Up until a few years ago, I was a huge fan of Thanksgiving foods. Now that I’m an avid vegetarian with a dairy intolerance, the Thanksgiving meal has changed quite a bit for me. I avoid the main dishes like turkey, stuffing, and gravy, but I will put my stomach through some suffering for my aunt’s baked corn casserole and buttery mashed potatoes. However, it still doesn’t leave me with a lot of options. Sadly, one of those options is the nasty, overly sweet cranberry sauce. This so-called “classic” and “necessary” addition to the Thanksgiving spread is severely overrated. In my opinion, it’s something you look at but don’t eat because — why would you? As my lovely co-editor, Caroline Geer ’24, said, “[It is] the fruitcake of the Thanksgiving meal.” It looks appealing, but the moment it hits your taste buds, it isn’t. Time and time again one of my family members brings a large bowl of it. Since my family hosts every year, we usually end up with an unhealthy amount of leftovers — including the cranberry sauce. Upon clearing peoples’ plates, I scrape numerous globs of untouched cranberry sauce into the compost while thinking about why we keep serving it every year. So, this is all just to say that this food does not deserve a spot in the Thanksgiving spread. Period.
Mathilde Hardy is from Edina, Minn.
Her major is undeclared.
