Thanksgiving pies: tradition or personal preference?

[Guest]

In past years, we've always had one pumpkin pie as a Thanksgiving tradition. This year, my sister brought the two pies, to my place (8 people), and went by the pies we like better: berry and key lime. This broke tradition, but resulted in pies everyone liked. How about at your Thanksgiving dinners? Do you always have traditional pumpkin (or worse, sweet potato or mincemeat), or do you just get the pies everyone will enjoy?

[+ Vegas_Millennial]

23 minutes ago, Unicorn said:

In past years, we've always had one pumpkin pie as a Thanksgiving tradition. This year, my sister brought the two pies, to my place (8 people), and went by the pies we like better: berry and key lime. This broke tradition, but resulted in pies everyone liked. How about at your Thanksgiving dinners? Do you always have traditional pumpkin (or worse, sweet potato or mincemeat), or do you just get the pies everyone will enjoy?

I always have pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving, but pumpkin pie is one of my favorite pies!

If I'm hosting a large group I'll consider offering a 2nd pie that I enjoy but also fits the season:  either Pumpkin Cheesecake or Apple Pie.

If I'm invited to a friend's house for Thanksgiving, I offer to bring pumpkin pie if the host was planning on making pecan pie or other pie.  I will be polite and have a slice of the pie they prepared as well as the pumpkin pie I brought.

[+ nycman]

Pumpkin all the way.

It’s also my favorite pie….so I get to kill two birds with one stone.

[MikeBiDude]

We had pumpkin, pecan, and some apple crumble pie. My actual favorite is sweet potato pie. Very reminiscent of pumpkin…but better! I just didn’t have time for it this year and hours were all covered by tiger guests.

I brought my home made cranberry sauce and deep fried 3 turkeys and sweet potato fries.

[dbar123]

We did pumpkin and mixed berry. It’s not thanksgiving without Turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie

[+ WilliamM]

I visited a college friend (Boston College) who lives close to New York City. We hadn't seen each other in years, but talked often on the phone.

He has been dealing with advanced Alzheimer's, but was relatively ok this last weekend. His daughters and new wife were wonderful, and spent many days cooking.

 

So glad to see him. He did remember me. His older daughter is married to a Russian (Sasha),  Smart guy (MIT and Stanford), so a lot of fun 

The food was great.

Edited November 29, 2022 by WilliamM

[Stormy]

Pecan pie, apple pie, strawberry custard - these are my favorites. 

[+ DynamicUno]

I happen to like a good pumpkin pie, but I'd have no objections to a host going a less traditional route with something like an apple or berry pie.  It's nice if it's seasonal, but I don't really care if someone deviates from the traditional menu that much.

That said, if you bring out a neon green custard pie and tell me it's key lime, I will judge you.

 

 

[pubic_assistance]

When I was a kid living in traditional central PA it was always pumpkin pie and apple pie, for those who didn't like pumpkin.

I of course, always had both ..with vanilla ice cream on top 😋

 

[BSR]

On 11/28/2022 at 1:02 PM, MikeBiDude said:

We had pumpkin, pecan, and some apple crumble pie. My actual favorite is sweet potato pie. Very reminiscent of pumpkin…but better! I just didn’t have time for it this year and hours were all covered by tiger guests.

I brought my home made cranberry sauce and deep fried 3 turkeys and sweet potato fries.

Wow, you had a setup to be able to deep-fry 3 turkeys all at the same time?  How many gallons of oil did you use?  What type of oil?  I hear peanut oil is the best for deep frying, but it's not the healthiest.

Also, how many people did you invite over for Thanksgiving dinner?  And how many tigers??

[MikeBiDude]

1 hour ago, BSR said:

Wow, you had a setup to be able to deep-fry 3 turkeys all at the same time?  How many gallons of oil did you use?  What type of oil?  I hear peanut oil is the best for deep frying, but it's not the healthiest.

Also, how many people did you invite over for Thanksgiving dinner?  And how many tigers??

I have a 40 quart aluminum stock pot with a basket that sets inside. I use about 2 1/2-3 gallons of peanut oil, I have a dip stick that’s got to be 10-12 years old that indicates how much oil I should put in, calibrated the oil level and the dipstick a decade ago!

I also have a propane rig for cooking outside….I bought when blackened redfish in a cast iron skillet outside (smokey!) was a big thing.

So once the oil is heated up, we slowly lower one 12-14# turkey in. Takes about 35 minutes. Take it out and repeat. I carve the turkeys outside and family can have ziploc bags with leftovers to take home. One for the table of course, and we still cook one in the oven to humor one part of the family.

At that point I also cook a couple batches of sweet potato fries, and a few turkey livers for those of us who enjoy them.

The reason for doing multiples, is if you’ve set the whole rig, pot, oil heated up it’s easy to just as easy to fry more! Safety wise I use a much larger pot than you see at Costco and other stores that are sold as “turkey fryers”. We lower the turkey in very slowly, the bubbling oil never comes within. 5-6” of the top. The stories your hear about fires is usually too small a pot, too big a turkey, dumping rather than lowering into the oil.

