From sound to shore, these dishes capture coastal NC's Thanksgiving spirit

A National Story with Regional Flavors

There’s a national story we tell ourselves about Thanksgiving. It’s Pilgrims and turkey and pumpkin pie. But that’s not exactly the way it happened. Historians have only educated speculations about that meal in 1621. While Thanksgiving celebrations did start gaining regional prominence in New England in the 1660s, they were slower to catch on elsewhere.

North Carolina's first official Thanksgiving celebration came on Nov. 15, 1849, courtesy of Gov. Charles Manly. Historian Eric Medlin wrote that Christmas meals were more important at the time. But there were trends developing that spoke to regional foodways and local heritage.

So what dishes and ingredients make Thanksgiving unique in coastal Carolina? We consulted culinary research, looked through old cookbooks, and talked to local chefs about some of those special foods that have been on holiday tables for decades, or longer.

A Southeast centerpiece

In 2024, North Carolina produced more than 1 billion pounds of turkey, and the state ranks just behind Minnesota in the poultry production in the United States. Before turkeys were such a ubiquitous part of Thanksgiving, though, families were just as likely to put other main dishes on the menu.

“There was a lot of venison,” said Chef Keith Rhodes, of the upcoming Voyce restaurant in downtown Wilmington. He remembers this, and other game meat, served during the holidays when he was growing up in Southeastern North Carolina. These meals, then, had more in common with that very first Thanksgiving, culinary historians say.

Pork, like country ham and bacon, has also been an important part of North Carolina diets for centuries, Medlin wrote in an article for Midtown Magazine.

Rhodes said oyster roasts and seafood boils were often served for Thanksgiving and other family gatherings in fall and winter. Sometimes in addition to turkey or other meats, and sometimes instead of them. Chef Vivian Howard, author of the "Deep Run Roots" cookbook that celebrates Eastern North Carolina food, has said she often serves roasted oysters with brown butter and hot sauce at Thanksgiving.

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The oyster is our world

Speaking of seafood, other dishes on the holiday table incorporate fish, shrimp or crab. An early Williamsburg, Virginia, menu, circa 1770, mentioned a chilled crab dish. Others included shrimp salad, deviled crab or whole roasted fish. In "The Young Housewife’s Counsellor and Friend," written in 1871 by Mary Ann Bryan Mason of Raleigh, holiday meals were said to include oyster fritters, mutton chops and macaroni and cheese.

But oyster dressing might be among the best-known Thanksgiving seafood dishes. A recipe from the "Coastal Carolina Cook Book" published in 1970 offers a recipe for Atlantic Seaboard Oyster Dressing, where crumbled biscuits were mashed and added to eggs and well-drained oysters. Other versions call for saltines or crumbled cornbread. That’s what Marlene Hieronymus, cookbook author and a founder of the Hieronymus Seafood Restaurant & Oyster Bar in Wilmington, used in her classic oyster dressing, along with bacon and fennel.

"It's very seasonal. And I think it's the texture of oysters that mix well with cornbread and celery," said Chef Jon Spencer, who grew up in the Southport area and returned to open Salt 64 restaurant in Oak Island.

But he knows that not everyone gets it.
"The first time I served it in Miami, they thought I was crazy," he said.

Cornbread, so many ways

Corn has been a part of North Carolina diets for centuries, Medlin wrote. Old community cookbooks are filled with recipes for spoon bread, pone, hush puppies, johnny cakes, corn puddings, and stuffings.

Chef Carson Jewell, executive chef at manna restaurant in downtown Wilmington, said his grandmother, Isabell Jewell, was an inspiration for his own love of cooking. Many of her meals were simple and relied on fresh local ingredients and seafood. But on special occasions, like Thanksgiving, she made a special cornbread recipe made extra rich with the addition of sour cream, eggs and creamed corn.

It’s still a favorite of his, he said.

A field of greens

The sides at a North Carolina Thanksgiving are arguably the most important part of the meal. They are often varied and rich. But for Chef Brandon Shepard of Shepard Barbecue in Wilmington’s Cargo West food hub, collard greens are a star. The version he serves at the restaurant, and at his own holiday meals, is a family recipe named for his grandmother that are slow-braised and have a sweet-and-savory flavor.

And Rhodes said that usually, the greens are cabbage collards in local kitchens. They’re an heirloom variety traditionally grown in eastern North Carolina from saved seeds. They’re mild in taste and harvested in fall and winter.
“They’d be coming in right now,” Rhodes said.

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A savory sweet

Another ever-present part of local Thanksgiving menus is the sweet potato. North Carolina is the top producer of the root vegetable in the United States and has held that position since 1971.

It's versatility means that it can play a lot of roles for Thanksgiving. Of course, there’s the classic sweet potato casserole. (Many traditionalists go without the marshmallow topping, by the way.) Sweet potato pies have likely been more common in the Wilmington area than pumpkin pies over the decades.

Sweet potato is the basis of cakes, puddings and souffles. It can be glazed, mashed and candied. "The Cookbook From North Carolina Kitchens: Favorite Recipes Old and New," published in 1967 even included a sweet potato doughnut recipe.

But one dessert just won’t do for Thanksgiving. Other common sweet treats used affordable molasses, rather than sugar, like in the traditional Moravian spice cookies. For Thanksgiving desserts, you might also see pecan pies, the citrusy Atlantic Beach Pie with a salty cracker crust, persimmon puddings made with wild fruit, or chess pies.

Rhodes said he also remembers jelly cakes for Thanksgiving. These are cakes layered with fruit preserves, like from blackberry or damson plums. They have a long history in North Carolina, from Appalachia to the coast.