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Make Your Own Amish Thanksgiving Feast

FREE Recipes From Some Excellent Cooks!

Thanksgiving Day is a special time of the year for me. A great time to thank the Lord for all the things He’s given us and to spend quality time with family and friends.

My wife and I both have an Amish background, and good food around the holidays has always been a high priority for us. I have many memories of family get-togethers around Thanksgiving and Christmas time with lots of seriously delicious food. Here’s the menu for an entire Amish thanksgiving feast—the kind of meal I still love at Thanksgiving—for you to enjoy with your family. You’ll need to adjust the recipes to match the crowd you’ll be serving.

Here’s the menu. We think it makes a pretty “goot” feast.

  • Homemade Dinner Rolls
  • Smoked Turkey
  • Dressing / Stuffing
  • Mashed Potatoes
  • Gravy
  • Broccoli-Cauliflower Salad
  • Cranberry Salad
  • Pumpkin Pie
  • Vanilla Ice Cream

Let’s start with some very delicious homemade bread, a recipe passed down from my grandmother.

Grandma’s Dinner Rolls

  • 2 cups milk
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 1 cup butter
  • 1½ tablespoons salt
  • 2½ cups cold water
  • 2 tablespoons yeast
  • 4 eggs
  • 12 cups bread flour

Heat milk to scalding. Add sugar, butter, and salt. Once butter is melted, add 1 cup of cold water and mix well. Add yeast and mix again. Add rest of water and eggs. Beat well, then add flour.

Let the dough rise to double in size. Knead it and let it rise again. Shape into small balls. Let them rise again. Bake at 325 degrees F for 20 minutes.

Makes about 4½ dozen rolls.

Smoked Turkey

Follow the instructions here to make some tender and juicy turkey in a barbecue smoker.

Grandma’s Dressing / Stuffing

This recipe makes a big batch. But I can tell you for certain, this stuff is worth eating.

Cut 2 loaves of bread (1 pound each) into ½” cubes. Homemade bread is best, but decent store-bought bread (if you can find it) is also acceptable. I’d go for something that doesn’t turn into balls of dough when it soaks up the ingredients. Toast them in the oven. Put toasted cubes into a roaster.

  • 2 cups diced celery
  • ½ chopped onion
  • 1 cup browned butter
  • 1 quart broth
  • 1 quart turkey or chicken meat (small pieces)
  • 6 eggs, beaten
  • 2 quarts milk
  • 2 tablespoons parsley

Cook celery and chopped onion until tender. Mix above ingredients with the bread cubes and bake at 350 degrees F for 1½-2 hours. Season with salt and pepper.

Serves about 20 people.

Gourmet Mashed Potatoes

These potatoes are perfect for making ahead and using later, plus they’ve got more flavor than regular mashed potatoes.

  • 12 large potatoes
  • 1 package (8 ounce) cream cheese
  • 8 ounce sour scream
  • 1 teaspoon onion salt
  • ¼ cup butter, browned
  • paprika

Peel and cook potatoes in salt water until soft. Drain potatoes and add cream cheese, sour cream, and onion salt. Whip until fluffy. Spread in a 9×13 inch pan. Drizzle with butter and sprinkle with paprika. Bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour. No gravy is needed. This can be frozen until ready to use.

Serves about 12 people.

Gravy

Now this was a tough one. Seems everyone around here just makes gravy without a recipe. But here’s how you would make 5 cups of delicious gravy.

  • Heat 4 cups broth to boiling.
  • Mix 2/3 cup flour and 1 cup milk in a shaker and stir into broth with a wire whisk.
  • Season the gravy with salt and pepper.

This is amazing on the dressing, turkey, and potatoes. Of course, if you smoke the turkey right, you might not want to drown the flavor with gravy, and the potato recipe above doesn’t require gravy either. But just suit your own tastes.

Broccoli-Cauliflower Salad

  • 1 head cauliflower
  • 1 head broccoli
  • ½ pound bacon, fried crisp
  • 1 cup shredded cheese
  • 1 onion, chopped finely
  • 2 hard-boiled eggs

Dressing:

  • 1 cup mayonnaise
  • ¼ cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vinegar

Cut cauliflower and broccoli into bite-sized pieces. Add crumbled bacon, cheese, and onion. Chop and add eggs. Combine dressing ingredients and toss just before serving.

