Mrs Haych…GREAT JOB on the bird and gravy. From a Yank. Thanksgiving wasn’t started as a harvest festival but is older than the USA. It started when English and Dutch settlers wanted to celebrate together with Native Americans. President George Washington then encouraged Americans after the successful War of Independence, to gather and feast and thank God for the liberty and bounty now found in the USA. It is unique in that the USA became the first nation on Earth, at least in modern history, to establish a purely national holiday for the sole purpose of gathering as families to thank God for the blessings of liberty and bounty we continue to share as the USA. I’m gratified to see it’s making its way to other places.
Mr & Mrs H did a WONDERFUL JOB on their dinner - LOVE THEM! THANKS for reacting to this one!! I hope YA'LL had a GREAT THANKSGIVING, as well!! :) HUGS from TEXAS!
I really want there to be a british UA-camr thanksgiving (for those intrigued by the idea), where everyone gets assigned a dish, can do their own video about making it, then just have them all enjoy it together.
When it comes to sweet potato casserole, not everyone does the marshmallows my family presence makes a crumble using pecans, brown sugar, and flour sprinkles on top and let it bake to where it warms a nice crunchy topping
This was an incredibly good job by Mr. H. Many of these dishes are very intimidating and time consuming and even many experienced American cooks find the whole process exhausting and stressful. Well, my wife does. And results vary lol... A similar meal takes place next month for Christmas. So lots of food and lots of shopping. We often include a large ham or a prime rib roast to our Christmas dinner. Last year my roast alone cost $168.00. I bought 2 because that was actually a good deal and I saved one and cooked it a couple of months later. We usually have 15+ friends and family attend our Thanksgiving dinner. Lots of my children's friends and partners. Often they will bring something like a pie or a special dish that they prepared. The more the merrier. ♥ Its one of our favorite events of the year. ♥
Every family has different traditions. Roast potatoes or scalloped potatoes (gratin) are great options. Some people must have potato salad and macaroni and cheese on the table too! Making a holiday meal from scratch takes at least a few days. It takes a lot of work and planning.
Thanksgiving began when the English Pilgrims were thankful for the harvest and the help of the local Native Americans in teaching them how to grow crops in the new land. So many had not made it through the first winter. There was only 1 tray of dressing. The other was green bean casserole. The other dishes were creamed corn, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, gravy, deviled eggs, cranberry sauce, and pecan pie.
The first Thanksgiving took place in 1621, when 52 English colonists along with the indigenous people of the area celebrated a successful harvest after a long had winter the year before.
I am a patron member of Mr H and Friends. They are a great growing channel! They have become home cooks trying American foods. I love their Bristol West Country Accents. I would say you can think of Thanksgiving as pretty similar to and English Christmas roast dinner.. As far as the kind of food does not matter. It is a feast. I have even had Indian food for my Thanksgiving dinner! My nephew has even had pancakes for his Thanksgiving dinner. So you would just make the dishes your family likes. Yes you can have roast potatoes if you want. With my family, we like to have the food all served buffet style where on a sideboard or another table where people serve themselves instead of passing all the food to everyone. Buffet style makes it easier especially if there are children at the table who may not be able to pass the dishes around
Mrs. Hatch nailed it. I was happy to praise her to high heaven on their channel. Absolutely authentic. By the way, NEVER reduce the amount of gravy! Americans slather it on everything, and it's really good on the leftovers, also. You can never have too much gravy or too many deviled eggs. And everyone goes home with food packed in containers that you remember to have on hand, you get them cheap at the discount store so no one has to bring them back.
The uncle is eating like it's his last meal !!! Sweet potato casserole with marshmallows with brown sugar and pecans is heavenly. One of my favorites. It doesn't matter if you make to much of anything because we usually eat it during the week as leftovers. It never goes to waste.
Stuffing has generally the same ingredients as dressing. The only difference is stuffing is cooked inside the turkey. Dressing is cooked outside of the turkey.
I can't tell you enough how much I love watching you Brits make my country's food. It brings me such joy ❤! The Beesleys did thanksgiving meal this year as well. Hopefully you will make more food on camera. I enjoyed your peanut butter and jam sandwich video. It's adorable how much thought went into it 😅! As an American,we grow up making them. It's probably like your beans on toast to us. Love you guys from California!!❤❤
Hello from Denver Colorado when my grandmother made the sweet potato casserole it was actually called candied yams and are part of the country and sometimes she would put butter and brown sugar with a little bit of cinnamon and nutmeg and then she baked it
Kosher salt is coarser and without any iodine compaired to table salt. Butter on the skin would melt and drip off the bird. Getting it under the skin helps keep the meat moist as well as adding flavor. A good tip is to prepare and cook most if not all the sides the day or two before, then the day of, they only need heating through
Also they're both right about where Thanksgiving comes from. It is a harvest celebration and it did come from the Puritan settlers that made relationships with the native Americans here who taught them how to cultivate the land and grow food without them they would have starved so after the harvest they created a giant meal and invited the native Americans to celebrate
It's kind of a hybrid of purposes.Originally Thanksgiving in America was based on the pilgrims from England getting help from the native Americans to survive a rough winter.It also falls at the time of harvesr.Later on a president made it a national holiday.A lot of the non American UA-cam channels are starting to pick up the tradition.Technicaly the Brits started it so have at it.The mini marshmallows are used for the sweet potatoe topping.You can cut the large size marshmallows into small pieces if thats all you have The H's and Beasley's are both doing American cooking videos too
Cornbread dressing (especially southern dressing) is very different compared to stuffing-from how it is cooked to the ingredients used. Cornbread dressing tends to be what southern folk prepares for Thanksgiving. I am from Mississippi and my family also adds chicken to our dressing…and it is awesome. You can also do sweet potatoes in different forms for the holidays (i.e. candied yams, baked sweet potatoes w/butter, or the casserole w/ either brown sugar, pecans or marshmallows). Ultimately, you cook what your family likes for the holiday…my family also cooks collard greens and potato salad too. All of it is just yummy. Anyway, I hope you two will try any, or all, of these dishes at some point. I would love to see how you like them. Happy holidays!
