December 2, 2024
Introduction: In this article, Gena Philibert-Ortega provides recipes to use up the last of your Thanksgiving leftovers, just as your family is tiring of turkey. Gena is a genealogist and author of the book “From the Family Kitchen.”
Every year, Thanksgiving means hours or even days of cooking and the resulting dirty dishes, pots and pans. There’s only one problem with all of the work that goes into preparing and hosting Thanksgiving dinner: what to do with all the leftovers.
My favorite line spoken by the narrator in the 1983 movie A Christmas Story has to do with the turkey dinner, in this case prepared for Christmas. The mother (played by Melinda Dillon) has placed the half-cooked turkey on the kitchen table before going to retrieve an item from the basement, and in the minute that her back is turned the neighbor’s dogs storm into the kitchen, take the turkey and run back to their yard. The narrator comments, “No turkey! No turkey sandwiches! No turkey salad! No turkey gravy! Turkey hash! Turkey a la King! Or gallons of turkey soup!” Let’s face it, a turkey dinner is synonymous with leftovers.
By now, you’re probably tired of serving your Thanksgiving leftovers. So, what can you serve that is different? At my house we don’t have many creative ideas for leftovers, so I searched newspapers for recipes to help me.
What Can I Do with Turkey?
Aside from “turkey salad, turkey gravy, turkey hash, Turkey a la King, or gallons of turkey soup” what recipes can help to lessen your turkey abundance? To start you could try some recipes found in this 1987 newspaper article, including Scalloped Turkey, Turkey Corn Chowder, and Hot Turkey Sandwiches with Mushroom Sauce.
Think that Thanksgiving leftovers are a new problem? This 1912 newspaper article proves otherwise and provides a recipe for a scalloped turkey dish. This use of the word “scallop” has nothing to do with seafood – instead it refers to a dish covered in breadcrumbs.* This plain scallop recipe includes alternating layers of breadcrumbs or leftover stuffing moistened with milk, with a layer of meat, salt, pepper, and “bits of butter” with breadcrumbs as the final layer. The cooked casserole can be served with leftover gravy.
Turkey Sandwich
Maybe you’re like my brother who looks forward to the days after Thanksgiving when he can combine the various leftovers into one oversized turkey sandwich with mayo. If you have a lot of turkey and not much else, consider this 1979 sandwich idea: Curried Turkey Salad (also works with chicken).
Leftovers?
This week I’ll be working on creative turkey recipes including sandwiches and enchiladas to use up any remaining leftover turkey. So, weigh in: do you enjoy the leftovers almost as much as the original meal? Do you have any favorite leftover recipes? Tell me about them in the comments below.
* “Scallop,” Cook’s Info (http://www.cooksinfo.com/scallop: accessed 17 November 2017).
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Note on the header image: turkey sandwich. Credit: Vancouver Bites!; Wikimedia Commons.
