Subject: Live Today at 3:30 PM PST — Our Thanksgiving Cook-Along 🇺🇸🦃🍠
🦃 Today on TikTok: A Real-World Thanksgiving Cook-Along
Today at 3:30 PM Pacific / 6:30 PM Eastern, join me live on TikTok (@drterrysimpson) as we cook a Thanksgiving dinner that honors both American tradition and Mediterranean flavor — a feast built on history, health, and good taste. We might have it on Instagram where I am @drterrysimpsonmd .
We’ll roast the turkey in parts, not whole — the smarter, safer, and more flavorful way to do it. Whether you break it down yourself or have your butcher do it, cooking each piece separately ensures even roasting, better browning, and more uniform doneness. No more dry breast meat while the drumsticks lag behind.
We may start the turkey breast sous vide or roast it ahead — we haven’t decided yet — but either way, it will be juicy. And importantly, we’ll never stuff the bird. Stuffing inside a turkey doesn’t reach a safe internal temperature, which means it can harbor bacteria that cause food poisoning — the kind you don’t feel until three to seven days later. We’ll make our stuffing separately, with crispy turkey skin folded in for flavor.
🍽 Why This Menu Matters
Our menu is both historical and modern, and every dish tells a story of how food — and science — connect us.
Thanksgiving, for me, honors my ancestors and their cousins — those who cultivated the Three Sisters: corn, beans, and squash. Together, they nourished communities for centuries — corn provided energy, beans offered protein and nitrogen for the soil, and squash added fiber and vitamins. That agricultural triad represents balance and sustainability — something we still strive for in culinary medicine.
Even the turkey has its own global tale. Native to the Americas, it was transported to Europe in the 16th century, where it quickly replaced peacocks on banquet tables. By the time it came back across the Atlantic, it was already dressed in European herbs. In a way, the Thanksgiving bird itself embodies the round-trip journey of American food culture.
The green bean also made the trip. It was brought from the Americas to Europe by Columbus, then bred over generations into a more tender, stringless version. Today, as a legume, it still brings fiber, plant protein, and a touch of history to the holiday table.
The sweet potato, on the other hand, isn’t a potato at all — it’s from a completely different botanical family. It’s rich in beta-carotene (vitamin A precursor), fiber, and complex carbohydrates. We’ll make ours savory, not sweet, to let its natural flavor shine.
And the russet potato — a later American hybrid — is simply the best choice for mashed potatoes. Its higher starch content gives a fluffy, creamy texture without the gluey consistency that waxier potatoes can produce.
For gravy, we’ll use the pan drippings — combining them with a bit of butter and chicken stock to make a rich, silky sauce. That’s both flavor and frugality, two things any surgeon or chef can appreciate.
🍴 The Menu
Roasted turkey in parts with za’atar, sumac, and Herbes de Provence
Crispy turkey-skin cornbread stuffing
Savory curried roasted carrots with warm spices and a drizzle of maple syrup
Green beans with fresh mushroom-cream sauce and crispy fried onions
Cowboy caviar (fresh, colorful, and make-ahead friendly)
Rocco DiSpirito–style cranberry sauce — no stove, just a food processor
Mashed russet potatoes
Savory sweet-potato purée
Each dish is American in origin but infused with Eastern Mediterranean spices — cumin, sumac, coriander, za’atar — creating a menu that’s both familiar and fresh. The carrots bring warmth from garam masala and sweetness from maple syrup. The green beans are steamed (microwaved, actually — 8-ounce batches for 3 minutes each) to keep their bright color and nutrients before meeting a homemade cream sauce.
We’ll keep the discussion focused on culinary medicine — how flavor, nutrition, and science fit together — more than traditional “DocTok.”
There are always interesting changes that can happen in a kitchen - ingredients I didn’t get or substitute and we will talk about where you can get some of these if your store doesn’t have them.
At the end of the live, all recipes will be posted on terrysimpson.com in a day or so. But if you want the full grocery list and ingredient details now, read on.
My producer says the clips from the show will be placed on my channels. What do we do with an early thanksgiving menu -I live in a wonderful neighborhood and we will all be enjoying this early.
On the real day - I will cook this again.
Have a great thanksgiving everyone. Hope to see you live.
— Paid subscribers, read on for the grocery list and recipes —