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How many people are you cooking Thanksgiving dinne...

How many people are you cooking Thanksgiving dinner for?

Do you think of eight to ten people as a “moderately-sized” dinner party?

I mean, I do . . . but my husband likes to remind me that is large to most people. On the Epicurious site poll for the past several weeks, they asked how many people people you plan to cook for this thanksgiving. Even I found the guest ranges on their survey a bit unsettling.

A Super-Sized Holiday

Thanksgiving is an exception to many standards of appropriate size. Take turkey.

Does any family ever make a whole turkey and actually finish it on Thanksgiving evening? Maybe there are some regular super-sized-fast-food-meal-eaters out there who can, but even my aunt with her army of five growing boys (yes, I am counting my uncle in there ;)) doesn’t usually polish off the entire turkey.

The whole meal is at a euphemistic scale. One could say (please don’t throw rotten fruit), that in this day and age, the excess of dishes and portion sizes that mark this holiday is actually quite American.

What do you think? Are you feeding half the neighborhood? Or making eight dishes for five people?


  1. we’re having just two other people over for dinner– a grand total of four. i don’t eat meat, so my boyfriend is going to just cook a few turkey breasts. maybe an extra one, so he’ll get a leftover turkey sandwich, but we’re being “lean” by most people’s standards. i hate throwing away food.