A French Thanksgiving menu

What would a French person change about Thanksgiving dinner?

Not the turkey. The French have been roasting turkeys for Christmas for a very long time, and nobody at a French table is confused by one.

The objections are about structure. I went through them in explaining Thanksgiving to a Frenchman: everything arrives at once, the sweet things sit beside the meat, and the meal ends without cheese. So a French Thanksgiving is the same holiday with three adjustments. Put the food in an order. Move the sugar to the end. Add the course that is missing.

What do you serve first?

An apéritif, standing up, about half an hour before anyone sits down. Something sparkling: Champagne if it is that kind of year, a crémant if it is not. With it, things that take no work, such as radishes with butter and salt, olives, or thin slices of dry sausage.

Then a starter at the table. In late November a soup is the obvious one, and a pumpkin or squash soup lets the pumpkin appear where a French guest expects to find it, which is at the savoury end of the meal. If you want more ideas, there is a list of French starters that Americans should try.

How do the French cook a turkey?

As dinde aux marrons, turkey with chestnuts. The stuffing is sausage meat, cooked chestnuts, shallots, parsley and a little of the bird’s liver if you have it, with a splash of cognac or Armagnac. It is savoury all the way through and has no bread and no sugar in it.

The bird itself is roasted much as an American one is, basted with butter. The sauce is not a thickened gravy. It is the roasting juices, loosened with a little white wine or stock and poured as they are, which the French call le jus. If your family expects gravy, make gravy. This is a negotiation, not a surrender.

Which French side dishes work at Thanksgiving?

Gratin dauphinois, in place of mashed potatoes. Slice about two pounds of waxy potatoes thinly, without rinsing them, because the starch is what thickens the sauce. Rub a baking dish with a cut clove of garlic and butter it. Layer the potatoes in, season with salt, pepper and a little nutmeg, and pour over equal parts whole milk and heavy cream until they are just covered, about a cup and a quarter of each. Bake at 325°F for an hour and a quarter or so, until a knife goes through easily and the top is golden. There is no cheese in it. People will insist there is.

Green beans with shallots, in place of the casserole. Boil thin green beans in well-salted water until just tender, drain them, and toss them in a pan with butter and finely chopped shallots. That is the recipe.

A chestnut or mushroom dish, if the stuffing was not enough. Chestnuts braised in stock, or mushrooms cooked hard in butter with garlic and parsley, both sit happily next to turkey.

The cranberry sauce can stay, in a small dish, for the people who want it. A French guest will treat it with some suspicion. Sweet potatoes with marshmallows are harder to defend, and I would not try.

What comes after the turkey?

A green salad, on its own, with a sharp mustard vinaigrette. It is there to reset everyone before the cheese, and after a plate that rich it is the best thing on the table.

Then the cheese course. Three cheeses are plenty: one hard, such as Comté; one soft, such as a Brie or a Camembert; and one blue or one goat. Serve them at room temperature, with bread and without crackers. Of everything on this page, this is the change that costs the least and that a French guest will notice the most.

What is a French alternative to pumpkin pie?

A tarte Tatin: apples caramelised in butter and sugar, baked under a sheet of pastry, and turned out upside down. It is an autumn dessert, it is made of the fruit that is actually in season, and it can be made in the morning and warmed up later.

If the table will not forgive the absence of pumpkin, make both. A pumpkin pie is closer to a French custard tart than Americans tend to think, and it is the sweetness, not the idea, that surprises people.

What wine goes with a French Thanksgiving?

Start with the sparkling wine from the apéritif. With the turkey, pour a Beaujolais cru: Morgon, Fleurie or Brouilly. These are light, fruity reds that get along with poultry, chestnuts and even cranberry, and they are not the same thing as Beaujolais Nouveau, which is released the week before Thanksgiving and is best drunk that week. If you prefer white, a white Burgundy does the same job.

The French rule is one wine per course, discussed. The Thanksgiving rule is one wine throughout, undiscussed. Two bottles of the same good Beaujolais is a fair treaty between them.

In what order should it all come out?

This is the real difference, so here it is plainly. Apéritif, standing. Soup, at the table. Turkey with the potatoes, beans and stuffing. Salad. Cheese. Dessert. Coffee afterwards, not with the dessert.

It takes longer than the American version, and that is the point. A French meal is long because the talking happens between the courses. If you have ever wondered why the French sit at the table for hours, a Thanksgiving served this way is the quickest way to find out.

The same dinner, two ways

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