North Carolina’s Thanksgiving Foods and Traditions are different than New York’s. Here are the most common foods you’ll see in NC on Thanksgiving Day: – Turkey: Turkey may be baked, smoked or fried. Fried turkey is delicious. Some families may serve ham or venison as well. – Giblet Gravy: This gravy has pieces of turkey in it and egg as well. – Sweet Potato Casserole: This is a sweet casserole often found with pecans on top. – Cornbread Dressing: Stuffing with cornbread in it. Near the coast some people add oysters to this as well. – Pecan Pie: This popular desert is sure to make your sugar spike Other foods include Corn Pudding, Biscuits, Mac & Cheese and Seven Layer Salad. Of course, most families have mashed potatoes and many include Green Bean Casserole as well. This is not a complete list but gives you an idea of some of the main differences between a North Carolina Thanksgiving and one from the north.
Speaker 1: Tell us about North Carolina, Thanksgiving dinner.
Speaker 2: It’s different. It is different than… I grew up in Upstate New York and we had certain traditions… And this isn’t everybody. And we’re such a hodgepodge of people that have moved from all of the areas.
But North Carolina for Thanksgiving does stick with the turkey. They do turkey. They will sometimes do a deep fried turkey, which is a lot different, and I’ve done those. Sometimes they have ham with the Turkey, never in place of the turkey. And sometimes they’ll have venison with the turkey and ham as well.
But some things that you’ll just never see in other areas that you’ll see in North Carolina, is a sweet potato casserole with pecans on top. I thought that was a dessert, it’s not.
Then they do corn pudding. You would think that’s a dessert, it’s not. It goes right there on the meal. That’s part of the staple. Macaroni and cheese… My grandmother would roll around in her grave, if we had macaroni and cheese at Thanksgiving. It’s a good comfort food, but you would never serve that at Thanksgiving. Cornbread stuffing, we had regular Pepperidge farm bread stuffing in Upstate New York. But cornbread stuffing is more of the thing in North Carolina and especially around the coast, they put oysters in it. I don’t know how you put oysters in stuffing, but that’s a thing. One of the common, we both have mashed potatoes, so that’s good.
North Carolina’s not big on the green bean casserole. It’s more common to see collared or, mustard greens than it is green bean casserole. But I have to have green bean casserole. Instead of regular gravy, sausage gravy, or giblet gravy, which is a little bit different-
Speaker 1: Giblet gravy?
Speaker 2: Yeah. That’s a little bit different.
Biscuits instead of rolls. I thought biscuits were a breakfast thing, but biscuits and Thanksgiving…
And the desserts… Upstate New York, you have to have pumpkin pie with cool whip. And here it’s sweet potato pie or pecan pie. Much, much, much different.
Now the drinking’s a little bit different too. Upstate New York, where I grew up, it was cheap wine and beer. North Carolina, they still do. They do cheap beer and cheap wine but sometimes they break out the Bourbon. And then sometimes there’s some untaxed alcohol in a clear Mason jar that I’ve seen on some Thanksgivings. So little bit different, but those are the most common Thanksgiving dinners I’ve seen in North Carolina.
Speaker 1: Seven layer salad?
Speaker 2: Seven layer salad. I’ve read about the seven layer salad. I’ve seen it. That’s more of a K&W Thanksgiving than it is… But yeah, seven layer salad is big as well.