23:07 ypu can both kinds of potatoes. Many midwestern thqmksgivings feature mashed potatos along with say a baked cheesy scalloped potato dish (what we have at ours)
Kosher salt is much larger flakes & more crunchy. There are some other Rabbinical differences as well. Thanksgiving was originally called the Harvest Feast. People 'stray from the path' all the time at Thanksgiving. I think their dressing was cornbread dressing.
That's because brining/marinading the bird helps to maintain the moisture level of the meat. My family does a marinade but I am aware that there are families that do a brine instead. Side note: The pilgrims that came to the US came from the UK originally.
You can do roasted potatoes if you like. The beauty is to add whatever you like. And if you make the stuffing (or dressing) right, you are going to want it for days...with gravy.....and cranberry.....and turkey....
The US is really good at spreading it's culture and hype across the world. I have mixed feelings about some aspects, but one thing I would be proud to see is if Thanksgiving became a World Holiday, regardless that the tradition would bloom far away from its roots and probably become unrecognizable. I think that's a bit we could really contribute and share with the world as a people. No matter how they started, anchoring the holiday season with the bookended rememberences of thanks and love has always seemed really beautiful to me.
We typically do mashed potatoes because they make an excellent dip for any meat...Especially with gravy. If you haven't dipped turkey, steak, fried chicken, or pork chops in mashed potatoes with gravy, you haven't lived...lol. Great video reaction, thanks for sharing.
Passing food is fun and friendly, but I find buffet style much more practical for any group bigger than family. And it makes it easy if you're doing potluck style, where the host does the turkey, stuffing, and gravy, maybe the pies, and then all the guests bring dishes as well. Friends-giving parties usually go that way. I like the communal spirit of that way, personally.
The best thing about Thanksgiving is the sandwiches later! We use whatever bread we prefer as individuals, but my families filling, for everyone is cranberry sauce and mayonnaise spread on one slice, yams/sweet potatoes spread on the other, slices of turkey then thin slices of stuffing/dressing, a lettuce leaf, and if we have them slices of avocado and maybe spread a little gravy on the turkey. Top with the other slice of bread. Enjoy
My grandmother didn't put the neck in the giblets in the gravy she put it in the stuffing with sage and all kinds of other stuff as well as putting those same seasonings on top of the turkey skin with butter underneath the skin it was true stuffing she put it inside of the turkey and cooked it that way and we did both potatoes we did mashed potatoes and roasted potatoes and we did not do sweet potato pie my grandmother would cut the sweet potatoes up into chunks boil them to their slightly soft put them in a pan sprinkle it with shredded butter that she would freeze and shred herself and brown sugar and then she just bake it until it got melted and then she'd take it out let it rest and it would create a candied surface she called it candied yams
Mrs. H especially has jumped in with both hands with cooking as many foods that she can from the US. She has several cookbooks that have been sent to her. They've both been smoking beef and BBQing too that you should check out!! Mrs. H was able to find corn meal where she is but I think she has a good section at her store for US goods. If not, they've been sent Jiffy cornbread mix which is an option to buy online. I do an herbed butter on my turkey just like you suggested...softened so it can be spread out. Kosher salt is made following Jewish food guidelines. Elana will be 3 years old in just a few months. She helps in the kitchen too. She actually did a few recipes all by her own self :). They had the cutting board and their smoker handmade from the US. They did different videos of the 1st time they did deviled eggs and also making that green bean casserole. The sweet potato casserole is usually topped with mini marshmallows. Remember all these things are optional for sides. For example, YES, Kai you can swap the mash for roasted. We don't actually do potatoes and instead do mac n cheese. We also don't do green bean casserole and have turnip greens or collard greens. Everyone has their own preferences for sides, desserts and they can be regional dishes, heritage dishes, etc. There's really no "traditional" only dishes. You can mix and match as you like. Some don't do turkey but do a chicken instead. We also have a ham, potato salad and beets. Trust me, the way that she prepped and then cooked on the day is exactly how we do it here. Most of us don't have more than one oven. The usual thing is to get the turkey done first and out of the way. Everything else you just time it. Most cook at the same temp so if you have the space you can easily make three dishes in the oven at the same time after the turkey is out and resting.
The salty brine soak is so the flesh absorbs water and flavor, resulting in juicy, not dry, meat. Pork chops are also brined to prevent dried out meat.
There are a few dishes that everyone always expects, but other than that, inventiveness is encouraged. That said, if there aren't mashed potatoes, guests will be disappointed. But often people do several styles of potatoes, as well as sweet potatoes or yams. The general point is to celebrate and give thanks for plentifulness, as a harvest festival, so too much isn't an issue. And for family it's generally a four day celebration, so leftovers get taken care of.
The reason there is so much dressing is that it is usually the most popular dish on the table. The combination of turkey, dressing, mashed potato and gravy all on one fork is unbeatable. The holiday originated with the Pilgrims and Native Americans coming together in peace. There is an excellent video about it. If you are interested in the corn casserole, I recommend you check out Jolly's video on their Thanksgiving put on by a chef from Mississippi who lives in London, he makes a corn casserole that looks incredible.
I love dressing myself, Alice is not such a big fan though. You can checkout our reaction to the suggested video here - ua-cam.com/video/HaAo_y9VulA/v-deo.html. Thanks for watching! :)
The dressing/stuffing was made with cornmeal. We usually make the cornbread first, then crumble it up and add spices and broth, but she added the spices to the "raw" cornbread and baked it all together. Be sure you get cornmeal, not corn flour.
Kai, you can certainly do roasted potato if that is what you prefer. However, if you want to give a traditional US dinner a try first, go with mashed, then if you want to do it again the next year and think you would like them different, go for it! There are no rules to Thanksgiving. We have always made our "Danish riced potatoes" as my grandmother taught me. I boil them until they are "just about done", but have a spot of resistance left in the middle. I cool them down in cold water, then "grate" them one by one into a bowl. I add them into a pan over the stove and start to heat them with TONS of butter, salt, pepper and cream. By leaving the center a bit under cooked, you get lumps, but those lumps are pure potato goodness! I have had people rant and rave over my potatoes and there are never leftovers! I know the Brits really prefer a super smooth mash, but honestly, if you try them this way, you will thank me!
