United plates: Celebrating Thanksgiving dishes around the country

Ask most people about Thanksgiving dinner, and they will say they stick with traditional dishes, such as turkey, mashed potatoes and pie.

But ask a few more questions, and you'll find a lot of regional twists.

In New Orleans, you are likely to have gumbo, a dressing made with oysters or mirliton (known in Utah as chayote squash), or the incredible turducken — a chicken stuffed inside a duck stuffed inside a turkey.

Southern cooks were deep-frying turkeys before it became a fad around the rest of the country. They use corn bread in their dressing, which they don't call "stuffing" because it's cooked separately, not stuffed inside the turkey. And you're likely to have pecan or sweet-potato pie.

In Minnesota, wild-rice stuffing is popular. Stuffed pasta shells with marinara sauce were always served along with the turkey at Angela Stanton's Cleveland Thanksgiving, a nod to her Italian heritage.

And for those who think turkey is for the birds, there are other options. Along the Pacific Northwest and in Alaska, it's not uncommon to serve crab. You can find corned ham in North Carolina, or stuffed ham in southern Maryland. Vegans and vegetarians are going with meatless faux turkeys.

Here are some of the Thanksgiving dishes eaten in other parts of the country. You might even want to adopt a few of them for your own.

Louisiana: Cajun chef Paul Prudhomme is credited with creating the turducken: a partially deboned turkey stuffed with a deboned duck, which is stuffed with a deboned chicken. Hebert's Specialty Meats in Maurice, La., prepares around 5,000 turduckens per week around Thanksgiving time.

Another Cajun favorite, deep-fried turkey, has spread throughout the United States. Chiqui Collier, a pastry chef and teacher at the New Orleans Cooking Experience, said in the neighborhood where she was raised, neighbors shared the cost of the peanut oil.

"They did all the deep-frying at one person's house, and everyone was assigned their time for the grease."

Dressing might feature Gulf-caught oysters or mirlitons. In Utah, these pear-shaped green veggies are sold as chayote squash. In Louisiana, they grow in backyard gardens as zucchini does in Utah.

"Louisiana cooking isn't about expensive ingredients," said Frank Brigtsen, chef and owner of Brigtsen's Restaurant, who also teaches at the New Orleans Cooking Experience. "It's about being resourceful. All our great dishes were created by poor people who had to feed their families."