An American Thanksgiving Part 2
A number of my favorite vintage Thanksgiving postcards and some of my favorite Thanksgiving recipes
In my prior post for Thanksgiving week, I vowed to post about twenty of my favorite vintage Thanksgiving postcards, most of the postmarked between 1907 and 1910, and five of my favorite Thanksgiving recipes, and five of my favorite Thanksgiving recipes. Here is Post No. 2, in which I have added the new postcards and recipes.
World’s Best Cranberry Sauce
The first recipe, which I borrowed from Emeril Lagasse, is for the best cranberry sauce ever made. If it is not as much as you want, you can double or triple the ingredients without any problem.
Mix the following Ingredients a good sauce pan:
- 2 cups cranberries
- Juice and zest of one orange
- 1/4 cup Ruby Port
- 1/2 cup sugar (or more to taste)
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves (optional)
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, for a couple of hours. Use potato masher to break up cranberries.
If it is not thick enough for your taste, simmer longer or add a tablespoon of cornstarch, mixed with water. You can make and refrigerate two or three days in advance.
King’s Arm Sweet Potatoes
This recipe is from King’s Arm Tavern in Colonial Williamsburg. Sweet potatoes can be hit or miss but most folks seems to like these.
Boil 3 pounds of sweet potatoes until tender–fork ‘em–and let cool until you can easily peel them. Put peeled potatoes into a stand mixer with following ingredients and mix well.
- 3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed, divided
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup whole milk
You can double or triple ingredients if desired. If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can use a hand mixer. When well mixed, put into buttered casserole pan, sprinkle with reserved brown sugar and cover with aluminum foil. You can kick it up a notch, to use Emeril’s favorite phrase, by topping with a half cup of roughly chopped pecans. You can make it to this stage the day before and put into refrigerator.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees, and place in oven for about 30 minutes, removing foil for last ten minutes. Serve in same dish.
