Thanksgiving is one of those holidays that always creeps up on us. The middle of the Fall/Winter run of celebrations, it sometimes gets lost in the mix until the week of. For college students, Thanksgiving serves as a nice little break before the last few weeks of first semester.
This year, HC Providence is celebrating it in full force. The most important part of Thanksgiving: the food. This is the official HC Providence Thanksgiving Food Ranking.
Honorable mention #1: Sweet potatoes
More specifically, whatever version of sugary, sweet, candied sweet potatoes or yams your family serves. This dish normally hits day of, but doesn’t always have the same magic in the days after. It needed to be mentioned, but didn’t crack the top 5.
Honorable mention #2: rolls
Bread, rolls, whatever additional carb is added to the meal on the side. Always delicious, so we had to include it. But it doesn’t really stand out to us as something top 5 worthy.
#5: mashed potatoes
This was a bit of a contentious pick at HC Providence. One of our writers hates them, while the others think that they are pretty good. We have to make the caveat that it does sometimes depend on the mashed potato. The dry kind is not what we are looking for, what we want is the buttery, creamy kind.
Mashed potatoes go with everything on the Thanksgiving table. We kind of came to the conclusion that they are kind of like a glue that can make every bite just a little better. They are fluffy and soft and somehow always hot. Overall, just a solid #5 pick.
#4: Turkey
Turkey had to make an appearance on the list. It is the main character in the Thanksgiving cast. And it is the star for a reason. Along with mashed potatoes, it is a good vehicle for most side dishes. Also has great leftover potential. It’s delicious and specific to Thanksgiving which is always fun.
It could not go any higher than 4 because it does get dry and it really only hits about once a year. It’s yum and delish, but there are better things on the table.
#3: Cranberry sauce
This one crept up to a number 3 spot out of sheer surprise. None of us realized how much we liked it until we were talking about it. There was a two-thirds vote declaring that it is better from the can (homemade people will just have to cut our losses on this one).
Thanksgiving is a very savory meal, so the introduction of the sweet and the tartness of cranberry sauce is a welcome addition to most every bite you take. It’s also visually stunning. The maroon/burgundy thing is very late fall. Along with turkey, it feels pretty once a year (maybe you have it on Christmas too, but I don’t). It deserves a high ranking for the spectacle alone.
#2: stuffing
This was the initial frontrunner for first place (closely edged out). Stuffing is the classically Thanksgiving dish. It is gorgeous to look at, all toasty in its ceramic dish. Stuffing is also one of the few places on the table where you might actually consume a vegetable. Albeit they are heavily buried within mountains of bread, but they are still present. There is also a great deal of variety within the land of stuffing, everyone makes it a little differently, but still it is so widely loved.
Stuffing is just classically Thanksgiving. Along with turkey, it is probably the first thing you think of when thinking of Thanksgiving. It’s a show stopper, and nobody hates it. It will forever sit high atop the rankings.
and finally, #1: gravy
This might be a controversial pick, but we stand by it. When discussing the ranking, we kept saying “oh but I have to put gravy on that to really love it”. And with all of those comments, we decided that maybe our favorite Thanksgiving food really is just gravy.
Hear us out, it makes everything better. Pass HC Providence the gravy boat and we are pouring it over everything. Mashed potatoes, turkey, stuffing, all smothered in gravy. Have a lukewarm bite of something? Warm it up with gravy. Mashed potatoes a little dry? Add some gravy to them. It is more than just a condiment, it’s the most important thing on that table. It really is the unsung hero of the dinner.
Maybe you don’t think that it should be counted as a separate food, but whatever. Rethink that when you are getting handed the gravy boat on the 27th. It had to be our #1 pick.
We hope that this Thanksgiving break gives you rest, lets you see friends and family, and has a celebration of gratitude. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Sincerely, The HC Providence Team<3