Cost of Thanksgiving is up slightly this year

11/21/2012 4:05pm by 8

According to at least one review, the cost of Thanksgiving in 2012 is higher this year, but only a bit. Last year prices spiked dramatically (13% rise), though the cost of a turkey this year is still higher than 2011.

Bloomberg:

Thanksgiving meal

Thanksgiving via

Keeping costs down is getting a little easier. The cost of a Thanksgiving meal rose an estimated 0.6 percent this year, down from a 13 percent jump in 2011, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. Turkey prices rose 3.1 percent while other food prices fell.

Click through for more specific costs and statistics related to Thanksgiving in 2012. Though the Boston chef who is interviewed says brining dries out the turkey, my experience has been completely the opposite. I would never again cook a turkey without brining, mostly because the end result is much juicier. Personally, I’ve always liked the Alice Waters brine and have gone with it many times, but if you have another option, drop it into the comments.

The other bit debate for the day will be cranberry sauce. I picked up some fresh cranberries and am looking forward to cooking up a batch. I ran out of Porto wine so might try replacing it with a very sweet Spanish sherry, along with the usual orange juice and sugar. Once again, if anyone has something different, let everyone know in the comments.

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An American in Paris, France. BA in History & Political Science from Ohio State. Provided consulting services to US software startups, launching new business overseas that have both IPO’d and sold to well-known global software companies. Currently launching a new cloud-based startup for the Microsoft market. Full bio here.

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  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1526664170 Sara Orel

    I have been doing the turkey for the last couple of years as my Mom is in assisted living and Dad wants to have the full works. For him and me (and Mom who comes home for the day). I brined last year for the first time and my brother and cousin were visiting and were out shopping for some hardware to repair a door and suddenly the turkey was overdone (temp 10-15 degrees above where it should be at its highest) and they were nowhere around. So I took it out of the oven and crossed my fingers that it would still be edible. It was delicious, moist, and just glorious. I will never cook a turkey without brining again! The brine I use is packaged — the World Market brine packet is really lovely and I don’t really have to think about whether to add in herbs and spices.
    Oh, and I am using cranberry sauce from a can. Last year I had the lovely experience seeing a friend who had immigrated from India telling people at a dinner party that she had been to a Thanksgiving dinner where there was jellied cranberry sauce from a can. She was so horrified, and then shocked that no one at the dinner party was shocked at it. No, she said, you don’t understand! The cranberry sauce still had the shape of the can! And everyone at the table, a whole bunch of gourmets, said yes, that is what you want when you have Thanksgiving dinner! (yes, I usually make my own marvelous cranberry sauce, but I love canned cranberry sauce.
    Happy Thanksgiving, John, and Chris, and Gaius Publius, and all of you!

  • http://ferryfolk.com Danalan

    My wife and I (but mainly my wife) are cooking for the community again this year. We had near 70 people last year, probably about the same this year. Thank goodness the local church has a commercial kitchen and lets us use the space.

  • Naja pallida

    Turducken all the way here. Certainly doesn’t save a thing. :)

  • http://www.rebeccamorn.com/mind BeccaM

    Never tried brining…guess I’ve been missing out on a useful technique. Thing is, we hardly ever do full turkeys here. Mostly just turkey breasts.

    • http://AMERICAblog.com/ John Aravosis

      I’m trying my first turkey this year and brining, it was easy enough.

  • freewayblogger

    I’m getting ready for some of the busiest driving days of the year…

    http://freewayblogger.blogspot.com/2012/11/brian-eno-quotes.html

    Closing in on 1,000 signs since Jan. 1st.

    • http://www.rebeccamorn.com/mind BeccaM

      You GO!

  • MyrddinWilt

    I use the Heston Blumenthal approach. The brine is simply an 8% salt solution by weight.

    There really isn’t any advantage to putting seasoning in the brine, it is not going to make it through the skin. The only reason for using brine rather than salt is to match the concentration of electrolytes in the bird. Without something to balance it out there would be a transfer of flavor out because there are lots of salts on one side and nothing on the other. But trying to put more salts in does not work because the inside of the turkey is already saturated with them.

    http://www.waitrose.com/content/waitrose/en/home/recipes/recipe_directory/h/heston_s_roast_turkey.A5.html

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