So you’re cooking Thanksgiving Dinner for the first time?
Many of my friends are finding themselves in the unenviable position of hosting Thanksgiving for their families for the first time. While I’m nowhere near being a pro at hosting large dinners, I have had to do it more than a few times. My advice doesn’t have the gravitas of the hundreds, maybe thousands, of bloggers, chefs, and TV personalities that have reached a fever pitch this week, but it’s a simple gameplan that can hopefully get you through this week.
Before we get started though, a few words:
- Now is not the time to get experimental. Friendsgiving or similar get togethers are prime testing grounds. But that was last week. Grandma doesn’t want quinoa in her stuffing, and she better not get any quinoa in her stuffing.
- Unless it’s been established that your family doesn’t do this, assume that everyone expects a Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving. It’s a standard, an agreed upon ideal — everyone has pretty much agreed that this is what Thanksgiving looks like.
- If you haven’t started defrosting your turkey…you should start now.
Ok, so some things to get you through the next few days:
- Don’t rush. Rushing leads to injuries which leads to no food which leads to your family being even more disappointed in you on Thanksgiving.
- The only thing that actually needs to be cooked on Thursday is the turkey and fresh veggies. Pretty much everything else can be done ahead of time, like gravy, stuffing, pies, and cranberries. In fact, most of these things are better after a day or two. Depending on how you serve your potatoes, these could be done the day before, but I think they generally fall under the “fresh veggie” column.
- Speaking of potatoes, if you’re short on burner space or boiling time, you can peel, roughly chop, and then microwave your potatoes with a little water(think 1tbs per potato) in a microwave-save bowl or dish. It could take up to 10 minutes depending on how many potatoes you have, but when they’re tender, mash as you would normally.
- Clean as you go. This is pretty standard operating procedure when you’re cooking (or should be) but especially when you’ve got a lot of things happening in the kitchen. There’s nothing worse than needing that goddamn mixing bowl when it’s sitting in the sink full of soap. Also, as things start happening, you’ll need counter space, so make sure you’re clear for landing.
- When in doubt, modify store bought. Don’t have it in you to make fresh stuffing? Stove Top is awesome — just dice and sautee some carrots, celery, and onions, and then mix into your prepared stuff and you got yourself some elevated stuffing. Same goes for packaged gravies (sautéed mushrooms), canned cranberries (a table spoon of orange juice or a bit of orange zest works works wonders), or frozen green beans (lightly sauteed garlic in a few table spoons of melted butter will make anything taste great) are quick ways to make normal stuff your own.
- There’s hot debate on whether you should stuff a turkey or not. Roasting a turkey is enough to worry about, so I don’t stuff and focus on the stuffing as a separate entity. Also, stuffing that isn’t at least a little crispy on the top isn’t worth the real estate on someone’s plate.
- Most Thanksgiving food is pretty monochrome. If you wanna up the eye candy factor, have a bunch of fresh parsley on hand. Wash it, chop it, and top some of your dishes with it when you serve it. Stuffing is an easy place to start.
- Your turkey needs to rest at least 15–30 minutes. Full stop. This doesnt mean that everything will be getting cold — remember, you just freed up a bunch of oven space. Use those 15–30 minutes to warm things that were once cold or cook things that were once uncooked. When you’re ready to slice, follow this.
- Before you serve anything, taste it. How does it taste? Does it need salt? It probably needs a little salt.