I’m vegetarian but it took until I was an adult to understand the dry 🦃 comments. My grandma hosted thanksgiving and was an amazing cook and from the time I was 9 or 10 dad would pack me off to sous chef for grandma (his MIL not his mom- he made his mom do thanksgiving on Friday so I could help the better chef) and I’d help with all parts of the meal and the turkey was never dry. Its harvest but it’s a holiday because a) New England was already celebrating a harvest festival based on the historic harvest gathering when the Wampanoag helped the starving and struggling settlers with food and teaching them about the foods that grow there, b) due to Civil War President Lincoln needed something to help pull all Americans together in a meaningful way where each family celebrates and comes together but it’s not going to bring big crowds that might set off more tensions, c) Lincoln had seen a Jewish Sukkot celebration which is also a harvest holiday so he recognized other cultures already celebrated harvest… so he and his advisors decided to announce a truly American holiday to be celebrated by all Americans of all regions, political parties, religions, race (this was especially to include the newly emancipated Americans to have a celebration that makes them feel they belong, too) to be celebrated the fourth Thursday in November based on the combined influences with an actual American origin story to be shared throughout the country. It was not supposed to be a slight to the Native Americans even if after that event the history wasn’t as lovely as that story. So all the foods that appear on the vast majority of thanksgiving tables are all of American origins: turkey, cranberry, pumpkin, pecans, potatoes (of any variety but technically sweet potatoes originally came from Africa, I think). And then everyone personalizes based on region or culture or personal preference. African Americans are more likely to have sweet potato pie rather than pumpkin. My family is Jewish so our roasted veg is usually a tzimmes made with carrots and sweet potato (there’s a lot of recipes but tzimmes is delicious and the veggie ones- I didn’t even know some people put meat in it- often have fruit mixed in with the veg and it’s great with a big meal), so we do that over the sweet potato with marshmallow since it’s tasty and has sweetness, too, but is healthier. But we have potatoes (not usually mashed, though), so often roasted or if we aren’t having Mac and cheese that year (no one in my family keeps kosher) we might do potatoes au gratin or some other cheesy potatoes. The years Hanukkah overlaps with thanksgiving our potatoes are latkes, of course.
Can’t wait to see you guys do this yourselves. I heard the comment about the mashed potatoes and the other type one thing we do here is people will bring their favorite things over to the dinner so it may be something you do. We share a lot of our favorite things with each other so the main host doesn’t have to do everything.
Many of us top our sweet potato casserole with brown sugar and finely chopped pecans rather than marshmallows. My Paternal Grandmother used melted butter and crushed corn flakes on hers.
I did as you would've. I made compound butter out of celery hearts and leaves, scallions, and all the herbs for flavor, all ground together. Then after I let it sit all night, I warmed it a bit and used my hands to slather it in and all around the turkey, and under the skin. It came out succulent this year and there weren't many leftovers.
To get a temperature from F to C. Subtract 32 from the F temp, multiply that number by 5, then divide that number by 9.. Not overly complicated but to make it easy just use google.
You have all that gravy and the mashed potatoes are so good for that. Some people do scalloped potatoes. Sweet potatoes casseroles are covered with marshmallow. Candied yams I make have a few marshmallows and pecans. This year we did baked sweet potato with cinnamon butter. All my leftovers are up as frozen dinners to eat over the next couple of months. I gave her my timeline for making this meal and it works out perfectly. She was at it for 3 days easy.
😅 When you said, I'd rather have the roast potatoes, that was the most British thing you said. I think that's one of the many differences between your Christmas dinner, and our Thanksgiving dinner. Personally, I always associate having gravy with mashed potatoes instead of roast potatoes. Also, because most of the dishes are very savory, the sweetness of the sweet potato cuts through it, and somehow works.
Mash potatoes are definitely more traditional but I have to agree with your thought of roast potatoes because many of thanksgiving sides can tend to be on the softer side of texture; mash, stuffing, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes…all fairly soft. So having roast potatoes just purely on a textural standpoint, I really like the idea
Thanksgiving is not about making sure you have the traditional meals it's about making sure you have enough help time and money for all the traditional dishes you want to make and all the additional dishes you'd love and want to add with it as well so if you're stuck between choosing mashed potatoes or roasted potatoes do it the American way and don't choose one just make both lol you have remembered our most used and favorited quote is (Go Big! or, Go Home!) so instead of picking between that or the other just pick both the more the merrier cuz you can never have too much of a good thing :)
I don't know anyone who makes food ahead of time and freezes it. There really is plenty of time on Thanksgiving day to get everything cooked. The turkey has to rest for at least 30 minutes to an hour before you should start to carve it, and in that time, you put your casseroles into the oven and bake them. As the casserole are basically done except for warming them through, it only takes 30 minutes to get them done! That is why we make them the day before but we put them in the fridge, never freezer.
Please have a look at live storm midea videos of Erie, Pennsylvania and Buffalo, New York. They currently have about two meters of snow on the ground, and it is still snowing. Trucks and cars stranded on the roads. Stores running out of food due to the fact delivery trucks are stranded on the motorways. Some fatalities as well.
I’m vegetarian but it took until I was an adult to understand the dry 🦃 comments. My grandma hosted thanksgiving and was an amazing cook and from the time I was 9 or 10 dad would pack me off to sous chef for grandma (his MIL not his mom- he made his mom do thanksgiving on Friday so I could help the better chef) and I’d help with all parts of the meal and the turkey was never dry. We also always, always had a huge deep dish apple pie like the one Jolly eat in the London restaurant with the American chef. So apple pie was more important to my family than pumpkin or pecan pie. Its harvest but it’s a holiday because a) New England was already celebrating a harvest festival based on the historic harvest gathering when the Wampanoag helped the starving and struggling settlers with food and teaching them about the foods that grow there, b) due to Civil War President Lincoln needed something to help pull all Americans together in a meaningful way where each family celebrates and comes together but it’s not going to bring big crowds that might set off more tensions, c) Lincoln had seen a Jewish Sukkot celebration which is also a harvest holiday so he recognized other cultures already celebrated harvest… so he and his advisors decided to announce a truly American holiday to be celebrated by all Americans of all regions, political parties, religions, race (this was especially to include the newly emancipated Americans to have a celebration that makes them feel they belong, too) to be celebrated the fourth Thursday in November based on the combined influences with an actual American origin story to be shared throughout the country. It was not supposed to be a slight to the Native Americans even if after that event the history wasn’t as lovely as that story. So all the foods that appear on the vast majority of thanksgiving tables are all of American origins: turkey, cranberry, pumpkin, pecans, potatoes (of any variety but technically sweet potatoes originally came from Africa, I think, an American hybrid between African yams and potatoes highly recommend watching the documentary “High on the Hog” on Netflix). And then everyone personalizes based on region or culture or personal preference. Some people do mashed potatoes some do roasted some might do potatoes au gratin, the lucky years Hanukkah and Thanksgiving overlap latkes are on all Jewish tables.
