Thanksgiving with less food waste: how much to cook per guest
The simplest way to waste less food at Thanksgiving is to cook for the number of people coming, not for an imagined crowd. For turkey, plan about 1 pound (450 g) of whole bird per guest, or 1½ pounds (680 g) if you want leftovers on purpose. For the sides, plan one normal serving of each per person and cut the portions down when you serve more than four or five dishes, because nobody eats a full helping of everything. Then decide before dinner what the leftovers will become.
None of this means cooking a stingy meal. It means the food you buy gets eaten.
Why it matters
The USDA estimates that 30 to 40 percent of the US food supply is wasted, much of it at the retail and consumer level: in shops, restaurants and homes. Holiday meals are where the extra adds up: a bigger turkey "just in case", a sixth side dish, three pies for eight people. Most of that is not thrown away on Thursday. It is thrown away the following week, when the leftovers have sat in the fridge too long.
How much turkey per guest
These planning amounts come from the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline's long-standing advice:
| Type of turkey | Per guest |
|---|---|
| Whole turkey | about 1 lb (450 g) |
| Whole turkey, with planned leftovers | about 1½ lb (680 g) |
| Bone-in turkey breast | about ¾ lb (340 g) |
| Boneless turkey breast or roast | about ½ lb (225 g) |
The whole-bird amount looks generous because much of the weight is bone. For eight guests, a 12-pound (5.4 kg) turkey covers dinner with some left over. For a group of four, a bone-in breast of about 3 pounds (1.4 kg) is often a better buy than the smallest whole bird you can find.
How much of everything else
These are planning amounts for a meal with turkey and four or five sides, not rules. Adjust for your family: teenagers, small children and big eaters all change the maths.
| Dish | Plan per guest |
|---|---|
| Mashed potatoes | about ½ lb (225 g) raw potatoes |
| Stuffing | about ½ cup cooked |
| Green beans or another vegetable | about ¼ lb (115 g) raw |
| Sweet potatoes | about ½ lb (225 g) raw |
| Cranberry sauce | about ¼ cup |
| Gravy | about ⅓ cup (80 ml) |
| Rolls | 1 to 2 |
| Pie | 1 slice; a 9 inch (23 cm) pie cuts into 8 |
Two adjustments save the most:
- More dishes, smaller batches. With six or more sides, make each one smaller, by about a third. People take a spoonful of everything.
- One pie per eight people, not one per kind. If you want variety, make two pies for a table of eight and cut smaller slices.
Write the guest count at the top of your shopping list, and check every quantity against it before you buy. It is easy to buy for twelve when eight are coming.
Plan the leftovers before dinner
Leftovers are only waste if nobody eats them. Decide in advance where they are going:
- Turkey: sandwiches on Friday, soup from the carcass on Saturday. Turn the bones into stock the same way you would turn vegetable scraps into stock, and the frame becomes the base for a whole meal. For three recipes that use a lot of turkey, I Heart Chef has a good guide to leftover turkey and how long it keeps.
- Mashed potatoes: potato cakes, or the topping for a shepherd's pie.
- Stuffing: reheated as a side, or pressed into a pan and baked crisp.
- Cranberry sauce: on toast, in yogurt, or in a turkey sandwich.
- Guests: have clean containers ready and offer each household a box to take home. It is the most generous way to deal with too much food.
Keep the leftovers safe so they can be eaten
Food has to be safe to be worth saving. The basic USDA rules:
- Refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours of cooking. Set a timer when you sit down to eat.
- Use shallow containers so the food cools quickly. Take turkey off the bone first.
- Eat refrigerated leftovers within 3 to 4 days. For a Thursday dinner, that is Sunday or Monday.
- Freeze what you will not eat by then, on Friday or Saturday rather than on day four. Our guide on how to freeze leftovers so you actually eat them later covers labelling and freezing flat.
- Reheat leftovers to 165°F (74°C).
After the holiday
On the Sunday after Thanksgiving, open the fridge and sort it: what gets eaten tomorrow, what goes in the freezer, and what is past its time. A quick ten-minute pantry check at the same time catches the half-used bags of cranberries, stuffing mix and canned pumpkin before they get lost at the back of the cupboard.
Peelings and trimmings that cannot be eaten can go in a compost bin instead of the rubbish.
