A Complete Schedule for Preparing, Serving, and Cleaning up Thanksgiving Dinner

Thanksgiving has a reputation for endless pickling techniques, divisive side dishes, and contentious relatives. It’s no surprise that hosting can be stressful. If you don’t have the “Right Stuffing” , that is. This series is all about the Thanksgiving meal, and will help you create dishes that will show up on your table year after year, even if it doesn’t help you cope with the in-laws.

Thanksgiving dinner is a dance. Between family and the National Dog Show (which is just a drinking game sponsored by Purina), it’s a dance we usually do while distracted. Having a written schedule will save your butt and allow you to enjoy Thanksgiving because even if you’re drunk, you can review the schedule and get back on track. You don’t need to remember anything. And this year, we’ve created a printable timeline of events .

Be smart with your strategy

• Make two smaller pans on each side instead of one large one . If they are placed next to each other in your oven, you get four sides in the oven instead of two, and smaller pans take less time to preheat. Serve the first wave and load the second wave when you sit down to eat. Disposable pot halves are ideal for this, and if you buy lids, they’ll stay in the fridge.

• Only serve items to guests that won’t require your stove or oven, such as appetizers, alcohol, dessert or salad. Your plan will fail if someone comes and plans to cook food in your kitchen or hands you a frying pan to heat up.

• Using the above, explain that you rely on guests for drinks and cross it off your to-do list. Let them organize it themselves and whatever comes out will be good because people bring what they like.

• Stuff your damn bird because it’s delicious and means the first wave of stuffing will come out with the bird. You will have a spare pan with the filling in the second wave of sides.

• Instead of buying frozen poultry, order raw or defrosted and pick it up as late as possible .

• Print out your recipes in the old style. It’s easier to skim through a few articles than to scroll through recipes on the Internet.

• Use your smart devices to remind you what you should do. Your smartwatch can have reminders for what you should remove, mix, or run, giving you an easy way to get away from Aunt Martha and get to what needs to be done.

Divide to win

Plan your menu and schedule. Cranberry sauce and pie will taste even better after a day of rest. Don’t be a hero; In your preparation plan, pay special attention to the days leading up to Thanksgiving.

Our menu

• Türkiye: Thursday

• Applications: You may be able to succeed

• Potatoes: It’s better if you cook them on Thursday.

• Salad : Thursday

• Vegetables: you may be able to succeed

• Cranberry: forward

• Filling: forward

• Green Bean Casserole : Go ahead

• Sweet potatoes : go ahead

• Pies: forward

• Gravy : Make the base ahead of time, finish on Thursday.

Chances are, you have a job and a life and everything , so you’ll probably prefer to keep the Thanksgiving bullshit isolated from Thanksgiving. But if you don’t plan a few things ahead of time, your Turkey Day could turn into a bad sitcom where everyone yells at each other, the lawn is on fire, and you all end up eating pizza. Don’t worry, I got you.

The weekend before Thanksgiving

• Clean out your refrigerator. Rearrange shelves to accommodate as many items as possible.

• Check the staples: flour, sugar, spices, garlic, butter, vegetable oil, baking soda, baking powder, foil, plastic wrap, Ziploc bags and sanitizing spray.

• Make a shopping list. Add more oil because it’s obvious.

• Wash dirty kitchen towels.

• Find trivets, gravy boats, turkey lifters, basters and any other specialty equipment while you still have time to order a replacement if you can’t find it or it’s broken.

Monday before Thanksgiving

• Shop. After today the markets will be a shit show.

• If you need to defrost your turkey, pick it up today (but I recommend thawing it Wednesday).

• Wash and dry serving utensils. Use sticky notes to mark what they are for.

On the eve of Thanksgiving

Take your thawed/raw turkey early in the morning if you haven’t already and handle it first to avoid cross-contamination. Remove the giblets and necks and cover them with brine/ salt /top before placing in the refrigerator. Alternatively, you can store the bird in the refrigerator covered with an odorless garbage bag, as long as you can maintain the temperature around 40 degrees. You can also place the turkey in a brine bag and the brine bag in a trash bag full of ice. Once this is done, disinfect the countertops, sink and faucets.

Review your recipes for the day. Do anything today require room temperature foods like butter or eggs? Take them out. Preheat the oven for the sweet potatoes. Rinse the cranberries and place them on burner #1. Prepare a pot of broth for the filling on burner #2.

Make all the preparations for the fillings, pies and casseroles. Slice the sweet potatoes and place them in the oven to bake. Chop all the garlic you need . Chop all the vegetables and place everything you have prepared in bowls or plates or top with lemon water (for fruits or vegetables that may oxidize). If these are items you won’t use until Thursday, throw them in Tupperware and label them so you can see everything in your refrigerator at a glance.

You still have two burners open, and we’re going to use them to sear whatever needs to be seared. In pan No. 1, make the filling. In the second pan, start preparing whatever you need to fry for casseroles or other side dishes.

Finish the filling and leave it unrolled on the dinner table until cool enough to cover and refrigerate. Check your cranberries. Finish the remaining casseroles, let them cool and refrigerate.

Remove the cranberries from the stove, cool and store. Now prepare any pie crusts you like, wrap them and place them in the refrigerator to rest.

