Bird is the Word
All the turkey 🦃 trivia you need for next week’s feast
With one week to go until Thanksgiving, I bravely opened the multitude of e-mails I’ve received about ordering a Thanksgiving meal. Inflation is down to 3.2% from its runaway 7.7% rate this time last year, but the price of a prepared turkey dinner truly shocked me. In Los Angeles, Farmshop Santa Monica will sell you a 14-16 pound turkey for $140. A side of cornbread stuffing for 6-8 people will be another $50. The green beans will set you back $48, as will the Yukon Gold Potato Puree and the Bourbon-Pecan Pie.
Fast Facts about Turkey
If turkey seems expensive to you, it is. The wholesale price for frozen whole turkey reached $1.55 per pound last year, up from $0.80 per pound in 2018.
According to the USDA, the value of turkey production in America was over $7 billion last year. We produced 5.22 billion pounds of ready-to-cook turkey meat and raised 210 million turkeys. Are you good at mental math? These figures imply an average turkey size of nearly 25 pounds.
My home state of Minnesota produced the most turkeys by far last year, an astounding 37 million. North Carolina, Arkansas, and Indiana were the next largest producers of turkey at 28, 26, and 20 million birds each. It’s curious to note though, that our rate of turkey exports has also fallen significantly. In 2018, we shipped 611 million pounds of turkey abroad. In 2022, that figure was just 407 million, reflecting softening demand from Mexico and China.
Popular Foods
Yesterday, Campbell’s released their 2023 edition of the “State of the Sides,” a report about the most popular Thanksgiving sides in the US. Here’s the headline: 54% of Americans now report contentment with just side dishes, a 17% increase from last year. Twenty-two of the fifty states count mashed potatoes as their favorite turkey day dish. As a country, the average number of side dishes on the holiday table is five.
This year, Mac and cheese edged its way into the top five for the first time ever, jumping 5 points from last year, and named by 27% of Americans as their favorite side dish. We’ll thank our friends in South for that.
If you’re from Washington, pass the green bean casserole. Those coastal elites in California and New York will be savoring their root veggies along with their friends in Arizona. If Colorado is home to you, you’re probably excited about the bread. Please pass the honey butter!
Some surprises this year? 18% of Campbell’s survey respondents indicated they would consider the addition of tinned fish to a side dish, while 20% reported desiring newer fresh ingredients like cauliflower rice and non-dairy milk.
The Rise of Friendsgiving
If you’ll be gathering with colleagues, neighbors, or friends this weekend to share a holiday meal, you’re part of the 59% of Americans celebrating “Friendsgiving.” Officially added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary in 2020, some folklorists postulate that the tv sitcom Friends helped inspire the concept of spending the holidays with friends. According to Delish.com, a 2011 ad campaign by Baileys Irish Cream also used the word Friendsgiving. On Tiktok, #Friendsgiving has over 3.6 billion views and counting.
As for me, I’ll be heading to San Francisco for tacos with friends on Sunday afternoon. Seems like the right way to do it on the west coast.
Cost of the Feast
It’s not too late to outsource the cooking to the professionals. Here are some price points across the country, in case you’re curious:
Whole Foods is offering its Classic Roast Whole Turkey Meal (turkey, gravy, green beans, mashed potatoes, herb stuffing, and cranberry sauce) for 4 people for $100 at the Mill Valley store. This is an especially good price if you live on a coast, because there does not appear to be any price adjustments for geography. It’s the same price in Minneapolis as it is in Manhattan. Meals are available for 4, 8, or 12 people. The 12-person “Thanksgiving Extravaganza” jumps to $540, but includes a maple bourbon ham, creamed spinach, roasted butternut squash, butternut squash soup, brioche rolls, and five appetizer offerings including dips, deviled eggs, and platters.
In Northwest Montana, Jalisco Cantina is offering a two or four-person dinner with roast turkey breast, pork and hominy stew, roasted cauliflower, mashed potatoes, caesar salad, cornbread, and pumpkin-spiced tres leches cake. The two-person offering is $95 and the four-person offering is $180.
Goddess & The Baker in Chicago is offering a Pumpkin Pie for $23, Traditional Apple for $29, and Chocolate Pecan or Chocolate French Silk for $32.