What Do Canadians Think of American Thanksgiving Food?
A while back we wrote about how to make a better Thanksgiving dinner. We wrote it for Canadian Thanksgiving, but our neighbours to the south also celebrate Thanksgiving too, albeit, at an extremely weird time of the year. Something about the fourth Thursday in November.
We wanted to see what dishes were the same (and different) for American Thanksgiving, so we decided to host Friendsgiving—both as a way to catch up with our friends before the craziness of the holidays, and as an excuse to eat a lot of tasty food.
So join us as we explore the weird and calorie-filled world of American Thanksgiving.
Side Note: We didn’t take a group photo of everyone because we were full and forgot. We do have friends, we promise. They just go to a different school.
American Thanksgiving vs Canadian Thanksgiving 🦃
What we found out was that there are more similarities than differences when it comes to American and Canadian Thanksgiving. Both countries share the basic fundamentals of turkey (or ham), mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie.
The side dishes are where things get weird. Americans love their casseroles! Green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, mac and cheese, corn pudding. So. Many. Carbs.
In Western Canada (where we live), side dishes will typically be a vegetable (not in casserole form) or Ukrainian dishes such as perogies or cabbage rolls.
Our research on American Thanksgiving was primarily conducted on Reddit. (So if we’re wrong, Reddit lied.) Obviously there are a lot of regional dishes and different family traditions — if we missed trying something tasty, let us know in the comments down below!
Our Friendsgiving Menu
To offload some of the cooking, we asked everyone attending to bring a dish. (Potluck style!) We let people pick what they wanted to bring from a pre-selected list of recipes, as there were some staple dishes that we really wanted to ensure were included.
Turkey & Gravy - Trevor
I’m going to break from the Mediocre Chef voice for a second to talk about my part in cooking the turkey and the gravy. Cooking a turkey is super simple. I pretty much followed the same process from our Canadian Thanksgiving post. The only difference is that the turkey was bigger, so I used more butter. Like, about a pound of butter. (Why? Why not!) Chop up some rosemary, thyme, parsley, oregano, sage (if you feel so inclined), parsley (if you have any), and some garlic. Add some salt and pepper and you’ve got yourself a delicious compound butter.
The only other things you really need are a turkey bag and an oven safe thermometer. Make sure the thermometer is inserted into the thickest part of the thigh, but not touching the bone, in order to get a good reading.
Also very important: don’t forget to let the turkey rest.
The turkey gravy is super simple to make. Start by making a roux with equal parts flour and butter. Then add in some delicious chicken stock or broth. Go ahead and use the boxed stuff if you want, but if you want really delicious gravy you should consider making your own stock or broth. Once you’ve whisked the bejesus out of the stock and roux, add in some turkey drippings from the turkey bag. How much should you add? Up to you. Taste it and see if it needs more. Also make sure to add salt and pepper.
Cranberry Sauce… and Cranberry Jelly - Brittany
Cranberry sauce is mandatory for turkey, even if you have gravy (in our humble opinion). Buuuuut some people like canned cranberry jelly, so we made sure to have that too. The tin can flavour being imparted into the jelly really makes it, or something like that.
Homemade cranberry sauce is superior in every way (and so easy to make!) that we really don’t know why canned jelly needs to exist. But some of our friends like it, so we guess it has its place. (They’re wrong though.)
Sausage Stuffing - Kait
Our opinion: stuffing should not be in a turkey. It makes the turkey take forever to cook. But like cranberry sauce, you can’t have stuffing without turkey. The solution? Cook it separately!
Ham - Dylan
Remember stew boy? He was in charge of cooking the ham. To his credit, he absolutely nailed it. Big W for Dylan.
Dylan figured out how to use a smoker successfully in the cold weather (it involved aluminum tape and extra insulation). If you wanna make a great ham like Dylan, just do ALL OF THE THINGS to it. Smoke it, rub it, baste it (with cream soda), glaze it. Also drink the extra cream soda. It’ll probably turn out great.
Dylan did his best cutting up the ham.
Sweet Potatoes With Casserole - Zac
We didn’t really want to like sweet potato casserole. God, we wanted to hate it. We wanted to be like, “Those crazy Americans, why do they eat this every year?” But it was SO GOOD. We understand now. You win, Americans.
That being said, it’s weird having it on your plate with your other savoury dishes. Is this not a dessert!?
Green Bean Casserole - Deyong
Americans, you won with the sweet potato casserole. But you lost us with the green bean casserole. It was the only green thing we had on the menu — but based on our research, this typically is the only green dish served on American Thanksgiving.
Thankfully, our friend made the homemade version and not the canned version. Where the canned version would have been sodium overload, the homemade version needed a biiiit more salt. But it was still a green thing, and we were thankful for it. (The crispy fried onions were dope.)
Corn Pudding - Graham & Nikki
The concept of corn pudding is brand new to us. Turns out it’s just kind of like a cream corn porridge. That sounds kind of gross but it tastes really good. It’s sweet and…corny. All in all a good time. Check out this recipe if you’re interested in giving it a try. (Lesson: sugar makes everything taste better.)
Mashed Potatoes - Sheldon
Mashed potatoes are amazing. In our opinion there’s not much that can be done to improve on them really. So we were pleasantly surprised when Sheldon showed up with mashed potatoes that ALREADY HAD THE GRAVY PRE-MIXED IN?! This was a mind = blown moment for us.
Like, of course that’s something that can be done, we had just never thought of doing that before. If you’re someone who wants to build a little gravy volcano with your mashed potatoes, then this is not the thing for you. But for us, it was a nice improvement on an already great thing.