Note that "normally" (whatever that means) .. every guest will bring something .. all the people arriving have covered dishes. If one lady brings green bean casserole .. hers will be different then one that someone else brings .. same thing with the other dishes .. mashed potatoes .. another might bring cheesy potatoes and another roasted potatoes... some extended families/friends will plan ahead who brings what and so on. Fun times.
Yeah I don't marshmallows normally in my sweet potato casserole, I do a crumble and pecans on top. And I whip the potatoes into a almost a souffle, with cream and egg and brown sugar and cinnamon.
You have to realize that many families are still 1st or 2nd generation Americans and very linked to their heritage. Some families have been here for a lot longer and still eat their native food especially on holidays. Most families have a turkey simply because it's a tradition. Families from a germanic background often have sausage and sauerkraut. Italian families may have traditional food from their region of Italy. The food from this video is standard for people from the south. Dressing instead of stuffing, usually lots of pies. Pecan pies are very southern. Cornbread instead of rolls (sometimes both). Cornbread can be VERY dry. Some people add creamed corn to the mixture. Otherwise just keep the butter close and use it liberally. (Yum!) While mashed potatoes & gravy are more common, roast potatoes are delicious. Only 1 thing was missing from this meal. Macaroni & Cheese!!!! Most families make 2 or 3 pans. All Americans LOVE mac & cheese. It's the first thing put into the to-go boxes. Some even hide their boxes because other family members - yeah...I'm talking to you cousin Mike - have been known to steal other peoples mac & cheese...already in a to-go box, wrapped in foil, secured in a tupperware container and hidden in the dresser in the upstairs guest bedroom. Whew. Flashback to an ugly situation from 2012. Anyway, the point is anything can be a Thanksgiving meal as long as it has family (whether by blood or chosen) and you all drive each other crazy. 😊. Then it starts all over again for Chrismas where you'll usually see a ham, maybe a smaller turkey as well. The sides may be somewhat different but you'll see a lot more desserts. Pecan pie, lemon ice box pie, etc. Red velvet cake, carrot cake, hummingbird cake. Cookies, peach cobbler, etc. It's usually a smaller, more intimate family group. One third the people but 3 times as many desserts. It's glorious. lol
I will say also when it comes to all these dishes that we have for Thanksgiving, we do what’s called a potluck where everybody brings something to contribute. It’s not left on one person to do all the cooking because it’s way too much to handle.
As a Southern American, I can say I am one who does not like marshmallow on my sweet potato casserole. It is so much better to me with a mixture of brown sugar , cinnamon and chopped pecan toppings
The nice thing about cooking in general, is you cook to your families likes. So, you can add or delete whatever you like or dislike. Be flexible, be adventurist, modify. There are no hard rules. Enjoy.
I would say that roasted potatoes, or more likely scallop or au gratin potatoes would be more traditional than mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving dinner, at least in my region
There are no hard-and-fast rules for Thanksgiving. You cook what you like to eat. If you want roasted potatoes, you have roasted potatoes. Depending on your family, your culture, or the region you live in, the items you see on the dinner table can change drastically.😊
Usually, if you are going to put marshmallows on the sweet potatoes we use the mini marshmallows. I like it better with the pecans and brown sugar topping.
its just basically a harvest meal. sure the states coined it thanksgiving. but about every culture has a end of harvest meal or event. and a thanksgiving dinner can be what ever u want. no rule saying u gotta have certain things
What makes Thanksgiving dinner is you make the dishes you like so turning the mashed potatoes to roasted potatoes is fine it's just you do like you like my family likes potato salad instead of mashed potatoes
Kosher salt. It should actually be called "Koshering" salt. The large salt particles is used to draw the blood from Kosher food .. so it has nothing to do with Jewish or Arabic foods .. it is the process. The name is from the process you see. When used to prepare things like steaks many prefer the large flakes of the Kosher salts.
It’s also a thicker grind. The big salt crystals that you’d want on top of your bagel to get that salt burst in your bite. In recipes it still melts same way to blend in, but also works nicely as a finish when you want the pretty salt crystal look and taste.
No one has ever...ever..had one plate at Thanksgiving so you can make room for any combination that you'd want. Usually I do turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and green bean casserole on the first round. Second round is all the stuff I missed on my first trip..and more turkey. We do deep fried turkey which is amazing.
Mrs Haych…GREAT JOB on the bird and gravy. From a Yank. Thanksgiving wasn’t started as a harvest festival but is older than the USA. It started when English and Dutch settlers wanted to celebrate together with Native Americans.
President George Washington then encouraged Americans after the successful War of Independence, to gather and feast and thank God for the liberty and bounty now found in the USA.
It is unique in that the USA became the first nation on Earth, at least in modern history, to establish a purely national holiday for the sole purpose of gathering as families to thank God for the blessings of liberty and bounty we continue to share as the USA. I’m gratified to see it’s making its way to other places.
Mr & Mrs H did a WONDERFUL JOB on their dinner - LOVE THEM! THANKS for reacting to this one!! I hope YA'LL had a GREAT THANKSGIVING, as well!! :) HUGS from TEXAS!
That was a real American Thanksgiving dinner from across the pond great job.
I really want there to be a british UA-camr thanksgiving (for those intrigued by the idea), where everyone gets assigned a dish, can do their own video about making it, then just have them all enjoy it together.
When it comes to sweet potato casserole, not everyone does the marshmallows my family presence makes a crumble using pecans, brown sugar, and flour sprinkles on top and let it bake to where it warms a nice crunchy topping
My mom uses marshmallows and inside has some pineapple pieces.
Pecans are good. I normally just create a sugar crust topping and the sweet potatoes are not mashed. Maybe one year I’ll add a pecan crumble.
When it comes to making stuffing in the south, we use cornbread stuffing up north, they use bread stuffing.
no we dont
We use corn bread stuffing where I am from (NY). Guess it just depends. Hard to say now that folks have moved all over.
