Your ideal Thanksgiving relish tray composition

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love this and it sounds so quaint. I've never seen or had one in real life. We don't even have appetizers at any thanksgiving I've ever been to (one of my favorite parts!)

PP whose family takes the homemade pickles/relish seriously--our appetizer spread is legendary. In addition to the pickles, we order cheeses and charcuterie, order seafood (Crab dip, shrimp, stone crab claws), make a few hot appetizers, and make vintage punch in huge punch bowls and cocktail recipes. My dad is in charge of the appetizers/cocktails and he goes ALL OUT. Some people get full before the turkey dinner!

This sounds so great! I would enjoy this much more than the sit down part of the dinner!

The hot apps are usually pretty good, too, like scallops, fried shrimp, arancini, etc.

Sometimes he also does cold sliced steak, like a carving station.

It's kind of crazy. But that's his thing.

Arancini are like my favorite thing in the world. wow!

Ohh I forgot...last year there were also different homemade quiches (with different fillings). We had to run out and get extra pie plates because there were not enough for quiches and thanksgiving pies. Lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My cousin got married a couple of years ago and his wife always includes pickled okra. It’s really good!

what an excellent addition to the family lineage. your cousin picked wisely!

can I say I never heard that a "relish tray" is a thing but I AM SO IN LOVE now. Probably don't have time to pull off something elaborate, but I'll at least do cornichons, black olives, celery.

op, what do you do with the cottage cheese?

There’s a weird problem going on with DCUM over the past day that deleted the original post in the thread, and makes it look like a pp was the op. I’m OP but haven’t ever put cottage cheese on a relish tray.

Growing up we had a paltry relish tray spread (on a really nice dish that was handed down to me) and now I look to mix it up every year. Love olives, will probably have some Spanish marcona almonds (roasted in olive oil and salted), and a pp included a marinated button mushroom recipe that I’ll try. I also love spicy pickled okra so that might round out the tray for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My cousin got married a couple of years ago and his wife always includes pickled okra. It’s really good!

what an excellent addition to the family lineage. your cousin picked wisely!

can I say I never heard that a "relish tray" is a thing but I AM SO IN LOVE now. Probably don't have time to pull off something elaborate, but I'll at least do cornichons, black olives, celery.

op, what do you do with the cottage cheese?

There’s a weird problem going on with DCUM over the past day that deleted the original post in the thread, and makes it look like a pp was the op. I’m OP but haven’t ever put cottage cheese on a relish tray.

Growing up we had a paltry relish tray spread (on a really nice dish that was handed down to me) and now I look to mix it up every year. Love olives, will probably have some Spanish marcona almonds (roasted in olive oil and salted), and a pp included a marinated button mushroom recipe that I’ll try. I also love spicy pickled okra so that might round out the tray for me.

I’m glad you said that OP because I could have sworn your post had weirdly gotten bumped down to the middle of the thread and I was so confused.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:omg. what is a relish tray.....is this a southern thing?!

X1000

I love you. OP - dafuq is a relish tray?

This just looks so random. I'd honestly just rather eat nothing until the real food comes along!

You’re weird.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My cousin got married a couple of years ago and his wife always includes pickled okra. It’s really good!

what an excellent addition to the family lineage. your cousin picked wisely!

can I say I never heard that a "relish tray" is a thing but I AM SO IN LOVE now. Probably don't have time to pull off something elaborate, but I'll at least do cornichons, black olives, celery.

op, what do you do with the cottage cheese?

There’s a weird problem going on with DCUM over the past day that deleted the original post in the thread, and makes it look like a pp was the op. I’m OP but haven’t ever put cottage cheese on a relish tray.

Growing up we had a paltry relish tray spread (on a really nice dish that was handed down to me) and now I look to mix it up every year. Love olives, will probably have some Spanish marcona almonds (roasted in olive oil and salted), and a pp included a marinated button mushroom recipe that I’ll try. I also love spicy pickled okra so that might round out the tray for me.

I’m glad you said that OP because I could have sworn your post had weirdly gotten bumped down to the middle of the thread and I was so confused.

You’re right- I see now that it was bumped down, not deleted.

[Anonymous]

Grew up in OH w/ parents from TX and we had a relish tray

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My cousin got married a couple of years ago and his wife always includes pickled okra. It’s really good!

what an excellent addition to the family lineage. your cousin picked wisely!

can I say I never heard that a "relish tray" is a thing but I AM SO IN LOVE now. Probably don't have time to pull off something elaborate, but I'll at least do cornichons, black olives, celery.

op, what do you do with the cottage cheese?

There’s a weird problem going on with DCUM over the past day that deleted the original post in the thread, and makes it look like a pp was the op. I’m OP but haven’t ever put cottage cheese on a relish tray.

Growing up we had a paltry relish tray spread (on a really nice dish that was handed down to me) and now I look to mix it up every year. Love olives, will probably have some Spanish marcona almonds (roasted in olive oil and salted), and a pp included a marinated button mushroom recipe that I’ll try. I also love spicy pickled okra so that might round out the tray for me.

I’m glad you said that OP because I could have sworn your post had weirdly gotten bumped down to the middle of the thread and I was so confused.

And it was my post that went to the top. It was really odd. Sorry, OP! I wanted to post but then thought that might make it into a big deal. Thank you for being gracious about it!

And we just eat the cottage cheese plain (to a PP who asked). It is a weird addition to the relish tray but we all like it! I think it offsets some of the tartness of other items. I love the idea of the pickled okra!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New Englander here - I even have a crystal relish tray from my grandmother. Canned black olives and celery were on her table - we still do those for tradition but add good olives and nice pickles.

+10 to all this, including new england. Canned black olives are still amazing! And those who sneer at the celery, you had to stuff it. It was just a delivery vehicle.

I just saw a recipe for homemade pimento cheese stuffed celery. It looked amazing.

Oh, yes. I remember getting good pimento cheese at wegmans. It's harder to eat when you were complicit with the ingredients. So so good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not wasting stomach real estate on a relish tray.

Ditto! No rolls, no relish tray!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not wasting stomach real estate on a relish tray.

Ditto! No rolls, no relish tray!

Ain't nobody got time for that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not wasting stomach real estate on a relish tray.

Ditto! No rolls, no relish tray!

I’d be willing to give up the relish tray, but there would be revolt if no rolls were on the table.

[Anonymous]

I love a good relish tray, but I've pretty much stopped making them because I'm the only one who eats anything from it.

My ideal relish tray would include several varieties of olives (the olive bar at Wegmans is awesome), sweet and dill pickles, marinated mushrooms, and marinated artichoke hearts. I would add a few other briny things like cubed feta cheese, shellfish (raw oysters, steamer clams or crab claws), and maybe some crackers or breadsticks. Salami slices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New Englander here - I even have a crystal relish tray from my grandmother. Canned black olives and celery were on her table - we still do those for tradition but add good olives and nice pickles.

+10 to all this, including new england. Canned black olives are still amazing! And those who sneer at the celery, you had to stuff it. It was just a delivery vehicle.

I stuff it into my Bloody Mary.

Vodka+Zing Zang mix and then head to the relish tray to personalize.

[Anonymous]

No, but there’s a pecan-bacon cheese ball in my freezer right now that several people already called to ensure.

[Anonymous]

Ours is:

black olives
green olives
celery
sweet and spicy pickled carrots
pickled beets
pickled cauliflower
cornichons

We also have spiced peaches, which I don't think most people have heard of, but they are AMAZING!