Skip to main content

This is how much you should actually be cooking for Thanksgiving dinner

Thanksgiving dinner: We all love leftovers. But sometimes you can have too much of a good thing.

Look, don’t come for us. We all love Thanksgiving leftovers. The argument could even be made that the leftovers are even better than the big meal itself. Perhaps it’s because the flavors have had more time to marinate in the refrigerator, becoming even more delicious and complex than the day before. Or maybe there’s just less pressure when everyone has gone home and we can finally put on our sweatpants and carb-load in front of the TV without boring Uncle Ned talking about bitcoin. Either way, it seems everyone has a favorite Thanksgiving leftover preparation — be it another full plate, doused in a heavy pool of microwaved gravy, or a multi-layered, multi-textured sandwich, bursting at the seams with everything from stuffing to cranberry sauce. But there is such a thing as too many leftovers. Some years, it seems no matter how many plastic containers we send home with family, no matter how many delicious sandwiches we make in the days to come, in the end, we just made too much food.

Thankfully, Williams-Sonoma has created a convenient guide to help prevent an abundance of gluttony this year. Their helpful chart indicates the average amount people tend to eat of each popular Thanksgiving dish, and how much to make (or buy) of each item.

Related Videos

Most every traditional Thanksgiving dinner tends to consist of many, if not all of the following dishes: hors d’oeurves, turkey, gravy, salad, rolls, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and of course, dessert and wine. Of these dishes, it certainly surprised us to discover the average amount consumed by each person. What do you think?

  • Hors d’oeuvres: 4-6 bites
  • Turkey: 1 1/2 pounds bone-in turkey
  • Gravy: 1/2 cup
  • Salad: 1 1/2 cups
  • Rolls: 1-2 each
  • Mashed potatoes: 1/2 pound
  • Cranberry sauce: 1/3 cup
  • Stuffing: 3/4 cup
  • Dessert: 2 small pieces pie or cake
  • Wine: 1/2 – 1 bottle

Of course, no one knows your family’s eating habits better than you do. If we’re being totally honest, the thought of a mere half cup of gravy per person seems more than a little bit absurd, but maybe that’s just us. Either way, perhaps this helpful guide will make your Thanksgiving dinner plans and preparations a little easier this year. Because if there’s one thing you don’t want to stress about when it comes time to clean up the mess, it’s making room for the abundance of extra food in the fridge.

But if you ask us, maybe just make a little more gravy than the chart calls for.

Editors' Recommendations

Benefits of ginger: 5 reasons why you should add it to your grocery list today
Learn how ginger could be an essential superfood for your diet
Ginger on cutting board.

All over the world,ginger is consumed in many ways; these include as a spice, in teas and soups, and more! No matter how you choose to enjoy the superfood, it cannot be denied that there are many benefits of ginger. Due to its anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and antioxidant properties, there are five significant ways that ginger can positively affect your health.

It doesn’t require a lot of ginger to make a difference, either! Three to four grams of ginger daily is optimal for the average healthy adult. Any more than this can lead to gastrointestinal distress and heartburn. So as long as you stay within the guidelines, you can include ginger in your diet in various ways and reap the many health benefits it provides.

Read more
Egg nutrition: Should you eat the whole egg or stick to egg whites?
Are eggs good for you?
White eggs in an egg carton.

There's probably no food product that science has gone back and forth on more than the egg. We know it's delicious. We know it makes a great breakfast food, whether you're scrambling up eggs, perfecting that omelet, or eating them hard-boiled (and that's just scratching the surface of egg-related recipes. But should you eat the whole egg, or just the egg white?

Decades ago, when housewives made gigantic stacks of pancakes for the family every weekday morning (at least, that's what TV told us happened) it was an absolute given that you ate both the egg white and the egg yolk. But then people began worrying about their high saturated fat and cholesterol content — and thus began the debate about egg nutrition, and whether it was healthier to eat the whole egg or just the egg white. Which is it? Here's what you need to know.
Are eggs good for you?

Read more
Is erythritol harmful? What a dietitian says new data means for your Keto diet
Erythritol is common in many keto foods - what does that mean for your health?
erythritol in keto diet advice

While sugar substitutes have been around for more than a century, they didn't really become mainstream here in the United States until around the mid-70s. According to Carolyn De La Pena, professor of American Studies at UC Davis and author of Empty Pleasures: The Story of Artificial Sweeteners from Saccharin to Splenda, between 1975 and 1984, Americans increased their consumption of artificial sweeteners by 150 percent. This timeline makes sense when you take into account that the late seventies coincided with the start of our crazed diet culture and the revolving door of fad diets.
One such diet that doesn't seem to be going anywhere, however, is the Keto diet. Still hugely popular among Americans trying to shed a few pounds, Keto focuses heavily on limited or no carbohydrates. Because sugar contains carbohydrates, followers of Keto have turned to artificial sweeteners to satisfy those late-night cravings - sweeteners that, more often than not, contain erythritol. Erythritol in particular has become hugely popular because it's much better for baking than other sugar substitutes, has less of an artificial flavor, and will keep the eater in Ketosis, which is key for losing weight on the Keto diet.
A new study has made waves recently because its findings indicate there's a link between erythritol and higher rates of heart attack and stroke (though the study did note that only an association was found — not causation. So should you be worried?
We asked Dan LeMoine, RD, the award-winning author of Fear No Food and the Clinical Director at Phoenix-based Re:vitalize Nutrition, what he had to say about erythritol, including its benefits and potential health risks. "Artificial sweeteners are still sweeteners. While many are non-nutritive or zero-calorie, we tend to view them similarly as we do regular sweeteners or sugars — moderation is key. While many have amazing implications on weight loss – being low to no-calorie options and having little impact on blood sugar, some have their downside," he says.

While some of that sugar substitution has been good for waistlines and health issues that come from obesity, it seems to be causing more and more concern when it comes to other potential health issues. "For example," says LeMoine, "some research indicates the popular sweeteners stevia may have negative effects on the gut microbiome. And the recent study showing correlation between the sugar alcohol, erythritol, and heart attack and stroke."

Read more