The Thanksgiving holiday is less than two weeks away. If you have not started to make your plans for the big meal, now is the time to start. Before you can begin any of the meal planning, you need to know the size of the guest list. This will help to determine everything from seating to the amount of food you will prepare.
Assuming you will have Turkey for Thanksgiving, the size of the bird will depend on two factors. The number of people eating and how much leftovers you want. Experts say for each person, you should plan for 1 – 1 ½ pounds of turkey. This is because a raw bird has a lot of bones. For a group of eight people, you will want a bird of about 12 pounds. If you want extra leftovers, go a little larger, maybe a 14 of 15 pound bird.
Make sure you have the room in the freezer. You want to keep the bird frozen until the Thursday before Thanksgiving. Sue Smith, a Butterball expert says thawing will take time.
If you buy a fresh bird, you can keep it in the refrigerator.
She says there are a couple of methods for safely thawing the turkey and we will talk more about that early next week.
