Thanksgiving Day Menu

I thought you'd enjoy a vintage Thanksgiving Day menu and recipes.  Have a blessed day!

Oyster Soup

Crisp Oyster Crackers

Celery Pepper Mangoes

Roast Turkey

Bread Stuffing Giblet Sauce

Cranberry Jelly

Mashed Potatoes

 

Baked Hubbard Squash

Sweet Corn, New England Style

 

Creamed Onions

Spiced Pears

 

Hot Slaw

Thanksgiving Pudding

 

Drawn Butter Sauce

Pumpkin Pie

 

Apple Pie

Fruits—Nuts—Raisins—Stuffed Dates

Water Biscuit—Cheese

Café Noir

OYSTER SOUP

 

1 quart select oysters.
4 cups scalded milk.
1 stalk celery broken in pieces.
¼ cup butter.
¾ teaspoon salt.
¹/₈ teaspoon pepper.

Process: Place oysters in a colander; pour over one cup cold water. Take up each oyster with the fingers to remove bits of shells, reserve the liquor. Heat to boiling point and strain through double cheese cloth, set aside. Scald milk with celery, remove celery and add strained oyster liquor to milk. Plump oysters in their own liquor, take up with a perforated skimmer and lay over butter and seasonings, place in a hot soup tureen. Strain liquor into milk mixture and pour the latter over oysters. Serve at once with crisp, hot oyster crackers.

ROAST TURKEY

Select a plump, ten-pound young turkey; dress, clean, stuff and truss in shape; place it on thin slices of fat pork laid in the bottom of dripping pan; rub the entire surface with salt, sprinkle with pepper and dredge with flour. Place in a hot oven and brown delicately. Turn and brown back of turkey; then turn breast side up; continue browning and basting every ten minutes until bird is evenly and richly browned. Add two cups water to fat in pan; continue basting every fifteen minutes until bird is tender, which may be determined by piercing leg with small wooden skewer. It will require from three to three and one-half hours, depending upon the age of the bird. If the turkey is browning too rapidly, cover with a piece of heavy paper well-buttered, placed over turkey buttered side down. Remove the skewer and strings before placing it on serving platter. (Blog Notes - always follow package directions when cooking raw poultry and use a meat thermometer to determine your bird has reached the proper temperature)

GIBLET SAUCE

Drain the liquid from the pan in which the turkey was roasted. Take six tablespoons of the fat, strain the latter through a fine sieve. Return the strained fat to the dripping pan and place on the range. Add seven tablespoons of flour, stir to a smooth paste and brown richly, being careful not to burn the mixture. Then pour on slowly while stirring constantly, three cups of stock (in which the neck, pinions and giblets were cooked). Bring it to the boiling point, and season to taste. Chop the giblets very fine, first removing the tough parts of the gizzard; then reheat them in sauce, and serve.

GRANDMA'S BREAD STUFFING

Remove the crust from two small baker's loaves; slice and pick in small bits; season with one-half teaspoon pepper, two and one-half teaspoons salt, one-half teaspoon powdered sage, and one medium-sized onion finely chopped; mix well, using two forks; melt two-thirds cup of butter in three-fourths cup boiling water; add to first mixture; toss lightly with forks; add two eggs slightly beaten, mix well, and fill well the body and breast of turkey. If bread is very stale, more moisture may be added. If a crumbly stuffing is desired, omit eggs.  (Blog Notes - always follow package directions when cooking raw poultry and use a meat thermometer to determine your bird has reached the proper temperature)

CRANBERRY JELLY

Pick over and wash one quart cranberries. Seed two-thirds cup raisins; add to cranberries; add one cup boiling water and boil twenty minutes. Rub through a sieve, and add to pulp two cups sugar and two-thirds cups scalded seeded raisins; cook five minutes, stirring constantly. Turn into a mold previously wet with cold water. Chill and serve.

SWEET CORN NEW ENGLAND STYLE

Chop one can of corn or two cups of green corn fine. Add three eggs slightly beaten, one-half tablespoon sugar, one teaspoon salt, one-eighth teaspoon pepper, one tablespoon melted butter and two cups scalded milk. Turn into a buttered baking dish or into individual ramekins, and bake in a slow oven until solid or custard-like. Serve in baking dish.

CREAMED ONIONS

Remove the skins from one dozen medium-sized onions, under water—to prevent the odor from penetrating the fingers—or grease the fingers before beginning to peel them. Drain, place them in a sauce-pan, and cover with cold water; bring quickly to the boiling-point and boil five minutes. Drain and cover with boiling salted water; let cook uncovered until tender (about one hour), but not broken. Prepare a thin cream sauce made as follows:

CREAM SAUCE

Melt three tablespoons butter in a sauce-pan; add three tablespoons flour; stir to a smooth paste. Add one and one-half cups hot thin cream or milk; season with salt and pepper. Reheat onions in sauce; turn in hot serving-dish, and sprinkle with one-half teaspoon finely chopped parsley.

HOT SLAW

Shave one-half head white cabbage as fine as possible, using a sharp knife. Serve with a dressing made of yolks of two eggs slightly beaten; add one-fourth cup each of hot water and hot vinegar, slowly beating constantly, four tablespoons butter, a few drops onion juice, one-half teaspoon salt, and sift in one-half teaspoon ground mustard and one-eighth teaspoon pepper. Stir this mixture over hot water until it thickens to the consistency of cream; add to cabbage; mix well; place on range, stirring constantly until mixture is heated throughout. Two tablespoons of sugar may be added.

½ cup butter creamed.
1 cup molasses.
1 cup buttermilk.
3 cups flour.
1 teaspoon soda.
1½ teaspoons salt.
1 teaspoon cinnamon.
¼ teaspoon cloves.
½ teaspoon allspice.
½ teaspoon nutmeg.
1½ cups seeded and shredded raisins.
¾ cup currants.
3 tablespoons flour for dredging fruit.

Process: Cream butter. Add molasses and milk. Sift flour, soda, salt and spices together; add gradually to first mixture; beat thoroughly. Mix raisins and currants; dredge them with flour and add to batter; mix well. Turn into a well-buttered tube mold; fill two-thirds full; place on buttered cover; set on trivet; surround with boiling water and steam three hours. Serve with

DRAWN BUTTER SAUCE

¹/₃ cup butter.
3 tablespoons flour.
1¼ cups boiling water.
¹/₃ teaspoon salt.
½ cup sugar.
¼ cup brandy.
¹/₈ teaspoon nutmeg.

Process: Divide the butter into two equal parts. Melt one part in a sauce-pan; add flour, and stir to a smooth paste; add boiling water slowly, stirring constantly; let come to boiling point. Remove to side of range, and add remaining butter in small bits; continue beating. Then add salt, sugar, brandy and nutmeg. Beat again, and serve very hot.

PUMPKIN PIE

1½ cups steamed and strained pumpkin.
2 tablespoons flour.
1 cup soft brown sugar.
1 tablespoon rose water.
1 tablespoon brandy.
Juice 1 lemon.
Grated rind ½ lemon.
½ teaspoon ginger.
½ teaspoon salt.
¼ teaspoon cinnamon.
2 eggs slightly beaten.
1½ cups milk.

Process: Mix ingredients in the order given. Turn in pie-pan lined with pastry. Bake in a hot oven for the first five minutes to set pastry; then reduce heat and bake slowly twenty-five minutes.