This tweet made me wonder, Mac and Cheese is a touchstone in the SE US/SideDish

[irisblue]

FiveThirtyEight (@FiveThirtyEight) Tweeted:
Here’s what your part of America eats on Thanksgiving. https://t.co/WDpqVXnoSY https://t.co/4drVC50DJ3

Link to tweet

The Great Migration of African Americans to the north and west US brought different types of cheeses to Mac & Cheese for family dinners. I'd sooner get between a sword fight between sisters & sister in laws, but tell me what type you use.

Daddy D would only allow York State Sharp Cheddar. Rest in glory Daddy D

[Ohiogal]

1. Mac and cheese on Thanksgiving?

I have never experienced that.

[underpants]

2. Me neither

Salad?

[DURHAM D]

3. Me neither. nt

[Hortensis]

14. Big surprise to me on moving to the south

from California, but it's a must at Thanksgiving, and potlucks can often end up with several.

[csziggy]

25. Me either and I grew up in the South!

I never understood mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving, either. There are plenty of carbs with the stuffing and desserts.

Our family was an odd mix of North and South. Mom's family was all from Alabama since 1834. Dad's was from Upper Peninsula Michigan since the 1870s. Dad insisted on rutabagas, but he and I were the only ones who really liked them. The menus was turkey, dressing, gravy, peas, green beans, rutabagas, and rolls. Desserts were pecan pie and for the Northern branch, mincemeat pie with hard sauce. The hard sauce was a favorite of my tea totaling great aunt who never realized that Mom's hard sauce was brandy and confectioner's sugar.

[dameatball]

4. The original Mueller's mac & cheese recipe is my favorite, but you have to google it.

It contains powdered mustard (which the newer box recipe does not). I also add an extra stick of butter than the recipe calls for. Top with breadcrumbs and put jalapeno slices on 1/2 of the pan, since some people do not care for the heat.


So, while you are waiting for Mueller indictments and guilty pleas you can enjoy some Mueller's mac & Cheese.

[irisblue]

12. It has to be Colemans Mustard. 😀

[dameatball]

15. Mom would have insisted!

[CentralMass]

26. That sounds really good.

[Delmette2.0]

5. Greenbeen casserole, no thanks.

But please, you enjoy

[Hortensis]

20. Impossible. I never had it as a child in California.

I saw it here and there later, but my children were raised without it also.

[Afromania]

6. (looks around) you know about the NY sharp....... shhhhhh, you're giving away the secrets:)

[redstateblues]

7. Salad on Thanksgiving? What about mashed taters and dressing?

[Hortensis]

17. These are "disproportionately" represented.

Here in the south salad is NOT a traditional Thanksgiving dish. Actually I do make salad for Thanksgiving because my DIL loves it, but to keep a whole, otherwise untouched bowl from being left over I long ago started serving little individual salads topped with high-calorie seafood salad. Want the crab, have to take the green stuff it's sitting on also.

Instead, we have macaroni and cheese -- de rigueur. Thanksgiving isn't Thanksgiving without it.

[northoftheborder]

8. Can't remember having mac n cheese at Thanksgiving

but we usually use plain cheddar cheese, also Monterrey Jack.

My mother prob. used Velveeta.

[CottonBear]

9. Native Southerner: I've NEVER had Mac n Cheese on T-Day.

NC, TN & GA. Never had Mac and Cheese for Thanksgiving or Christmas.

Homemade from scratch sides include:
Sweet potato souffle (never any marshmallows)
Cornbread dressing
Turkey gravy
Cranberry compote
Fresh green beans
Fresh asparagus
Pumpkin pie
Pecan pie

[Hortensis]

19. Sounds a little upscale for my DIL's extended family's

tastes, and since there are a bunch of them they rule. It's not that none have money, or even education and travel, but there are no real foodies and for them Thanksgiving's all about tradition. And I suspect some of these traditions extend well back into the reconstruction period, which after all only really ended after the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

That said, really? Fresh cranberry compote instead of canned cranberry sauce? How do you even get away with that? Don't you have to serve both to avoid the disappointed complaints from the canned faction? Ours drew a fat red line on that one a long time ago.

Oh, btw, went to a big Thanksgiving potluck once in northern Florida. There were 11 mac and cheeses. I counted and took pix for friends back in California.

[CottonBear]

23. The fresh cranberry dish is easy! I love the canned cranberry too!

My mom makes the perfect sweet potato souffle and her cornbread dressing & gravy are so good.

11 Mac and cheeses must have been awesome!
Homemade Mac and cheese is delicious

[irisblue]

10. This American comfort food leads a double life - but only some of us know the secret. Do you?

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/living/food-drink/article184866748.html

snip..
In black culture, for the most part, macaroni & cheese is the pinnacle, the highest culinary accolade. Who makes it, how it’s made and who’s allowed to bring it to a gathering involves negotiation, tradition and tacit understanding. It’s made from scratch and usually involves multiple kinds of cheese, secret touches (eggs and evaporated milk may be involved) and debates over toppings. It’s baked, and it’s a side dish, but it’s the side dish of honor, present at every important occasion.

snip...
In white culture, for the most part, macaroni & cheese is certainly considered tasty – cheesy, comforting and filling. It’s also cheap, the kind of thing your mother pulled together on a weeknight to stretch the budget. You might make it from scratch for a filling meal, but it’s also so simple, any kid can make it: Tear open the box, boil the macaroni, dump in the powder, stir in the milk.

Macaroni & cheese on a holiday table would be as out of place as ripped blue jeans in church.

More at article

[CottonBear]

24. I did not know that! Thank you for the link.

I always learn something new on DU!

[MontanaMama]

27. I have clearly not been celebrating Thanksgiving

with the right crowd. In fact, I could do without most traditional thanksgiving fare in general...but mac and cheese? Shut the front door. That’s what I’m talking about. Count me in! 🧀 😍👍🏽

[Dream Girl]

11. Mac and cheese is an essential for African American Thanksgiving...

Baked, no velvetta please

[japple]

13. Amen. Baked. Made from scratch. No blue box. And use sharp cheese.

IMHO.

[dameatball]

16. Actually I seldom do mac & cheese at Thanksgiving. I make it more often for my kids or my 98 year

old neighbor's birthday. She loves the stuff.

My other off beat holiday meal is lasagna at Christmas. That started back in the early 90's. For some reason it just seems festive to me.

[irisblue]

21. My SIL does that. Love it.

[Afromania]

22. I always wondered about the lasagna at Christmas, but I've seen it done often enough

at Christmas I consider it a holiday meal option too.

[Freddie]

18. Squash??

Don’t know anyone here in the great NE USA that makes that for Thanksgiving.

[spinbaby]

29. Certainly not me

But always green bean casserole and homemade rolls.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

28. Somehow neither cornbread nor rolls/biscuits

fit any definition I know of as "side dish". They are a bread accompaniment.

Turkey is the main dish. Vegetables and dressing/stuffing are side dishes.

Salad likewise is not a side dish. I suppose I'd consider mac and cheese a side, although I can't begin to imagine it on Thanksgiving.

[dem in texas]

30. Cornbread in Texas - No Way

Cornbread Dressing, yes, that is a must have, but as far back as I can remember for all my Texas thanksgivings, always cornbread dressing plus yeast dinner rolls, homemade or the ready to bake kind. Plus pumpkin and pecan pie with gallons of freshly made whipped cream - Ha!.

My grandson married a girl from New York, Long Island, to be correct. I don't think she had ever eaten pecan pie, but she caught on right away and now when they come to visit, I have to make pecan pie for her.