Why not go with an 18 to 20 pounder and send leftovers home with the guests also?

As the chief cook for TD, the Friday turkey is always better than on Thursday. The fuss is over and everyone is more relaxed. And when I have been the guest, I really appreciated not having to cook the next day and just remember the fun of Thanksgiving.

Speaking from reading - i.e. not personal side by side comparison - I understand that smaller turkeys are notably better than the big ones. Based on your description of the diners, I'd think that a 12-14 would be more than plenty, with leftovers. Buy a second one on sale Friday and throw it in the oven if you don't think you already have enough to make you sick of turkey for a year!

There are no "guests" - just the 6 of us. I asked my mom how large and she emailed back "no restrictions" (?) I should have asked what the minimum was. But the largest BJ's had was 11.42 lbs so that's what I got, it's in my freezer now, if she wants larger she can buy one at grocery store and I'll make this one some other time. I almost bought 2 but figured they wouldn't fit in the oven together and I have enough to do, don't want to try to cook 1 at my house (after running up to their house and putting the other one in the oven and peeling potatoes) and bring it to their house along with pies, whipped cream, rolls, green beans, carrots, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce and wine.

My dad said today 18 - 20 lbs was what they normally made. So I am off again this week to find a larger bird - I'll cook the 11 lb bird in January for just the 4 of us (and have tons of leftovers!). I have a coupon for 99 cents/lb (with additional $25 purchase, I'll have to see if I need anything else, maybe potatoes, canned pumpkin, vanilla ice cream) this week from the store where they were $1.79/lb on Friday.

I don't know if they're going to go on sale this year - I read in the paper that wholesale prices for turkey are over $1/lb but stores are selling at a loss to get people to come in and buy other things (hence the additional $25 required purchase). As with other meats (and now produce), drought and resulting grain shortages have resulted in decreased supply/increased costs. I only have those 2 chickens (and now a turkey) plus 2 small (2-3 lb) roasts left in my freezer, I was waiting for prices to drop to stock up again but they may not.

My meat club will buy 5 turkeys this year (to be killed two days before Thnkgv.). Every year we get the smallest, and we are always happy. I think a 11 pounder will easily serve 10 adults. We have five other dishes, and soup and dessert.

ajsmama, we also have 5 adults and one 9 year old, and I wanted to buy a 12 pound turkey. But the only sizes the store had were either 10 1/2 pounds for the smaller ones, and then 20 pounds or more for the larger turkeys. I managed to get one close to 11 pounds and I know we will be okay with that. I am not worried about left overs because hubby decided to make a turkey a week ago and we are still eating leftovers!

The locally raised heritage turkeys usually run about 20 pounds for the smallest ones. That's the size I usually get for 11 of us, and that includes four kids (a 1 year old, a 3 year old, a 9 year old and an 11 year old), plus my mother, my two son-in-laws who are big eaters, and Elery, I and my two girls, who are average eaters.

Mother takes some home, each of the girls takes some home and I keep a little, but we have very little left other than the carcass for soup.

Annie

Well, I've got to go with what my dad has always done in the past. I swear two 25-27 lbers served 50 people when we used to rent a hall for the entire family, and there *were* leftovers. But I guess my parents really like their sandwiches. As I said, my dad's a big eater. According to what I read online, smaller birds have more % bone so 2 lbs per person instead of 1.5 lbs is a better estimate, but *still* I'd think that 11.4 lbs would be enough for 5 adults (2 of them women who don't eat much, my mom would eat like 1 slice of breast meat and I eat the equivalent of 2 chicken thighs max and that's pigging out, won't eat again that day even if we have the big dinner at 2pm or so) and 1 very picky 11-yo.

For example, my guys will eat 2 chicken thighs each if I make them, and serve them on the bone (I would normally only eat 1) but if I make soup like I did last night (30 minutes in pressure cooker), or a casserole of something with lots of "filler" then 4 thighs is more than enough for the 4 of us. Tonight I browned 1 lb of ground turkey, saved about 1/2 of it, used 2 quarts of beef broth, 2 cans of beans and some leftover spaghetti sauce with ditalini to make soup. We each had 2 bowls (DS and DH might have had 3, I wasn't counting), and I have more than a quart of soup left over (DD just ate some leftover noodles with plain browned meat).

On The Washington Post site I found this quote "One of our staple resources in the Food section is the âÂÂChefâÂÂs Book of Formulas, Yields & Sizes,â by Arno Schmidt. The book says one 22-pound turkey will yield 12 pounds of roasted meat, including scraps, which equates to 22 servings �" lining up perfectly with the USDA guidance." which is 1 lb uncooked per person. That's just over 1/2lb of cooked boneless meat per serving.

I'm sure the guys *could* eat 1 lb each (though DH and DS maybe less since there will be side dishes) but yeah, good estimate if they each have a sandwich later that night, there's 3 lbs. Mom, DD and I combined will eat 1.5lbs perhaps (that's with me pigging out b/c no way is DD going to eat 1/2lb of meat), there's 4.5 lbs of meat, no bones. If an 18 lb turkey yields 9-9.5 lbs of meat then we'll have about half left over, I would be fine with 2 lbs of leftovers for sandwiches(plus half the bones to make soup), that should last a week (DH and DS go through a lb of turkey lunchmeat each week but carved turkey is thicker, I think you tend to use more, and I'll be eating it too). That leaves 2.5 - 3 lbs or so (plus half the bones) leftover for my parents.

So I really think 18 lbs is enough, no reason to buy 20 (4 lbs per adult!).