The year is flying by, and Thanksgiving, believe it or not, is just around the corner. Over the next several weeks, people will be gathering across America with friends and families to enjoy a delicious meal together. And the centerpiece of that meal in many households will be the traditional Thanksgiving turkey.
[See: 10 Tasty Tips for a Frugal Thanksgiving.]
Of course, part of the Thanksgiving tradition is a turkey that’s much larger than can be consumed at a single meal, leaving refrigerators stuffed with leftover poultry that many people serve and re-serve until they get tired of it and toss out the rest.
That routine is expensive and wasteful. Instead, there are much better ways to extract maximum value from your Thanksgiving turkey. Here are five key steps.
1. Shop around before you buy. While it can be tempting to pick up a “sale-priced” turkey at your favorite grocery store, the truth is that stores are often selling turkeys as “loss leaders” right now, meaning that they’re using absurdly low turkey prices to get you in the door. The question you should be asking yourself is: How low will local grocery stores go?
[See: 20 Tips for Saving Money at the Grocery Store.]
Spend some time visiting the websites of various grocers in your area. See what they’re charging for whole turkeys and compare the prices between stores. It’s worth your time to buy a turkey from a different store if you’re saving a few dollars — and you’ll often save more than a few dollars if you’re careful.
2. Focus on cost per pound. Stores like to use different pricing strategies on turkeys to make it a little harder to compare prices. Some stores will list the cost per pound for the turkey, but others will simply advertise a sticker price for turkeys and still others will try to sell them in a bundle with other items.
Ignore all of that other stuff. Focus solely on the price per pound for the bird. If you can’t easily figure out a price per pound, then don’t shop there. Many stores will directly tell you the price per pound — or they’ll give you the final sticker price and weight (which enables you to figure out the price per pound by dividing the price by the weight). Go with the lowest price per pound and you’ll end up spending less money — or have more meat on the table for the same price.
3. Make the leftovers into distinctly different dishes. It’s easy to just put a bunch of leftover turkey into containers in the fridge and then pull them out again for meals in the next day or two, rehashing Thanksgiving dinner. But by the second day, those are getting really old. The solution, of course, is to use that leftover turkey as part of distinctive dishes that twist and tweak the flavors into something new.
For example, you might try turning some of that turkey meat into turkey tetrazzini, turning the flavors of turkey on their ear. Perhaps you can transform it into a soup of some kind like wild rice and turkey soup. Or maybe you could use it as the protein in something like a pesto pasta toss, giving it an Italian flair. Don’t just think of leftover turkey as tired meat that dries out as the days pass. Think of it as a tool for a delicious new meal.
4. Store any remaining leftovers as easy-to-use portions. After a few days, everyone might be tired of turkey, so take the remaining bits of turkey and package them for freezing. Make each package of an appropriate size for a recipe, chopping and preparing the meat accordingly.
You might want to make a bag that’s easy to just pull out and dump into a recipe for soup, so that you can have a turkey soup on a cold December evening. Or you could measure out the precise amount for one of those recipes listed above. Just measure, prepare and freeze the meat, so that it’s easily thawed and ready to go for the meal you want to make in the future.
[See: 8 Big Budgeting Blunders — and How to Fix Them.]
5. Make stock from the carcass. Those leftover bones and cartilage have value, too. Simply break them down and fit them into a big slow cooker (the most convenient way) or in a stock pot (if you’re going to be around the house for several hours). You might need to do this in multiple batches if you have a giant turkey and a smaller pot.
Add some diced onions and a few seasonings, such as basil or ground black pepper or salt, then add enough water to cover the bones with an inch or two to spare. Let it simmer all day — leave it on low if you’re using a slow cooker — and then strain the liquid at the end of the day, saving the liquid and discarding the boiled bones. The liquid you have is poultry stock, which is wonderful to use for things like soups or stews. It’s easily frozen and can then be used in all kinds of dishes.
A Thanksgiving turkey can be an expensive purchase. So, if you can cut down the cost a little, and then get every bit of value out of your purchase, you’re going to be ahead of the game. Happy Thanksgiving.
More from U.S. News
10 Frugal Ways to Save This Fall
How to Get the Most Value From Your Thanksgiving Turkey originally appeared on usnews.com