This was an incredibly good job by Mr. H. Many of these dishes are very intimidating and time consuming and even many experienced American cooks find the whole process exhausting and stressful. Well, my wife does. And results vary lol...
A similar meal takes place next month for Christmas. So lots of food and lots of shopping. We often include a large ham or a prime rib roast to our Christmas dinner. Last year my roast alone cost $168.00. I bought 2 because that was actually a good deal and I saved one and cooked it a couple of months later. We usually have 15+ friends and family attend our Thanksgiving dinner. Lots of my children's friends and partners. Often they will bring something like a pie or a special dish that they prepared. The more the merrier. ♥ Its one of our favorite events of the year. ♥
Every family has different traditions. Roast potatoes or scalloped potatoes (gratin) are great options. Some people must have potato salad and macaroni and cheese on the table too! Making a holiday meal from scratch takes at least a few days. It takes a lot of work and planning.
Thanksgiving began when the English Pilgrims were thankful for the harvest and the help of the local Native Americans in teaching them how to grow crops in the new land. So many had not made it through the first winter.
There was only 1 tray of dressing. The other was green bean casserole. The other dishes were creamed corn, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, gravy, deviled eggs, cranberry sauce, and pecan pie.
There were two trays of dressing. One had jalapenos and the other did not.
The first Thanksgiving took place in 1621, when 52 English colonists along with the indigenous people of the area celebrated a successful harvest after a long had winter the year before.
I am a patron member of Mr H and Friends. They are a great growing channel! They have become home cooks trying American foods. I love their Bristol West Country Accents. I would say you can think of Thanksgiving as pretty similar to and English Christmas roast dinner.. As far as the kind of food does not matter. It is a feast. I have even had Indian food for my Thanksgiving dinner! My nephew has even had pancakes for his Thanksgiving dinner. So you would just make the dishes your family likes. Yes you can have roast potatoes if you want. With my family, we like to have the food all served buffet style where on a sideboard or another table where people serve themselves instead of passing all the food to everyone. Buffet style makes it easier especially if there are children at the table who may not be able to pass the dishes around
Mrs. Hatch nailed it. I was happy to praise her to high heaven on their channel. Absolutely authentic. By the way, NEVER reduce the amount of gravy! Americans slather it on everything, and it's really good on the leftovers, also. You can never have too much gravy or too many deviled eggs. And everyone goes home with food packed in containers that you remember to have on hand, you get them cheap at the discount store so no one has to bring them back.
The uncle is eating like it's his last meal !!! Sweet potato casserole with marshmallows with brown sugar and pecans is heavenly. One of my favorites. It doesn't matter if you make to much of anything because we usually eat it during the week as leftovers. It never goes to waste.
Stuffing has generally the same ingredients as dressing. The only difference is stuffing is cooked inside the turkey. Dressing is cooked outside of the turkey.
I can't tell you enough how much I love watching you Brits make my country's food. It brings me such joy ❤! The Beesleys did thanksgiving meal this year as well. Hopefully you will make more food on camera. I enjoyed your peanut butter and jam sandwich video. It's adorable how much thought went into it 😅! As an American,we grow up making them. It's probably like your beans on toast to us. Love you guys from California!!❤❤
Hello from Denver Colorado when my grandmother made the sweet potato casserole it was actually called candied yams and are part of the country and sometimes she would put butter and brown sugar with a little bit of cinnamon and nutmeg and then she baked it
Kosher salt is coarser and without any iodine compaired to table salt. Butter on the skin would melt and drip off the bird. Getting it under the skin helps keep the meat moist as well as adding flavor. A good tip is to prepare and cook most if not all the sides the day or two before, then the day of, they only need heating through
Instead of bags of water you can use cleaned empty large soda bottles filled with water. They hold shape better than bags.
Also they're both right about where Thanksgiving comes from. It is a harvest celebration and it did come from the Puritan settlers that made relationships with the native Americans here who taught them how to cultivate the land and grow food without them they would have starved so after the harvest they created a giant meal and invited the native Americans to celebrate
It's kind of a hybrid of purposes.Originally Thanksgiving in America was based on the pilgrims from England getting help from the native Americans to survive a rough winter.It also falls at the time of harvesr.Later on a president made it a national holiday.A lot of the non American UA-cam channels are starting to pick up the tradition.Technicaly the Brits started it so have at it.The mini marshmallows are used for the sweet potatoe topping.You can cut the large size marshmallows into small pieces if thats all you have The H's and Beasley's are both doing American cooking videos too
I find it amusing that the Brits are eating "American Thanksgiving" .. which was invented by .. Brits .. remember we were Brits before
Cornbread dressing (especially southern dressing) is very different compared to stuffing-from how it is cooked to the ingredients used. Cornbread dressing tends to be what southern folk prepares for Thanksgiving. I am from Mississippi and my family also adds chicken to our dressing…and it is awesome. You can also do sweet potatoes in different forms for the holidays (i.e. candied yams, baked sweet potatoes w/butter, or the casserole w/ either brown sugar, pecans or marshmallows). Ultimately, you cook what your family likes for the holiday…my family also cooks collard greens and potato salad too. All of it is just yummy. Anyway, I hope you two will try any, or all, of these dishes at some point. I would love to see how you like them. Happy holidays!
23:07 ypu can both kinds of potatoes. Many midwestern thqmksgivings feature mashed potatos along with say a baked cheesy scalloped potato dish (what we have at ours)
Kosher salt is much larger flakes & more crunchy. There are some other Rabbinical differences as well. Thanksgiving was originally called the Harvest Feast. People 'stray from the path' all the time at Thanksgiving. I think their dressing was cornbread dressing.
You can never go overboard on Thanksgiving dinner. Leftovers my friend.
That's because brining/marinading the bird helps to maintain the moisture level of the meat. My family does a marinade but I am aware that there are families that do a brine instead.
Side note: The pilgrims that came to the US came from the UK originally.
You can do roasted potatoes if you like. The beauty is to add whatever you like. And if you make the stuffing (or dressing) right, you are going to want it for days...with gravy.....and cranberry.....and turkey....
We actually do a "Friendsgiving" so to celebrate with friends before Thanksgiving which is usually reserved for family.
