by Wesley Harris
The food my family eats at Thanksgiving differs little from what I ate as a kid. No matter if we eat at home, at the in-laws, with our children, or with friends, the dishes are almost always the same.
Thanksgiving meals vary by region, at least to some degree. “Stuffing” accompanies the turkey in New England while “dressing” is a Southern dish. Thanksgiving in the movies includes bread cube- or crumb-based stuffing instead of Southern cornbread dressing, perhaps because most movies are set in the Northeast and the West Coast. South Louisiana menus include items not typical of a North Louisiana meal.
Looking back over the decades, the traditional Thanksgiving meal in Ruston has been based on turkey and dressing. The side dishes may vary with the big bird as the main feature.
In 1933, Ruston’s Hightower Cafe advertised its Thanksgiving meal of turkey, dressing and giblet gravy, peas and carrots, cranberry sauce, baked potato halves, and salad for 60 cents. Not to be outdone, the Red Onion Cafe sold its holiday meal for 50 cents, encouraging diners to come inside to see the menu.
In 1987 when Shoney’s advertised its Thanksgiving dinner for $4.99, diners received sliced turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, giblet gravy, buttered peas, bread, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. Not much different from what we eat today. Except for the price.
This year, I conducted a quite unscientific poll on social media to determine the ideal Ruston Thanksgiving meal. I queried Facebook users in a discussion group catering to Ruston and Lincoln Parish. Listing 24 Thanksgiving dishes from baked turkey to pecan pie, I asked participants to vote for seven dishes they consider essential to a North Louisiana Thanksgiving.
Within 24 hours, 3,600 votes were cast. If every participant voted for seven and only seven dishes as I requested, roughly 514 people participated in the poll. The large sample size gives credibility to the results.
The outcome was not surprising, with most voting for baked turkey and baked ham, sweet potato casserole and cornbread dressing, pecan pie and sweet potato pie. Along with my poll options, several people added selections to my original list, increasing it to about 40 items. Nothing outlandish. For example, a healthy number of votes came in for fried turkey, a relatively new phenomenon. No one fried turkey when I was growing up in Ruston.
I included specifics like cranberry sauce with or without berries and dressing versus stuffing. I enjoy my cranberry sauce right out of the can with the little ridges of the can aiding in uniform slicing of the jelly stuff. Most participants sided with me on the plain no-berry-straight-from-the can sauce (226) with only a few opting for homemade cranberry sauce with actual whole cranberries (40).
Dressing (415) was no surprise, far surpassing the paltry number who selected stuffing (9). To me, nothing ruins cornbread dressing more than excessive sage. I can’t eat it. It just tastes awful. In a vote within the discussion thread of the poll, when asked “sage or no sage,” the “nos” won out 15-5.
Baked ham (255) beat out baked turkey (195) followed by fried turkey (175). I asked if anyone favored a meat other than turkey or ham, expecting to see a good bit of venison. The write-ins included smoked ham (8), smoked turkey (7), venison (2), fried chicken (1), and one vote for Cornish hens from a family tired of turkey.
I was anxious to see what side dishes would garner the most votes. Of my original poll options, cornbread dressing led the way (415), followed by sweet potatoes or casserole (257), green beans or casserole (230), mac & cheese (143), mashed potatoes (120), corn casserole (112), and collards/greens (79).
With all that dressing, an unexpected vote total for dinner rolls (289) shocked me. We always have rolls although I’ve never seen the need with all that delectable dressing.
A smattering of dishes were added by voters garnering a handful of votes including potato salad, butter beans, peas, roasted vegetables, dumplings, hot water cornbread, and salad.
Deviled eggs (132) was the surprise write-in of the poll. Some families have their own special dish to accompany the traditionals. My friend Robert Hendrick, a retired physician, likes green bean bundles wrapped in bacon on his Thanksgiving dinner plate. Another friend, Fred Hamilton, enjoys some cabbage casserole.
I included giblet gravy and “regular” (non-giblet) gravy. Giblet gravy surpassed alternatives 117 to 63. People, do you know what is in giblet gravy? A store-bought turkey usually includes a packet stuffed inside the bird containing the neck, heart, gizzard, and other organs. Chop that stuff up—I shiver at the thought—add bits of boiled egg and chicken or turkey stock and you have giblet gravy. Sorry, I can’t look at a gravy boat and not think about those bits of heart and turkey neck floating around in there. I’ll stick to gravy made from turkey or bacon drippings or the store-bought jars of ready-made gravy.
Of the desserts in my poll, pecan pie (201) was the clear winner, followed by sweet potato pie (104), pumpkin pie (62), apple pie (32), and bread pudding (14). Of the desserts added by voters, banana pudding received 18 votes. Other desserts collected one or two votes each.
A list of the “nine most popular traditional Thanksgiving dishes in Louisiana” appeared in a major newspaper some time back. Only two items in the top seven of my Ruston poll made this list with its obvious South Louisiana slant: gumbo, cornbread dressing, oyster dressing, sweet potato casserole, andouille or boudin, corn & crab bisque, Spinach Madeline, dirty rice, and collards.
In a nod to South Louisiana, I included “a rice dish” in my poll. Only 23 poll participants said rice in some form would be on their Thanksgiving table. Apparently what is traditional in South Louisiana does not match up with traditional further north.
Whatever is on your table, enjoy it with thankfulness for all the blessings we received this year.
