Thanksgiving Sides: The Eight That Earn Their Plate Space
"Eight sides, not twenty: two casseroles, potatoes, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, slaw, and the one jar that has to be started in October."
Notes From Behind the Steering Wheel
This list has 8 sides, and 5 of them make 8 to 12 portions in one go, enough for a full Thanksgiving table.
A Thanksgiving plate is not a buffet. It is about nine inches across, the turkey has already taken a third of it, and everything else has to fight over what is left. That is why this list is short and not twenty dishes long. Every one of them has to be worth the space it takes off the bird.
The order is not random either. The green bean casserole and the stuffing are the two that people notice when they are missing. The potatoes are what the gravy needs somewhere to land in, and the gravy is what makes half the plate work. The cranberry sauce is the only sharp thing in the whole arrangement. The sweet potato casserole is on here because it settles an argument rather than starting one. The slaw is here because by the time the plates go round, every single thing on the table is soft, warm and beige, and somebody has to bring a bite that makes a sound. The apple butter is the outlier, and it is the only one you cannot start on the day.
When this list first went up it named four gaps: potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce and rolls. Three of them have since been cooked and written, and they are on the list now. Rolls are still missing and stay missing until there is a batch worth writing down — padding a list with things we do not actually cook is how a page like this stops being worth reading.
"It is the one side whose absence gets commented on. This version builds its own sauce out of butter, flour and sour cream instead of opening a can of soup, which is the whole difference between a side dish and filler."
"Every plate needs one thing the gravy can pool in, and this is it. Pressed through a ricer and loaded with butter before a drop of cream goes near it, so it stays light enough that one generous spoonful does not end somebody’s meal early."
"It takes the space a second vegetable would and pays for it by ending an argument: marshmallows over one half of the dish, pecan streusel over the other, both camps served out of one pan and one oven shelf."
"Ten to twelve portions out of one pan, and it carries sausage, apple, hazelnuts and dried cranberries. Enough going on that it holds its own next to the bird instead of quietly soaking up gravy in the corner of the plate."
"Nothing else on this list quite works without it. Skim the fat before anything else — that is the step that lets you decide how rich the plate gets, and it is the one everybody skips."
"Fifteen minutes at the stove for the only sharp thing in the whole arrangement. It is deliberately left loose enough to run into the turkey rather than sitting at the edge as a slice nobody touches."
"Ten minutes, no stove, no oven. It is here because it is the only bite on the plate that makes a sound — apple and pear against cabbage, and a light enough hand with the mayonnaise that it stays crisp instead of turning into another creamy thing."
"The rolls need something, and this is the only side on the list you cannot make on the day: twelve to fourteen hours in the slow cooker. It goes on the calendar in October or it does not happen at all."
Other Collections From the Truck
Same kitchen, different occasion. Every list here was written on its own, none of them from a template.
- Halloween Cookies Without a Single Cookie Cutter
- Halloween Treats and Snacks That Are Not Cookies
- Thanksgiving Appetizers That Spare the Turkey Its Oven
- Thanksgiving Desserts for People Who Are Already Full
- Thanksgiving Leftovers: Five Recipes From Cold Turkey
- Christmas Appetizers for a Two-Hour Arrival
- Christmas Dinner Ideas: Six Mains That Carry a Whole Table
- Game Day Food for an Ordinary Sunday
- Super Bowl Snacks You Finish Before Kickoff
- Christmas Cookies Built to Survive a Tin