The US is really good at spreading it's culture and hype across the world. I have mixed feelings about some aspects, but one thing I would be proud to see is if Thanksgiving became a World Holiday, regardless that the tradition would bloom far away from its roots and probably become unrecognizable. I think that's a bit we could really contribute and share with the world as a people. No matter how they started, anchoring the holiday season with the bookended rememberences of thanks and love has always seemed really beautiful to me.
I'm all for it if it looks like this!
We typically do mashed potatoes because they make an excellent dip for any meat...Especially with gravy. If you haven't dipped turkey, steak, fried chicken, or pork chops in mashed potatoes with gravy, you haven't lived...lol. Great video reaction, thanks for sharing.
Passing food is fun and friendly, but I find buffet style much more practical for any group bigger than family. And it makes it easy if you're doing potluck style, where the host does the turkey, stuffing, and gravy, maybe the pies, and then all the guests bring dishes as well. Friends-giving parties usually go that way. I like the communal spirit of that way, personally.
Mashed potatoes are traditional for Thanksgiving. Roasted potatoes are with the Sunday roast. Baked/Jacket potatoes with polled pork inside.
The best thing about Thanksgiving is the sandwiches later! We use whatever bread we prefer as individuals, but my families filling, for everyone is cranberry sauce and mayonnaise spread on one slice, yams/sweet potatoes spread on the other, slices of turkey then thin slices of stuffing/dressing, a lettuce leaf, and if we have them slices of avocado and maybe spread a little gravy on the turkey. Top with the other slice of bread. Enjoy
My grandmother didn't put the neck in the giblets in the gravy she put it in the stuffing with sage and all kinds of other stuff as well as putting those same seasonings on top of the turkey skin with butter underneath the skin it was true stuffing she put it inside of the turkey and cooked it that way and we did both potatoes we did mashed potatoes and roasted potatoes and we did not do sweet potato pie my grandmother would cut the sweet potatoes up into chunks boil them to their slightly soft put them in a pan sprinkle it with shredded butter that she would freeze and shred herself and brown sugar and then she just bake it until it got melted and then she'd take it out let it rest and it would create a candied surface she called it candied yams
Mrs. H especially has jumped in with both hands with cooking as many foods that she can from the US. She has several cookbooks that have been sent to her. They've both been smoking beef and BBQing too that you should check out!! Mrs. H was able to find corn meal where she is but I think she has a good section at her store for US goods. If not, they've been sent Jiffy cornbread mix which is an option to buy online.
I do an herbed butter on my turkey just like you suggested...softened so it can be spread out.
Kosher salt is made following Jewish food guidelines.
Elana will be 3 years old in just a few months. She helps in the kitchen too. She actually did a few recipes all by her own self :).
They had the cutting board and their smoker handmade from the US.
They did different videos of the 1st time they did deviled eggs and also making that green bean casserole. The sweet potato casserole is usually topped with mini marshmallows.
Remember all these things are optional for sides. For example, YES, Kai you can swap the mash for roasted. We don't actually do potatoes and instead do mac n cheese. We also don't do green bean casserole and have turnip greens or collard greens. Everyone has their own preferences for sides, desserts and they can be regional dishes, heritage dishes, etc. There's really no "traditional" only dishes. You can mix and match as you like. Some don't do turkey but do a chicken instead. We also have a ham, potato salad and beets.
Trust me, the way that she prepped and then cooked on the day is exactly how we do it here. Most of us don't have more than one oven. The usual thing is to get the turkey done first and out of the way. Everything else you just time it. Most cook at the same temp so if you have the space you can easily make three dishes in the oven at the same time after the turkey is out and resting.
The salty brine soak is so the flesh absorbs water and flavor, resulting in juicy, not dry, meat. Pork chops are also brined to prevent dried out meat.
There are a few dishes that everyone always expects, but other than that, inventiveness is encouraged. That said, if there aren't mashed potatoes, guests will be disappointed. But often people do several styles of potatoes, as well as sweet potatoes or yams. The general point is to celebrate and give thanks for plentifulness, as a harvest festival, so too much isn't an issue. And for family it's generally a four day celebration, so leftovers get taken care of.
It sounds absolutely awesome! We'll definitely be celebrating next year with a Thanksgiving meal. :)
The reason there is so much dressing is that it is usually the most popular dish on the table. The combination of turkey, dressing, mashed potato and gravy all on one fork is unbeatable. The holiday originated with the Pilgrims and Native Americans coming together in peace. There is an excellent video about it. If you are interested in the corn casserole, I recommend you check out Jolly's video on their Thanksgiving put on by a chef from Mississippi who lives in London, he makes a corn casserole that looks incredible.
I love dressing myself, Alice is not such a big fan though. You can checkout our reaction to the suggested video here - ua-cam.com/video/HaAo_y9VulA/v-deo.html. Thanks for watching! :)
@@AliKaiProject Oh, right! I did watch that one! 😊
Beautiful turkey. The H's did a great job.
The dressing/stuffing was made with cornmeal. We usually make the cornbread first, then crumble it up and add spices and broth, but she added the spices to the "raw" cornbread and baked it all together. Be sure you get cornmeal, not corn flour.
The skin holds the flavoring in place. Otherwise putting it on top, it would just slide off and into the pan where it does no good.
Kai, you can certainly do roasted potato if that is what you prefer. However, if you want to give a traditional US dinner a try first, go with mashed, then if you want to do it again the next year and think you would like them different, go for it! There are no rules to Thanksgiving. We have always made our "Danish riced potatoes" as my grandmother taught me. I boil them until they are "just about done", but have a spot of resistance left in the middle. I cool them down in cold water, then "grate" them one by one into a bowl. I add them into a pan over the stove and start to heat them with TONS of butter, salt, pepper and cream. By leaving the center a bit under cooked, you get lumps, but those lumps are pure potato goodness! I have had people rant and rave over my potatoes and there are never leftovers! I know the Brits really prefer a super smooth mash, but honestly, if you try them this way, you will thank me!
I’m vegetarian but it took until I was an adult to understand the dry 🦃 comments. My grandma hosted thanksgiving and was an amazing cook and from the time I was 9 or 10 dad would pack me off to sous chef for grandma (his MIL not his mom- he made his mom do thanksgiving on Friday so I could help the better chef) and I’d help with all parts of the meal and the turkey was never dry.
