Delicious ideas from America's Thanksgiving

It’s an occasion for getting together with family and friends. People travel for miles – in the US this can mean thousands – to join the feast, which is usually eaten late afternoon. Everyone has their own rituals, but most of them involve some kind of sport. Once the turkey has been crammed into the oven, teams pile outside to beat each other at baseball, football or basketball, exertions essential to the enjoyment of the food.

Like Christmas, it’s a manageable meal. Turkey can be made to stretch to an almost infinite number of people. Cooks are pragmatic about how much time they want to spend in the kitchen. So tins come into their own: tinned sweet potatoes, tinned sweet corn with tinned evaporated milk, and even tinned cranberries which emerge in a jellied roll for mashing down into a relish.

The Thanksgiving turkey, of course, is the centre of attention, with family members vying from breakfast onwards to promote their favourite stuffing. Traditionally, the turkey comes with mashed, not roast, potato. This is not the occasion for contemporary renditions with garlic and lumps. Thanksgiving mashed potato is smooth and silky, no thicker than a dense custard; the gravy should be brown, shiny and comforting, a reminder of school dinners.

Then, of course, there is Pumpkin Pie, without which no Thanksgiving feast could take place.

What can one say? Pumpkin Pie is made from pumpkin pulp, eggs, evaporated milk, cinnamon, cloves, ground ginger. Take away the spices, and basically what you have is a rather dreary amber-coloured quiche. The Indians may have given the Pilgrims the pumpkin in order to get rid of it. But there is always Apple Pie on offer, or delectable Pecan Pie – a confection of beaten eggs, sugar, corn syrup, melted butter and vanilla poured over chopped nuts in a pastry case.

And for this, and every other warm and friendly feast, we all give thanks.

Recipes

Classic Pumpkin Pie

Pecan Pie