Turkey or Ham

[tlanning]

My first time in here but This is where this one belongs. I'm the chief cook at our house and Thanksgiving dinner's menu has come up.

Since I have held this position, (7 thanksgivings so far) we've had turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, peas and green bean casserole along with the trimmings. This year a twist has come up. We have permanent custody of our 12 year old Granddaughter and adopted her best friend last month. The two girls are lobbying for a "Honey baked spiral ham" which is bought at the honey baked ham place. My question to you gentlemen and ladies is does
ham often replace turkey at this holiday function? I ask because my girls claim it is very common. They are, (the girls) the very best manipulators of the facts in order to get what they want that I have ever encountered and believe me I've been around. I don't really care but would like to base my decision, (turkey, ham, both) based upon a bit more information. If this sounds like STUPID A QUESTION, please know I have only celebrated this holiday with my family 7 times. The prior 33 years I was deployed. When ever possible, we had turkey.

Thank you all in advance for advice and suggestions.

[Emmett]

For Thanksgiving our family has always done a turkey. Christmas we usually do both. Maybe promise a ham for Christmas?

[FreezerBurns]

I don't think I've ever seen ham replace Turkey on Thanksgiving (a.k.a. "Turkey Day," in some circles). Cripes, that's hard to imagine; no giblet gravy, no turkey sammiches for a week. I have seen both though. I'm not a chef but I don't think the ol Honey Baked spiral ham will take a lot of work to get going so my vote is to make both.

[sturgeon]

Ham has always been the Christmas feast at our house with turkey at Thanksgiving. Maybe you could compromise and make some chicken breasts for the kids? Just a thought.

Tim

[WhosYerBob]

I've had just about everything one can imagine as a holiday meal. My holiday meals at one time or another have included: ham, turkey, fish, beef, lamb, lobster, crab, buffalo, shrimp & Spam (yes, when we were really poor during my childhood).

The important thing is the sharing of the meal itself and the wonderful fact that loved ones are around the table - not necessarily the entrees.

[Storer50]

My family does both. Keep an eye out for coupons from Honey Baked Ham.

[rickboone1]

I don't care for turkey all that much, unless it is roated turkey legs or deep fried turkey. I hate oven baked. So, if you come to my house, you're probably going to get a ham. I don't care for the sweet hams like Honeybaked, but some do. So, yeah. It would replace it. But, it is your house. You set the rules. The only thing that should be of importance is celebrating being together. Which, sounds like you have a ton to be thankful for! Congrats.

[Alacrity59]

I'm Canadian so Thanks giving day is over for me. Somehow we have always done turkey for Thanksgiving day but Christmas, New years day, and easter have had more variety with turkey, ham, duck, roast beef. I really do love the spiral cut glazed hams though. . . mmmmmmmm.

[texbilly]

Growing up, it was always turkey at Thanksgiving. Over the years, the Christmas menu varied more and more (from turkey to Tex Mex!) but Thanksgiving always stayed the same - Tom Turkey.

[Blondie]

Honey baked hams are awesome. You can order a smaller ham if you want to, and do both. It is after all, a feast. And if you decide to replace it with a whole ham, you will have ham sammiches for a week instead of turkey. They also have a nice navy bean soup mix that you can use to make soup with the leftover ham bone.

I am going to throw this one out there, a different sweet potato recipe for this thanksgiving:



6 Sweet potatoes Sliced to about 3MM on a mandolin
4 cups Heavy whipping cream
2 tbs Chipotle Peppers in Abodo Sauce
2 Tbs Minced Chives
2 tsp salt
2 tsp pepper



1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2 Combine the heavy cream and chipotle puree in a small bowl. In an 8 by 8-inch baking dish, arrange a layer of the sweet potatoes. Season to taste with salt and pepper and ladle cream over it. Repeat with the remaining potatoes and cream, forming about 11 layers.
3 Bake for 1 hour or until the cream has been absorbed and the potatoes are browned. Remove from the oven and let sit 10 minutes before serving.
4 Garnish with chopped Chives

[andrewckellogg]

We usually buy a honey baked to 'pick at' throughout the day while we cook/watch football and save the turkey for the actual dinner.

[TimMechEngr]

With our family, it's not Thanksgiving without turkey. We might have ham as well, but turkey is a requirement. I've cooked turkey many different ways and loved them all -- oven cooked in a roaster pan, oven cooked in a turkey bag, slow cooked in a smoker grill, deep fried, you name it. Turkey sandwiches for the next few days are divine! With all that said, a Honey-Baked Spiral Sliced Ham is absolutely the best ham there is! It's pricey, but you will not soon forget the taste and flavor. If you decide to go this route, put your order in now, get there early, and plan on waiting in line to pick it up. The line will be wrapped around the building! Your girls know what they're talking about when they say Honey-Baked! Besides, if you do both, and tell everyone how the girls turned you on to Honey-Baked Ham, you'll be the hero for several days after.

[Mr_Amazing]

A lot of the black families when I was in elementary, middle, and high school often had ham at Thanksgiving. Typically it was a soul food type meal, so there is some fact to what the girls say. That said, I would imagine that the overwhelming majority have turkey as the main course. In all likelyhood, if you have served turkey for the past 7 years and nobody mentioned ham until now, they probably didn't have ham while you were deployed.

In my family, we have turkey for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Ham or lamb is reserved for Easter.

[blantyre]

Since I dislike turkey, I would vote for ham which I like a lot. I have always been a bit maverick about these things, I have served baked filet mignon for Christmas and a truffle encrusted pork loin for Easter so I am not a good judge of what's OK. BTW - both meals were a big success. I don't think many people really like turkey but they play along since its traditional - do you actually know anyone who cooks and eats turkey any other time of year?

[homebrewer]

I vote for both a turkey and a ham... Let the ham cook in the oven (Alton Brown's ham coating on the ham is excellent BTW...), and cook the turkey in the smoker or on the rotisserie on the charcoal grill.

I say that like it would be easy for anyone to do, but I am a bit biased. Coming from an Italian family, we tend to slightly overdo the food at all chances... So far we have 36 people confirmed for Thanksgiving this year, so we basically require both a ham and turkey. They just don't make either one large enough alone for a gathering our size

[jsrdrnr]

I have had ham and turkey for both christmas and thanksgiving for as long as I can remember.