A Turkey of a Dish

Still dithering over the sourcing of our Thanksgiving dinner (this year there have been strong pleas to order takeout to support struggling restaurants), I purchased the ingredients last Thursday.

Except for the bird itself, most of the dishes just require heating in the microwave. We'll cook the curkey because I like having leftovers in case people drop in to munch on while watching football.

After decades of experimentation, and more than a few failures, I'm going with the low-heat method, which is very forgiving if the turkey is left in the oven too long.

This Thanksgiving trend-watchers expect more turkey disasters than usual:

Public officials have issued blunt warnings or orders for Thanksgiving during the pandemic: Don’t travel and keep gatherings small. That means many people who have skated for years as guests without cooking Thanksgiving dinner are having to face making the holiday meal for themselves this year...

The Turkey Talk-Line expects an influx of callers “who are actually preparing their Thanksgiving all by themselves for the very first time,” said Carol Miller, a [Butterball] supervisor.

“It could be the auntie who always took the pies to the Thanksgiving meals,” she said. ”She did the Easter ham and really didn’t worry about the turkey.”

It could be someone who is staring into the cavity of a raw turkey for the first time.

“Maybe you’ve never looked for the giblets in the turkey before,” Ms. Miller said.

The first time one tries to duplicate a recipe from written instructions or even a YouTube video rarely results in a passable dish, and I do speak from personal experience.

The good news, dear reader, is that this year the only victims of the attempt will be the few in your household instead of members of a large family gathering....And there will be more leftovers, too.