• Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Kathleen Flinn

Storyteller. Cook. Teacher.

  • Home
  • About
  • Kat’s Blog
  • Recipes
  • Books
  • Classes
  • Podcast
  • Press
  • 日本語
  • Show Search
Hide Search

The Firehouse Challenge: Packaged vs. Homemade Thanksgiving Dinner Classics

Kathleen Flinn · November 9, 2022 · 2 Comments

Kat and the fire guysFor years, my father-in-law’s second wife served boxed stuffing at her holiday gatherings, spiced up with cut-up precooked turkey sausage. When I offered to make some homemade stuffing one year, she waved me off. “No one can the tell the difference, anyway.” But I can tell, I thought. Am I alone?

This made me wonder. How do real mashed potatoes, gravy, fresh green beans and cranberry sauce stack up to their processed cousins? What about a frozen supermarket turkey versus a fresh, organic bird?

There’s only one way to find out.

I made two dinners with classic holiday side dishes — mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, green beans and cranberry sauce. The catch: one featured all homemade sides, and the other were made from a box, can or jar.

I needed objective judges. Fortunately, there’s a group of pros more than up for the task: the guys on Shift A at the Station 1 in Holmes Beach, Florida.

The next few pages break down each of the dinner components by hassle factor, price, time and specific flavor comments from the firefighters. You’ll find links to most of the recipes, too.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 -> NEXT: Supermarket turkey vs. Organic 

Note: This post was originally published in November 2013. It was updated in November 2022

Related

Filed Under: Pantry & Supermarket Tips

Get Updates

Get my most delicious receipts and latest writing delivered personally to your inbox

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. nusrat2010 says

    November 17, 2013 at 1:07 pm

    Really really interesting read. Thank you so much for taking your time and putting enormous efforts into composing this article.
    Enjoyed it, as always 🙂

    Reply
  2. J Abernathy says

    April 16, 2014 at 9:07 pm

    Awesome idea for a post. My grandmother always made stuffing from a box and I never really liked it that well. When I met my girlfriend she made it from scratch, it was like a whole different dish. Thanks for taking a classic dinner and the easy shortcuts and doing such a thoughtful piece on this. Lucky firefighters!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

Search my site

About me

Welcome! I’m Kathleen Flinn, a storyteller, cook and teacher, …
Get to know me

Sign up for my newsletter!

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

My podcast

Latest posts

Eat Better and Waste Less Food in 2023

January 1, 2023

19 Ideas for Holiday Leftovers

December 25, 2022

peppermint bark

Recipe: Easy Peppermint Bark

December 4, 2022

How to Make Ramen Healthier

How to Make Healthy Ramen

November 25, 2022

The Firehouse Challenge: Packaged vs. Homemade Thanksgiving Dinner Classics

November 9, 2022

Need kitchen confidence? Buy this book!

Everyone Can Use a Good Chicken Recipe

How to cut up a whole chicken

Discover one of my best selling Books

Order your Copy
Order your Copy
Order your Copy

Copyright © 2023 · Kathleen Flinn