Best Ways to Prevent Thanksgiving Disasters

Tips for how to host a safe Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a really important part of the year. For many people, it’s a time to gather with friends and family, gorge themselves on amazing homemade food, and take lots and lots of naps. For others its a time to prep for the busiest retail shopping day of the year, Black Friday. But for a very, very unlucky few, Thanksgiving is a time of ruined dinners and firey disasters. Luckily, I have some tips to help you avoid that flame ingulfed poultry disaster that would surely ruin your Thanksgiving.

1. Properly thawing your turkey before cooking it

You might be surprised at just how many people wait till the last possible minute to thaw their bird. The very first mistake to make when thawing a turkey is to let it thaw at room temperature. The U.S.D.A recommends you to thaw a turkey in cold water in an unopened, plastic, waterproof container; this is to prevent the package from absorbing excess moisture. It also recommends changing the water it’s thawing in every 30 minutes, with an estimated 30 min per pound thaw time. Not following the steps can lead to food poisoning. (https://www.masslive.com/entertainment/2015/11/butterball_turkey_thawing_cooking_tips.html)

2. Turkey fryer fires

As you probably know tons of people use a deep fryer to cook their Thanksgiving turkey. Many people do this because frying turkey seals in moisture and cooks the bird faster. The best way to avoid spilling grease all over your house is to fry your turkey outside, it’s also a good idea to institute a 3-foot “Kid/Pet-safe-zone” that way any curious kids/pups are safe from the potential danger of fry oil. (https://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/turkey_fryers_flyer.pdf)

3. Lock up your pets

We all love our furry friends, and they love us. But when food is involved we all know that we don’t matter. With that in mind, we suggest locking them in a safe place so they can’t cause harm to themselves or the food. There was a case documented by mental floss that tells of the time that a chihuahua claimed into a thawed uncooked turkey right as it was being put into the over “A frantic new mom hosting her first Thanksgiving feast had a chihuahua that climbed up onto the kitchen table and into the turkey, and she couldn’t get the dog out,” writes Todd Sigg on the Illinois Poison Control Center blog. “I told her to pull really hard and yank the little guy out … I could understand the awesomeness of it from the dog’s point of view, a meat room.” (https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/515810/15-thanksgiving-dinner-disasters-and-how-avoid-them)

4. Prepare the Porcelain Throne

Think about this one for a second, if you host Thanksgiving dinner you will have a literal ton of people over, all of them eating food. Please, please, please make sure your house is stocked with toilet paper, hand soap, and that in every bathroom you have a plunger. Your guests and your plumbing will thank you.