed Pumpkin. I enjoyed it so much I set out to find a recipe to replicate that fabulous dinner, and came up with this Pumpkin Recipe from Ruth Reichl. Mine differs from haresfur's because of the addition of Swiss cheese – Emmenthaler, Gruyere or Appenzeller.

 

More than the sum of its parts.

 

 

 

 

Both of these stuffed pumpkin ideas sound amazing. I'm pretty certain I'll be making some version of this. Especially since, here, as in most places outside of the US, pumpkin is nearly always a savory item, rather than sweet.

 

Also @Rickbern's suggestion of springboek isn't a bad idea. It's certainly easy to find, as well as Wildebeest, Crocodile, & Zebra pate...

 

[Ann_T]

1 hour ago, Tropicalsenior said:

For our own Thanksgiving, since there will only be two of us this year, I plan to just stuff a chicken and have the usual Thanksgiving sides with it. I don't like the idea of even a small turkey because we would be having leftovers forever.

 

@Tropicalsenior, I hate all of the leftovers too. Other then a hot turkey sandwich or a cold turkey sandwich with dressing, the rest just goes into the stock pot.

 I'm actually thinking that for Christmas I might just bone out a small chicken and stuff it.  Leftovers make a great sandwich.

 

https://thibeaultstable.com/2014/01/17/boned-stuffed-whole-chicken/

 

Another option is Cornish Game hens, also partially boned out and stuffed with a wild rice stuffing.  

https://thibeaultstable.com/2017/01/11/cornish-game-hens-with-wild-rice-and-mushroom-stuffing/

[Katie Meadow]

On 11/10/2024 at 9:04 AM, Shelby said:

I'\ advocated for years to do lasagna for either Thanksgiving or Christmas to no avail lol.  I think that we are no longer going to get together to do either any more (it's gotten to be too much and everyone seems to have at least two to go to.)

 

Anyway, I'd do a big lasagna, a nice salad,  good bread.....antipasto.....Italian themed.   Doing a lasagna is also nice because you can make it ahead of time and just pop it in the oven.

 

That's my 2 cents.

I agree that a good lasagne is an excellent entree for TG. We've had many of them for veg entree's alongside the requisite turkey, some good, some awful, depending who volunteered. With your Italian holiday dinner may I suggest a red checked tablecloth and a nice chianti?.Affogato for dessert, or Amalfi lemon cake?