Serves 12-15 people.

Cranberry Salad

  • 1 pound cranberries
  • 3 cups apples
  • 1 cup nuts

Grind the above coarsely in the blender.

  • 1 cup water
  • 2 boxes raspberry Jello
  • 1 can crushed pineapple
  • 2½ cups sugar

Boil water. Add all the other ingredients. Chill until set.

Serves about 12-15 people.

Grandma’s Pumpkin Pie

  • 2 egg yokes
  • 1½ cup milk
  • ½ cup pumpkin
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • ½ cup white sugar
  • 2 heaping tablespoons flour
  • ½ teaspoon cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon allspice
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • ¼ teaspoon cloves
  • 2 egg whites
  • 1 unbaked 9 inch pie crust

Mix all but the last two ingredients. Beat egg whites and stir in last. Pour into pie crust. Bake at 450 degrees F for 10 minutes and then reduce heat to 350 degrees. Bake an additional 30 minutes or until firm.

Makes one pie.

There ya go…

So here you have all the recipes you need for a very delicious Thanksgiving dinner. Take a few moments to share your thoughts and suggestions in a comment below.

Have fun cooking (and eating).

Lavern Gingerich

11 Responses to “Make Your Own Amish Thanksgiving Feast”

  1. Abdue Hill Says:
    November 22nd, 2010 at 9:47 am

    sound good to me I am going to give it a shot and then get back to u

  2. Abdue Hill Says:
    November 22nd, 2010 at 9:51 am

    thanks for the menu I am a chef and I like to try other people stuff so I will give it a shot and get back to you

  3. shelton degarmo Says:
    November 23rd, 2010 at 9:14 am

    I’m going to try this week. Sounds and looks great. Will get back with results.

  4. Erik Kern Says:
    November 24th, 2010 at 1:03 pm

    Hi, Love all the tips and recipes. Living In Canada we celebrate Thanks Giving in early October and would of loved to have all this info then. Guess I will just have to do it at Christmas time. Do you have any tips for us Canadians who are smoking in the backyard when the temperature is – 35 degrees celcious? Thanks.

  5. Lavern Says:
    November 24th, 2010 at 1:39 pm

    Sorry. 🙂 Yes, it works great for a Christmas dinner too.

    Man, that is just cold. I don’t recall ever being in such frigid weather, let alone smoke in it. 🙂 I would say build a hot fire and keep it out of the wind. If it’s windy, put up a wind shield with straw bales, plywood, or something like that. Or put it in an open, well-ventilated shop or garage where there is some wind break, but PLENTY of ventilation. Please don’t die of lack of oxygen though. You might consider an insulated blanket if you just can’t hold the heat.

    Have fun and don’t freeze!

    Lavern

    PS. I’m smoking turkeys today with a short sleeve shirt. 😉

  6. Steve Miller Says:
    November 28th, 2010 at 10:32 pm

    Lavern, If it had not been so late when I passed by Pikeville this evening, on my way back to Cookeville, I might’ve stopped by for leftovers. Recipes sound great, and I’ll share with my wife. Thanks, Steve.

  7. Sheila Says:
    November 13th, 2012 at 6:08 am

    Thank you for sharing these recipes. I made the pie the other night. It is the best ever and my son ate it for breakfast. Everything sounds so good.

  8. Patrick Says:
    November 21st, 2012 at 9:28 am

    Thanks so much for these recipes – I put up a link to your site on my blog at http://www.patrickecraig.com and shared it on FaceBook. Got some good response.

    Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

    Patrick

  9. Rhonda Gayle Nash-Hall Says:
    November 22nd, 2012 at 10:45 am

    these recipes all sound really wonderful! I want to try some of them and will report back on my results! Happy Thanksgiving, all!

  10. Dawn Says:
    November 14th, 2017 at 3:13 pm

    In the top menu list you show vanilla ice cream after the pumpkin pie. Is there a recipe for it also?

  11. Lavern Says:
    November 14th, 2017 at 3:54 pm

    I don’t have one. Just get yourself some good creamy ice cream from the grocery store. 🙂

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