Roasted Veggies (Carrot, Parsnip, & Brussel Sprouts) - Justin
Okay, we lied. There was ONE other green thing served during Friendsgiving — brussel sprouts! But, it came late because someone was fashionably late.
Anyways, we don’t have any pictures of this dish, so we have no proof that another green thing was consumed. Despite everyone being stuffed, people were happy to consume some veggies. (Not a sentence we ever thought we’d write, but we’re adults who crave vegetables now.)
Southern Style Macaroni and Cheese - Also Trevor
Trevor here again. Two of our friends had to drop out, so I took over the mac and cheese. From what our research could tell us, mac and cheese isn’t a universal side dish for American thanksgiving — it’s more common in the south. We decided to include it because: cheese.
We found two southern style mac and cheese recipes during our research. This recipe called for creole seasoning. I didn’t want to make my own creole seasoning and it was unlikely that I was going to be able to source it in time up here in the Great White North, so I decided to not go with that one.
This recipe seemed more promising, but since making mac and cheese was a bit of a last minute thing, I opted to sort of just wing it. I did follow their suggestion to cook the noodles in chicken broth instead of water. Did it do anything? I’m not sure, but let’s assume that it did.
If y’all could just ignore the grease pools that’d be great. Thanks.
So the short version is: make a roux, add some milk to make it a bechamel sauce, add some cheese to make it a mornay sauce. Add some seasonings so that you can go to Flavour Town. Add the noodles and put it in an oven safe dish and bake it for about 20 minutes. Congrats, you have mac and cheese.
Want more instructions? Love food theory and deep-dives into recipes? Learn how to make the best mac and cheese!
Pumpkin Soup - Lorisia
Is there anything that says fall more than pumpkin soup? We don’t think so! This soup was an absolute delight — the combo of spices used was spot-on.
👩🍳 Mediocre Tip: Bring a little crock pot to heat up your soup.
Buns - Haylen
Our boy Haylen bought some buns. They were perfect for dipping in the soup. That is all. We also forgot to take pictures of the buns. We are so good at our jobs. 🙃
5 Cup Salad - Linnée
Whipped cream. Mini marshmallows. Canned mandarin oranges. Sliced bananas. Canned pineapple chunks. If you have these things, you can make a five cup salad. It doesn't look like much, but it’s light. It’s fluffy. And it’s delish.
P.S. If you make the version that has sour cream in it, you’re wrong.
Sour cream in a 5 cup salad? nty
Pumpkin Pie With Gingersnap Crust and Pecan Pie Brownies - Brittany & Adam
This was made by me (Brittany). I was doing research into what Americans had for Thanksgiving and someone on Reddit said pecan pie brownies. It was just one person, but I decided right then and there that I didn’t care if it was just this one person eating this for American Thanksgiving, I just had to try it. Turns out, this shit slaps. There were only two small pieces of pecan pie brownie left at the end of the night. If you like sweet things, you’ll like this.
For those with less of a sweet tooth, I made the pumpkin pie recipe from Claire Saffitz’s cookbook. Her filling also includes honey and brown butter, giving the pie a more complex taste. Instead of a regular pie crust, I made a crust with crushed up gingersnap cookies. With homemade whipped cream, of course. 10/10, if I do say so myself.
Tips for Hosting Friendsgiving
Thinking of hosting Friendsgiving? Here are a few tips to make sure your party goes smoothly!
Make it potluck style. You probably don’t have time or money to make 7+ dishes. Or you could — your Grandma or your Mom might tell you about how she did, but that doesn’t mean that you have to. It sucks to cook everything on your own. Don’t feel guilty about not providing everything for everyone.
Bonus Tip: Confirm if anyone has allergies! Also make a list of what you’d like people to bring or at least get people to share what dish they’re bringing — this way you don’t get five green bean casseroles.
Create a buffet line. Arrange the food in your kitchen in a way that makes sense (e.g. cranberry sauce by the turkey, side dishes together, dessert off to the side). Put plates and cutlery at the start and then people can grab food and find a place to sit. What you wanna do is make your setup flow so everyone can get food and people aren’t bumping into one another. We love ✨ efficiency ✨.
Don’t forget to take photos. We remembered to take photos of the food for this post, like the good food bloggers we are. But we 100% forgot to take a picture of our friends. Oops. Don’t forget to take a picture of all of the people that are important in your life! The food is important of course, but good company is the reason why we get together.
Read the room! It’s a good idea to have board games or activities ready if the conversation lulls, but if the drinks are flowing and the conversation is good, go with the flow. There’s nothing wrong with just hanging out and chatting.
Make sure you have enough seating for everyone. We knew planning this party we had too many butts and not enough seats. Ask your friends if they have folding chairs and tables if you don’t have enough space.
(Huge shout out to Sheldon for bringing a foldable table and Haylen for bringing extra chairs for our Friendsgiving!)
Consider using paper plates. If you don’t have a dishwasher or you just simply don’t want to do all those dishes, paper plates are a great option! Paper is biodegradable, fam.
So, how’d we do? Did Reddit lie to us? Are you American and do you eat something else for Thanksgiving? There are obviously going to be a lot of regional differences—we’re excited to hear about them!
What are you thankful for this year? For us it’s our family and friends (not just the ones who were a part of Friendsgiving, but all of them). We hope that everyone has a safe and pleasant Thanksgiving! Try not to go too hard on the Black Friday deals.