Thanksgiving can be stressful, especially for hosts responsible for delivering a feast to a room full of people. This year, we’ve combed the internet for advice to help the holiday run smoothly.
We’ll start with prep and bring you all the way through to dessert.
Before the meal
CNET offered a list of 13 common Thanksgiving mistakes with tips for preventing them, and “failing to plan ahead” is at the top of the list. Since a Thanksgiving meal often centers around a turkey that takes a long time to cook and features several side dishes, things can get confusing quickly. Making lists and preparing materials early can help things feel less chaotic.
During the planning stage, there are a few tips that can help pave the way for a peaceful holiday. One mentioned by CNET is to include some cold dishes, such as salad, on the menu. That way, the Thanksgiving chef has some more space and flexibility for using burners and the oven.
Pre-making appetizers that guests can snack on can also help ease some of the pressure to get the main course done quickly rather than correctly. Sandra Lee, host of Food Network’s “Semi-Homemade Cooking,” also advises making pie and dessert ahead of time to reduce Thanksgiving Day kitchen traffic, per Delish.
Additionally, CNET warns against getting too ambitious with the meal. Most people expect well-known dishes at Thanksgiving, and overcomplicated recipes can add to stress. According to a recent survey from YouGov, mashed potatoes, rolls and stuffing – classic, simple dishes – are most people’s favorite Thanksgiving sides.
While starting the meal too late can also lead to a less-than-stellar Thanksgiving experience, some of this prep work should help, even if things are moving a bit slow. A final word of preparation advice from CNET is to set the table ahead of time – just one more thing not to worry about while babysitting a turkey.
Turkey trouble
Turkey is by far people’s favorite part of Thanksgiving meals. However, to quote “Brooklyn 99”, sometimes turkey can taste… “like napkins.”
It takes a while to cook the big birds, and a lot can go wrong, from what turkey people buy to how they decide to cook them. Here are some common turkey mistakes.
Buying the right size turkey can be confusing, but CNET recommends a bird that includes 1 to 1 and a half pounds per guest. Since defrosting and cooking becomes trickier with larger turkeys, Lee recommends cooking two smaller turkeys instead of one large one for big parties.
As for how not undercooking or overcooking the turkey, Butterball offers a handy guide for cooking times based on turkey size. For smaller birds that are 6 to 7 pounds, it recommends 2 to 2 and a half hours, while larger birds weighing from 24 to 30 pounds should cook from 4 and a half to 5 hours. Of course, even best-laid plans can go awry if there are issues with defrosting the bird, but the Food Network has a fix for partially frozen turkey meat.
A dry, napkin-flavored turkey can be the result of not brining the turkey, said CNET. Once the turkey is cooked, there is a way, via the Food Network, to use some turkey or chicken stock and a spray bottle and bring new life to dry meat.
Sure, stuffing’s name definitely implies that it would be stuffed into the turkey, but cooking a raw turkey with stuffing in it is not recommended, CNET stressed. That would increase the odds of harmful bacteria getting into the beloved side dish, to the USDA recommends cooking stuffing outside of the bird.
Carving the turkey wrong can also ruin hours spent cooking. It is important to let the turkey rest for around 30 minutes before setting a knife to it – a perfect time to make some gravy with pan drippings, so cooks are advised not to throw the drippings away. For those who don’t have an experienced turkey carver on their guest list, the Culinary Institute of America had provided this instructional video.
Another possible misstep during the cooking phase of Thanksgiving is turning down help, said CNET. Thanksgiving is about family, friends, bonding and thanks, so people should be more than willing to help out.
Guests can make mistakes too
On that note, Lee said that guests should also help make the holiday bright. In addition to helping the host, they can bring a gift – and most hosts would probably welcome a glass of wine or cup of coffee after tackling a mountain of tasks in the kitchen.