[+ Axiom2001]

Normally, for Thanksgiving I'm invited to friends or relatives, and the pies that are served are pumpkin, sweet potato, berry, and mince meat.

This year I was invited to dinner with a good friend and a friend of his.  He'd cooked a lovely meal (everything from scratch) of turkey, honey baked ham, greens, sweet potatoes, Mac and cheese, freshly-baked rolls, and a few items that I can't remember.  Everything was mighty delicious along with the camaraderie, conversation, and the overall ambience.

Before I left, he made me a hefty plate that enabled me to have two other dinners.  I ate the turkey with these and the ham for two sandwiches for two lunches.

I'd received invitations from three different friends but am glad that I'd accepted his above the other two, for it is one day that I shall forever remember.

I took a pumpkin pie that I'd purchased from a good bakery in my area.

[Today I went to the same bakery and bought a pumpkin tart and a slice of apple pie along with a small spinach and tomato quiche.  12/3]

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Axiom2001 said:

Normally, for Thanksgiving I'm invited to friends or relatives, and the pies that are served are pumpkin, sweet potato, berry, and mince meat.

...

Do you like mincemeat pie? I don't think I've ever met anyone who does. And I only know one person who enjoys fruitcake. 

[BSR]

Sorry for straying off topic, back to pies ... pumpkin can be yummy, but I've had more bad pumpkin pies than good ones.  I've had sweet potato pie only once, and I liked it a lot more than pumpkin. I feel so un-American for saying this, but I'm just not wild about apple pie.  My favorite is pecan as long as it's not too sweet.

I recently saw a recipe for ube custard pie, which is basically a purple version of sweet potato pie.  Definitely something I have to attempt one of these days.

As for nontraditional offerings, as long as it's a good pie, I'm happy.  If someone ever brought ube pie to Thanksgiving dinner, I'd be tickled pink.

[+ Pensant]

Based on the above, I’m going to make a scratch sweet potato pie for our neighborhood dinner this coming Saturday night. Last year I made a decadent flourless chocolate torte. I’m also making a pan of paleo sage pork stuffing and some short ribs, the latter in my new Staub cast iron pot!

[pubic_assistance]

8 hours ago, Unicorn said:

Do you like mincemeat pie? I don't think I've ever met anyone who does. And I only know one person who enjoys fruitcake. 

Those are two of my absolute favorite holiday treats. Although it is difficult to find a good version of either one...so I think most people dislike them because they've never had a good one . I see "mincemeat" pies sold in supermarkets that doesn't even have any meat in them !

Everyone in my family looks forward to these treats at Christmas. But I am aware that these are an old fashioned custom that mainstream America has forgotten.

Edited December 4, 2022 by pubic_assistance

[+ Pensant]

My grandmother used to make some kind of English Christmas pudding dessert that contained suet, which was served with a heavy cream “hard” sauce. I can’t remember what it was called, but I loved it.

[pubic_assistance]

On 11/28/2022 at 9:08 PM, Stormy said:

Pecan pie, apple pie, strawberry custard - these are my favorites. 

Strawberry custard sounds delicious.

 

[+ The Big Guy]

I am among the few that love a great mince meat pie.  Mother always made one for me at Thanksgiving and since no one else like them, I got to eat the whole thing myself. 

[Greg250]

20 hours ago, pubic_assistance said:

Those are two of my absolute favorite holiday treats. Although it is difficult to find a good version of either one...so I think most people dislike them because they've never had a good one . I see "mincemeat" pies sold in supermarkets that doesn't even have any meat in them !

Everyone in my family looks forward to these treats at Christmas. But I am aware that these are an old fashioned custom that mainstream America has forgotten.

Growing up in Canada we always had homemade mincemeat pies (deer meat when I was younger) at Christmas as well as homemade dark fruitcake. These were real old fashioned holiday treats that we looked forward to every December. I still make fruitcake and it wouldn’t seem like Christmas without it… I’m a bit old fashioned when it comes to holiday traditions! 

[pubic_assistance]

5 hours ago, Greg250 said:

Growing up in Canada we always had homemade mincemeat pies (deer meat when I was younger) at Christmas as well as homemade dark fruitcake. These were real old fashioned holiday treats that we looked forward to every December. I still make fruitcake and it wouldn’t seem like Christmas without it… I’m a bit old fashioned when it comes to holiday traditions! 

Same for me growing up in Central PA. My extended family are all super conservative and traditional. Even though that wasn't MY choice of lifestyle, I still enjoy returning to my childhood memories for the Holidays. Mincemeat pies with Deer meat, and dark, heavy, sweet fruitcake with a little bite of liquor in the candied fruit brings back many happy memories of simpler times, celebrating Christmas with, ( now gone members) of my grandparent's, and great-grandparent's generation.