What's the weirdest or most remarkable thing you've eaten for Thanksgiving?

[buckytom]

foodies seem to like stories of culinary superlatives, so i was wondering what was the weirdest, worst, best, or in some way the most remarkable thing you've ever eaten for thanksgiving.

for me it would have been tripe and pasta as side dishes to the turkey.

my first serious gf was of sicillian/calabrian descent, so i remember having trippo alla romana (cow's stomach cooked forever in tomato sauce) and homemade farfalle with peas and ricotta as side dishes to the thanksgiving turkey.

now, both were delicious, but not exactly rockwell-esque in the american lore of the holiday.

what odd things (in your opinion) have you made or have been served at the thanksgiving table?

 

[Aunt Bea]

Nothing really odd.

Scalloped oysters

Watermelon rind pickles

Mincemeat pie

Venison

 

[Cast Iron Chef]

Ground hog

My Uncle Fred added Ground Hog to our Thanksgiving menu a number of years ago. He is of the school that if you shoot it, you eat it, and the day before he shot the Ground Hog. He fixed it with Shake and Bake and insisted that it be added to the Thanksgiving meal. No one dared object. I was one of the few who took a piece. I found it rather good. I, however, am not advocating that it replace turkey.

 

[GB]

I don't think I have had anything weird for Thanksgiving, but the most remarkable was the turkey we did on a gas Webber grill in Florida about 25 years ago. I have since done brined birds and deep fried and injected and every other fad that has come along. The grilled turkey was by far the best most memorable I have ever had.

 

[vitauta]

a dude came to the thanksgiving table with kielbasa and bratwurst in aluminum foil packages that he had cooked with his vw bug's engine, driving around. great fun to eat and talk about....

 

[snickerdoodle]

Nothing too crazy here but one year my brother brought chili chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting to Thanksgiving. They were made with dark chocolate, ground ancho chile pepper and cayenne. They were an unexpected twist and very yummy. I had forgotten about them until now. I'm going to look for the recipe...

 

[Dawgluver]

Mincemeat pie, made with real meat, from a friend of my grandmother's. Apparently, that was the way it used to be made.

 

[buckytom]

Mincemeat pie, made with real meat, from a friend of my grandmother's. Apparently, that was the way it used to be made.

you made mincemeat out of one of your granny's friends???

 

[snickerdoodle]

you made mincemeat out of one of your granny's friends???

ROFL

 

[Dawgluver]

you made mincemeat out of one of your granny's friends???

Never thought of it that way!

 

[buckytom]

i hope they were free range grandparents...

 

[DMerry]

I didn't like them, but my mother and sister had to have pickled crab apples with Thanksgiving dinner.

 

[Dawgluver]

We had them too, both store bought and home pickled. I loved them!

 

[Kathleen]

My Uncle Fred added Ground Hog to our Thanksgiving menu a number of years ago. He is of the school that if you shoot it, you eat it, and the day before he shot the Ground Hog. He fixed it with Shake and Bake and insisted that it be added to the Thanksgiving meal. No one dared object. I was one of the few who took a piece. I found it rather good. I, however, am not advocating that it replace turkey.

That is awesome. I love memories like that! One year, my father brought home a HUGE goose that he had obtained while hunting. I remember my mother's dream of cooking a goose did not involve plucking the bird. I'm not sure if she ever got all of the feathers as she served it without skin.

i hope they were free range grandparents...

But....were they sustainable???

 

[jess11]

Most weird - that would be last year's Thanksgiving when we had two deep fried squirrels on the table with the turkey and traditional fare...

We had deep fried our turkey that year and my husband and friend had gone squirrel hunting for the first time right before Thanksgiving. So, of course, one would think, "Why not deep fry the squirrels too??"

Ya, I didn't try it. And I opted out of taking a picture but now I wish I had

 

[Barbara L]

The two Thanksgivings I spent with a good friend were my most different ones. She and her husband didn't like turkey (Her sons would go around the neighborhood when they were kids "begging" their friends for turkey!), so she served linguini and meatballs. I couldn't stand to go without my traditional Thanksgiving meal though, so on the weekend I would make my own turkey dinner.