Everyone knows that food tastes approximately 1000 percent better on Thanksgiving than it does on any other day of the year. The mashed potatoes are somehow softer, and the turkey is so much more tender. But what is the best Thanksgiving dish? Do you crave the sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie year-round? Are you prepared to fight your friends and family for the cranberry sauce? Do you horde leftover turkey for months on end? If any of these sound like you, check out this definitive list of Thanksgiving foods and see if you agree:
10. Vegetables
Whether you go the green bean casserole route, the glazed carrots route, or chart a path of your own, your Thanksgiving vegetables are probably great by vegetable standards, but no matter how hard they try, Thanksgiving vegetables are still just that—vegetables.
9. Cranberries
Unless your family makes these their super-specialty, they’re always going to end up low on the list. There’s just no way these underdogs can compete with some of the heavy hitters taking up the top spots. In a competition as stiff as Thanksgiving dinner, cranberries just don’t make the A-list cut.
8. Gravy
Another one that’s more of a compliment than an actual dish, gravy is the thing that makes your whole meal better, but you never think about on its own. Bad gravy can majorly throw off your plate’s mojo, but good gravy too often goes unacknowledged. So this Thanksgiving, give a little love to your gravy. It does more for you than you know.
7. Stuffing/Dressing
The North and the South battle it out on this one—and I have never been able to choose a side. Both dishes are equally delicious and both embody the Thanksgiving spirit!
6. Turkey
You might be mad at me for putting turkey so low on the list. It is the Thanksgiving food, after all. But just think for a minute about your typical Thanksgiving plate. The space you make for turkey is probably roughly equivalent to the space you make for all of the “side dishes” you’re piling on. While turkey is technically the star, part of what makes it so great is how well it pairs with other traditional Thanksgiving fair. Turkey is like the straight man in a comedy sketch—technically the focal point, and great in his own way, but ultimately a sounding board for all the other fantastic dishes vying for room on your plate.
5. Dinner Rolls
You guys, bread.
4. Sweet Potatoes
If we’re being picky then, yes, sweet potatoes are technically a vegetable. But I think we can all agree that once you mix it with copious amounts of sugar, dump more sugar on top, and then overlay the whole thing with marshmallows it no longer counts as one.
3. Cornbread/Corn Spoon Bread
You guys, more bread.
2. Pecan/Apple/Pumpkin Pie
Desserts are a quintessential part of your Thanksgiving meal. They’re the part you’re too full to eat, but do anyway. It doesn’t really matter which one of these pies tops your list of personal faves, so long as you stick with pie. (Anything else is just criminal).
1. Mashed Potatoes
Have you ever, ever not piled on the mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving dinner? That’s right, you haven’t—because mashed potatoes are the perfect food. Period. They’re everything you could ever want or imagine. If you could marry a food it would be mashed potatoes.
Thanksgiving is a great time of year to take a moment and appreciate the friends, family, (and food) surrounding us. But we should also remember those who don’t have the same blessings that we do. This week please consider donating to Feeding America in service to those families for whom the holidays might be more difficult.