Its harvest but it’s a holiday because a) New England was already celebrating a harvest festival based on the historic harvest gathering when the Wampanoag helped the starving and struggling settlers with food and teaching them about the foods that grow there, b) due to Civil War President Lincoln needed something to help pull all Americans together in a meaningful way where each family celebrates and comes together but it’s not going to bring big crowds that might set off more tensions, c) Lincoln had seen a Jewish Sukkot celebration which is also a harvest holiday so he recognized other cultures already celebrated harvest… so he and his advisors decided to announce a truly American holiday to be celebrated by all Americans of all regions, political parties, religions, race (this was especially to include the newly emancipated Americans to have a celebration that makes them feel they belong, too) to be celebrated the fourth Thursday in November based on the combined influences with an actual American origin story to be shared throughout the country. It was not supposed to be a slight to the Native Americans even if after that event the history wasn’t as lovely as that story. So all the foods that appear on the vast majority of thanksgiving tables are all of American origins: turkey, cranberry, pumpkin, pecans, potatoes (of any variety but technically sweet potatoes originally came from Africa, I think). And then everyone personalizes based on region or culture or personal preference. African Americans are more likely to have sweet potato pie rather than pumpkin. My family is Jewish so our roasted veg is usually a tzimmes made with carrots and sweet potato (there’s a lot of recipes but tzimmes is delicious and the veggie ones- I didn’t even know some people put meat in it- often have fruit mixed in with the veg and it’s great with a big meal), so we do that over the sweet potato with marshmallow since it’s tasty and has sweetness, too, but is healthier. But we have potatoes (not usually mashed, though), so often roasted or if we aren’t having Mac and cheese that year (no one in my family keeps kosher) we might do potatoes au gratin or some other cheesy potatoes. The years Hanukkah overlaps with thanksgiving our potatoes are latkes, of course.
Can’t wait to see you guys do this yourselves. I heard the comment about the mashed potatoes and the other type one thing we do here is people will bring their favorite things over to the dinner so it may be something you do. We share a lot of our favorite things with each other so the main host doesn’t have to do everything.
Many of us top our sweet potato casserole with brown sugar and finely chopped pecans rather than marshmallows. My Paternal Grandmother used melted butter and crushed corn flakes on hers.
I did as you would've. I made compound butter out of celery hearts and leaves, scallions, and all the herbs for flavor, all ground together. Then after I let it sit all night, I warmed it a bit and used my hands to slather it in and all around the turkey, and under the skin. It came out succulent this year and there weren't many leftovers.
To get a temperature from F to C. Subtract 32 from the F temp, multiply that number by 5, then divide that number by 9.. Not overly complicated but to make it easy just use google.
It's good to give thanks any time.
You have all that gravy and the mashed potatoes are so good for that. Some people do scalloped potatoes. Sweet potatoes casseroles are covered with marshmallow. Candied yams I make have a few marshmallows and pecans. This year we did baked sweet potato with cinnamon butter. All my leftovers are up as frozen dinners to eat over the next couple of months. I gave her my timeline for making this meal and it works out perfectly. She was at it for 3 days easy.
😅 When you said, I'd rather have the roast potatoes, that was the most British thing you said. I think that's one of the many differences between your Christmas dinner, and our Thanksgiving dinner. Personally, I always associate having gravy with mashed potatoes instead of roast potatoes. Also, because most of the dishes are very savory, the sweetness of the sweet potato cuts through it, and somehow works.
Corn creamed with cream cheese, green onions, cumin, and a little red pepper is really good.
Mash potatoes are definitely more traditional but I have to agree with your thought of roast potatoes because many of thanksgiving sides can tend to be on the softer side of texture; mash, stuffing, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes…all fairly soft. So having roast potatoes just purely on a textural standpoint, I really like the idea
Great video guys! You should try it yourselves next year. The H’s did a fantastic job 👏👏
Thanksgiving is not about making sure you have the traditional meals it's about making sure you have enough help time and money for all the traditional dishes you want to make and all the additional dishes you'd love and want to add with it as well so if you're stuck between choosing mashed potatoes or roasted potatoes do it the American way and don't choose one just make both lol you have remembered our most used and favorited quote is (Go Big! or, Go Home!) so instead of picking between that or the other just pick both the more the merrier cuz you can never have too much of a good thing :)
I don't know anyone who makes food ahead of time and freezes it. There really is plenty of time on Thanksgiving day to get everything cooked. The turkey has to rest for at least 30 minutes to an hour before you should start to carve it, and in that time, you put your casseroles into the oven and bake them. As the casserole are basically done except for warming them through, it only takes 30 minutes to get them done! That is why we make them the day before but we put them in the fridge, never freezer.
Please have a look at live storm midea videos of Erie, Pennsylvania and Buffalo, New York. They currently have about two meters of snow on the ground, and it is still snowing. Trucks and cars stranded on the roads. Stores running out of food due to the fact delivery trucks are stranded on the motorways. Some fatalities as well.
We'll have a look, thank you for the suggestion! :)
I’m vegetarian but it took until I was an adult to understand the dry 🦃 comments. My grandma hosted thanksgiving and was an amazing cook and from the time I was 9 or 10 dad would pack me off to sous chef for grandma (his MIL not his mom- he made his mom do thanksgiving on Friday so I could help the better chef) and I’d help with all parts of the meal and the turkey was never dry. We also always, always had a huge deep dish apple pie like the one Jolly eat in the London restaurant with the American chef. So apple pie was more important to my family than pumpkin or pecan pie.
Its harvest but it’s a holiday because a) New England was already celebrating a harvest festival based on the historic harvest gathering when the Wampanoag helped the starving and struggling settlers with food and teaching them about the foods that grow there, b) due to Civil War President Lincoln needed something to help pull all Americans together in a meaningful way where each family celebrates and comes together but it’s not going to bring big crowds that might set off more tensions, c) Lincoln had seen a Jewish Sukkot celebration which is also a harvest holiday so he recognized other cultures already celebrated harvest… so he and his advisors decided to announce a truly American holiday to be celebrated by all Americans of all regions, political parties, religions, race (this was especially to include the newly emancipated Americans to have a celebration that makes them feel they belong, too) to be celebrated the fourth Thursday in November based on the combined influences with an actual American origin story to be shared throughout the country. It was not supposed to be a slight to the Native Americans even if after that event the history wasn’t as lovely as that story. So all the foods that appear on the vast majority of thanksgiving tables are all of American origins: turkey, cranberry, pumpkin, pecans, potatoes (of any variety but technically sweet potatoes originally came from Africa, I think, an American hybrid between African yams and potatoes highly recommend watching the documentary “High on the Hog” on Netflix). And then everyone personalizes based on region or culture or personal preference. Some people do mashed potatoes some do roasted some might do potatoes au gratin, the lucky years Hanukkah and Thanksgiving overlap latkes are on all Jewish tables.
