Menu: A Southern Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving, treat your family to a traditional Southern-style Thanksgiving with all the fixings. Prime their appetites with a tart pickle platter and freshly shucked oysters. Then show off your low country hospitality by cooking up all the classic sides, from spicy collards to smoky stewed rutabagas, perfect for surrounding a cornbread-stuffed turkey. Finish the meal on an extra sweet note with a creamy pumpkin cake roll and some bourbon-laced pecan pie. And of course, don't forget to keep the sweet tea and whiskey cocktails flowing!
See 8 more complete Thanksgiving menus (with no recipe overlap) in our gallery »

The Menu

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More About This Menu

Assemble the bread and butter pickles, pickled shrimp, and deviled eggs on a platter, alongside the cheese straws and any other favorite nibbles, with plenty of toothpicks for easy snacking. The bread and butter pickles can be made the week prior to Thanksgiving, while the cheese straws and pickled shrimp can be made the day before.
To save time, prep your macaroni and cheese ingredients a day ahead of time: grate the cheese and prepare the spice mixture, and precook the pasta, which can be reheated by rinsing under hot water. The homemade butter, minted cranberry sauce, sweet tea, and desserts can all be made the day before serving.
If you're serving a big crowd, sometimes the white meat can go too quickly. To solve this problem, we've starting making a stuffed turkey breast roulade in addition to the whole turkey�this version, stuffed with boudin, goes great with the rest of the spread.
For more inspiring recipes for southern sides, see our recipe collection �