Pop quiz — were the potatoes baked, boiled or mashed? Hint: It’s a trick question. Tick, tick, tick — time’s up. There were no potatoes, sweet or otherwise. They didn’t grow them, didn’t know them.
Cranberry sauce? Nope. Pumpkin pie? Sorry. Sugar was way too valuable to waste on sweetening cranberries or pie filling, although they ate a lot of boiled pumpkin sweetened with honey. Corn on the cob? Not on your life. Indian corn couldn’t be eaten au natural. It was dried out and stored for grain. But enough about the Pilgrims. Nice people, dull as a butter knife, silly shoes.
Here is the issue on the table for this Thanksgiving — what are the 299 million or so Americans besides you making for T-Day? What’s in and what’s out, and most important, how many of them are coming to your house?
Well, this is your lucky day, Pilgrim. It just so happens that www.AllRecipes.com did a national survey to find all that out, starting with the “must-have” main course for Thanksgiving dinner. It may be a goofy, not-too-bright bird the rest of the year, but on the Super Thursday, turkey is king. A staggering 93% said no turkey, no Thanksgiving.
“Sides without which one cannot live?”
Stuffing/dressing, 93%; gravy, 87%; mashed potatoes, 82%; rolls, 73%; cranberry sauce, 71.4%; sweet potato casserole, 38%; yams, 25%; the dreaded Jell-O salad, 13%; linguine and clams, 9%. Just kidding. Nobody said linguine and clams. I made that up.
A long list of “Others” came in at 34%, including chestnuts, creamed corn, corn pudding, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts. Would whoever said Brussels sprouts raise your hand and contact me at your earliest convenience? We need to talk.