Remove the sweet potatoes and finish the dish, let them cool and put them in the refrigerator. Your oven is now free for pies, so remove the crusts, shape the pies, and bake them.

If necessary, use cookie cutters to create additional shelves in your refrigerator using jars or jars as risers. You can also remove the bottom food containers to create another shelf. This place is perfect for chilling your Thanksgiving beer.

Prepare any applications in advance – remember you won’t have an oven tomorrow.

Lastly, set an alarm. This is where math comes into play. Determine exactly how long your turkey recipe needs to cook, add three hours and write down that number. Now figure out what time you want the turkey to land on your dinner table. Count down the number of hours you just wrote down and set your alarm for that time. Set one to 5 minutes later. (I call this “hour X.”) This is also when you should set reminders on your smartwatch/speaker.

THIS IS IT

Today is Judgment Day in Turkey, and you, my friend, are going to serve. You have the responsibility, nay, the honor , to put that bird on the table before your brothers get too drunk to eat it. This is your time. Be bold, be brave, be fast. Basically just GTFO beds. It’s time.

• Hour X : Good morning, sunshine! Remove the turkey and stuffing from the cooler/refrigerator and place on the counter. Sleep another hour, take a shower, or rest.

• Hour X +1 : Turn oven to turkey cooking temperature. Place the turkey in the pan, stuff it, dress it and season it.

• Hour X+2 : Place the turkey in the oven.

Peel the potatoes and boil them on burner No. 1. Prepare the salad and dressing and place them in the refrigerator separately. Terminate your applications. If you’re going to make the sauce from scratch ( and you should ), now is the time to prepare the sauce and stock (burners #2 and #3). When they’re done, toss them into bowls or dishes and set aside for later. When the potatoes are ready, beat and/or mash them, then cover the pan, but do not store in the refrigerator.

Keep cleaning, getting ready, and hydrating throughout the day because the only thing you need to remember is to baste, and you can set smart alerts for it or just set an alarm on your phone. From now on we will talk about dinner time.

Final countdown

This final part of the dance can be done while drunk, which is great news. (Although obviously we don’t recommend using knives in a weakened state)

• Dinner Time – 3 : Start checking your turkey; sometimes they end earlier. (So ​​early? Probably not, but you should check where everything is.) Now is a good time to clean out the kitchen and get out your serving utensils, carving tools, trivets, and potholders. Remove all casseroles, side dishes, and cranberry sauce from the refrigerator and let them come to room temperature.

• Dinner Time – 1 hour : One hour before eating (or when the turkey is done, which is beyond your control), remove the turkey and immediately move the oven racks up and halfway up. Turn your oven to 350℉ if it’s not already there.

Transfer turkey to a cutting board and cover with foil. Pour all the turkey drippings into a grease trap and place in the freezer. Place casseroles and sides in the oven, placing denser foods such as potatoes or sweet potatoes on top and vegetables on the bottom.

Place the pot with the turkey on the stove over burners #1 and #2 and deglaze . Add the dressing and broth, take the separator from the freezer and add the pan drippings. Pour it all into the pan and place it back on burner number 1 over low heat with the lid on.

Do you cook vegetables other than in a casserole? Now it’s time to steam or fry them on the stovetop (since they were already cut/prepared yesterday) on burners #2-4.

Dress the salad. Ask guests to carry finished dishes to the table to keep them busy and out of your way.

Transfer poultry stuffing to a serving platter. Carve half the turkey and cover the rest with foil. Once warm, place the side dishes on the table on racks or towels. Place the second wave of each dish in the oven, set the timer for 30 minutes. Turn off the gravy boat, pour it into the gravy boat, and place all remaining dishes on the table.

Now you can enjoy your dinner. When the timer goes off, an additional wave of food will appear. Your guests can help pull them out and even cut more meat if necessary. Practice saying this with me: “Cousin Carl, can you cut up some more meat for the table? What a joy you are. Once these are out of the oven, you can put your pies and any other desserts in there. The ice cream can now be removed from the freezer and softened on the counter.

Unload and clean

After dinner, a magical thing happens: everyone starts collecting dishes and napkins in an attempt to help, and stacks them in your kitchen in Dr. Seuss-style stacks that defy logic, gravity, and usefulness as if they were just receiving things. going to the kitchen is hard work. I’ve found that with a little guidance, you can maximize the help guests are willing to provide while doing as little work as possible yourself. Here’s how:

Prepare vacuum sealed bags, cheap Tupperware, or large ziplock bags. People will want to help, but will look to you for instructions, so start by bringing only serving utensils with food into the kitchen. Meanwhile, have one guest collect the plates, scraping any scraps into the compost or trash, a second to collect the silverware in a large pan, and a third to collect the linens that go straight into the washing machine. Everyone holds their glasses. Ask for 10 minutes to tidy up before cleaning.

Use these 10 minutes to bag leftovers for guests and yourself so that all the food is put away before the dishes start. Place all turkey carcass parts into a large pot of water on the stove for stock. At this point, let your guests take over. By then everything should be simple; the food is gone. Anything they don’t know where to put back, they can put on the now clean table so you can put it away later. It’s nice to put on some music. It’s also helpful to have enough towels, sponges, and soap so that no one has to scramble for supplies. Meanwhile, take your throne on the couch to drink wine and receive compliments.

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