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Thanksgiving 2024

I'm going out to dinner with Jan and Steve for actual Thanksgiving, but I like to have turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, and stuffing vacuum sealed and frozen for later meals, so this is my abbreviated prep. It's much smaller than an actual Thanksgiving meal because it doesn't include all of the sides, many of which do not freeze that well or I don't love enough to have for several more meals.

Mashed potatoes

I got a 2 pounds of prepared, refrigerated, Yukon gold mashed potatoes at the grocery store deli. I've had them before and they're good, and way less work than making them from scratch!

Divided the package into 8x packages of 4.0 oz. each, vacuum sealed and frozen.

Turkey (prep)

I got a 12.5 lb. frozen turkey. I got it in advance because I have plenty of room the chest freezer for a turkey this size.

The USDA guideline is 3-4 days in the refrigerator for a 12 to 16 pound turkey, and can remain refrigerated for 1 to 2 days before cooking.

I plan to cook it on Wednesday (2024-11-27), so 4 days before is Saturday (2024-11-23).

Turkey (cooking)

Since this meal isn't going onto a table I had a little more flexibility on how to cook it. There is discussion in Thanksgiving 2023 on how I came to make it this way, and it works so well I'm doing this from now on.

I break down the turkey like chicken parts. This greatly speeds up cooking but most importantly I can remove parts as they get done and everything is cooked perfectly.

The breast portion (bone-in) and legs and thighs.

And another roasting pan with the wings and backbone, cut in half.

Roasted at 425°F with the breast, drumsticks and thighs on a sheet pan with grid on the top rack. The roasting pan on the bottom has the wings and backbone, which will be used to make stock and soup.

I intended to use the temperatures from the Serious Eats spatchcock recipe.

The breast cooks more slowly than I expected, which isn't that surprising, because it's the thickest piece of meat (and has a bone).

The leg and thigh cook faster than I expected when not underneath the turkey, which also makes sense. Also there is way more variability based on where you place the temperature probe in the leg and thigh. Don't just rely on the permanent probe temperature.

The breast, leg, and thigh don't create that much fat, because the fatty parts have been removed. I was worried about this because they were only in a sheet pan, not a full roasting pan. It was fine.

The wings, backbone, neck were on the bottom rack and weren't as browned, but this is fine because they're just going into the instant pot for turkey stock.

It went in at 6:10 AM and everything was out by 8:05 AM, so it took 1:20 at 425°F which is pretty good for a 12 pound turkey. And it looks great!

Breast, drumstick, and thigh sliced. This is so good! I'll definitely make it this way next year.

6x servings of 5.0 oz. each for dinner.

The remainder diced for for stir-fry, usually Turkey and cabbage stir-fry.

5x packages of 2.8 oz. and 1x remainder of 2.0 oz.

Gravy

Defrosted 32 oz. of turkey stock (2 packages of 16 fl oz). I vacuum sealed and froze it last year, and will be the base for the gravy.

I put the frozen bags in the sous vide at 140°F which also had the advantage of making the stock warm to add to the roux.

The gravy is based on this recipe and is:

Add the butter to the pan and melt. And the flour and cook for 5 minutes or more to make a roux. It should smell slightly nutty, but not burnt.

Add the turkey stock and combine. Stir for a several minutes until thickened. It will start out shockingly thin, but it thickens quickly.

I'm used to having soy sauce in my gravy because Mom always made it that way, so I add that too, several ounces.

Cooled, then vacuum sealed and froze 6x servings of 5.0 oz. each and one of the remainder.

Dressing

I used Pepperidge Farm classic stuffing mix, what Mom used, but added several things. It's really more like the package directions than the recipe I made in previous years, though actually probably the closest to Mom's recipe (though she did not add sausage).

I didn't have a 16 oz. package of turkey stock so I used 16 oz. from 2 packages of 10 oz. each from 2023.

Cook the sausage in a sauté pan.

Add the butter, onions, and celery and cook until slightly softened.

Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil.

Add the stuffing mix and transfer to a 9x12 Pyrex baking dish.

Bake 45 minutes uncovered at 325°F.

Done!

Divided into 6 dinner servings.

And a little leftover.

Cranberry sauce

I made the Food Network cranberry sauce recipe . It's basically just a 12 oz. bag of fresh cranberries, 1 cup of sugar, a strip of lemon zest, and 1 oz. water. I like it.

Add the cranberries, 1 cup of sugar, lemon zest and water to a sauce pan and heat over low heat, stirring occasionally until the sugar dissolves, about 10 minutes.

Increase the heat to medium and cook until the cranberries burst, about 12 minutes, then continue to cook until it reaches the desired consistency.

Season with salt and pepper.

The original recipe calls for adding some reserved uncooked cranberries at the end, but I like it better without.

Divided into 6 dinner servings and a little left over.

Turkey stock and soup

In the instant pot:

Cook on the soup setting. When done, let cool for 20 minutes, then release the pressure.

Meat picked off the bone. Bones and vegetable discarded. Stock to a container to chill so the fat can be skimmed off.

Meal prep

I made 6x full dinner servings with:

Each set goes into a zip-lock bag to make it easy to get out of the freeze for an easy meal.

Reserved one serving for dinner tomorrow since our Thanksgiving buffet get together was canceled because of the snow in the forecast.

I started at 5:45 AM and everything except the stock was done by 10:30 AM. The stock was packaged for soup and everything cleaned up by 12:45 PM.

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