Pecan pie with ice cream is my favorite. In fact, pecan pie by itself is great, too.
Even better if the pie is warm!
Stuffing gets cooked in the bird normally, whereas dressing is more like a stand alone casserole.
Dressing is actually a soul food.
Note that "normally" (whatever that means) .. every guest will bring something .. all the people arriving have covered dishes. If one lady brings green bean casserole .. hers will be different then one that someone else brings .. same thing with the other dishes .. mashed potatoes .. another might bring cheesy potatoes and another roasted potatoes... some extended families/friends will plan ahead who brings what and so on. Fun times.
Unc's in a food coma
Yeah I don't marshmallows normally in my sweet potato casserole, I do a crumble and pecans on top. And I whip the potatoes into a almost a souffle, with cream and egg and brown sugar and cinnamon.
You have to realize that many families are still 1st or 2nd generation Americans and very linked to their heritage. Some families have been here for a lot longer and still eat their native food especially on holidays.
Most families have a turkey simply because it's a tradition. Families from a germanic background often have sausage and sauerkraut. Italian families may have traditional food from their region of Italy. The food from this video is standard for people from the south. Dressing instead of stuffing, usually lots of pies. Pecan pies are very southern. Cornbread instead of rolls (sometimes both). Cornbread can be VERY dry. Some people add creamed corn to the mixture. Otherwise just keep the butter close and use it liberally. (Yum!) While mashed potatoes & gravy are more common, roast potatoes are delicious. Only 1 thing was missing from this meal. Macaroni & Cheese!!!! Most families make 2 or 3 pans. All Americans LOVE mac & cheese. It's the first thing put into the to-go boxes. Some even hide their boxes because other family members - yeah...I'm talking to you cousin Mike - have been known to steal other peoples mac & cheese...already in a to-go box, wrapped in foil, secured in a tupperware container and hidden in the dresser in the upstairs guest bedroom. Whew. Flashback to an ugly situation from 2012. Anyway, the point is anything can be a Thanksgiving meal as long as it has family (whether by blood or chosen) and you all drive each other crazy. 😊. Then it starts all over again for Chrismas where you'll usually see a ham, maybe a smaller turkey as well. The sides may be somewhat different but you'll see a lot more desserts. Pecan pie, lemon ice box pie, etc. Red velvet cake, carrot cake, hummingbird cake. Cookies, peach cobbler, etc. It's usually a smaller, more intimate family group. One third the people but 3 times as many desserts. It's glorious. lol
Damnit Mike, stop stealing the mac & cheese! ;)
@@AliKaiProject
OMG! That's it exactly!
His manners better improve or he won't see any of the good stuff at Christmas.
They made corn bread stuffing
I will say also when it comes to all these dishes that we have for Thanksgiving, we do what’s called a potluck where everybody brings something to contribute. It’s not left on one person to do all the cooking because it’s way too much to handle.
As a Southern American, I can say I am one who does not like marshmallow on my sweet potato casserole. It is so much better to me with a mixture of brown sugar , cinnamon and chopped pecan toppings
The nice thing about cooking in general, is you cook to your families likes. So, you can add or delete whatever you like or dislike. Be flexible, be adventurist, modify. There are no hard rules. Enjoy.
I would say that roasted potatoes, or more likely scallop or au gratin potatoes would be more traditional than mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving dinner, at least in my region
There are no hard-and-fast rules for Thanksgiving. You cook what you like to eat. If you want roasted potatoes, you have
roasted potatoes.
Depending on your family, your culture, or the region you live in, the items you see on the dinner table can change drastically.😊
Usually, if you are going to put marshmallows on the sweet potatoes we use the mini marshmallows. I like it better with the pecans and brown sugar topping.
Thanksgiving is 90% the reason why we have giant refrigerators and double ovens.
Yes they did good job but not all sweet potatoes casserole are made with marshmallows on top the best is brown sugar n pecans
its just basically a harvest meal. sure the states coined it thanksgiving. but about every culture has a end of harvest meal or event. and a thanksgiving dinner can be what ever u want. no rule saying u gotta have certain things
You can morph the Thanksgiving feast to suit your particular tastes. 😊
What makes Thanksgiving dinner is you make the dishes you like so turning the mashed potatoes to roasted potatoes is fine it's just you do like you like my family likes potato salad instead of mashed potatoes
Marshmallows are normal on top of Sweet Potato Casserole
But the leftover dressing is great the next day with turkey and gravy. Maybe on a roll.
We eat roasted potatoes, which I love, just not on Thanksgiving.
Kosher salt. It should actually be called "Koshering" salt. The large salt particles is used to draw the blood from Kosher food .. so it has nothing to do with Jewish or Arabic foods .. it is the process. The name is from the process you see. When used to prepare things like steaks many prefer the large flakes of the Kosher salts.
Kosher salt does not contain iodine or other additives
It’s also a thicker grind. The big salt crystals that you’d want on top of your bagel to get that salt burst in your bite. In recipes it still melts same way to blend in, but also works nicely as a finish when you want the pretty salt crystal look and taste.
You say you all aren’t fans of stuffing/dressing but here many of us make cornbread stuffing. You might like the taste better
the only reason they had two dressings is because they made one traditional and the other they added jalapeno to it.
No one has ever...ever..had one plate at Thanksgiving so you can make room for any combination that you'd want. Usually I do turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and green bean casserole on the first round. Second round is all the stuff I missed on my first trip..and more turkey. We do deep fried turkey which is amazing.
There's no real "path". If you want roast potatoes then make roast potatoes. It is indeed a Harvest Feast .. cook what you have harvested. That is it.
Just so you know: dressing and stuffing are the same thing in the US. I am originally from NY and we say stuffing while areas of the us say dressing
not traditional anyway. u pick what u want some ppl would have a ham,duck; goose etc...