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You can get in your head about Thanksgiving in a major way. You can start planning a meticulous schedule weeks out, do a bunch of prep to lessen how much you’ll have to clean afterward, and pore over recipe after recipe after recipe to make sure your meal is perfect. The day could go by more easily, though, if only you brought out a cooler (or two or three). A cooler is not just for chilling the beer and wine for your guests—it will solve more problems than you might imagine. Here’s everything you can use a cooler for to help you tackle the big meal.
Brine your turkey
The first thing you can do with a designated Thanksgiving cooler is brine your turkey. According to Life Savvy, it may not be cold enough where you are to brine your turkey outside, but this is not a problem! Fill that cooler with ice and grab “a heavy-duty plastic bag to park the turkey and the brine water in; then brine the old bird in the cooler instead of your fridge.” (Don’t know how to brine a turkey? No issue. We’ve covered it for you already.)
You can also use the cooler to thaw the turkey, starting no less than 48 hours before you plan to kick off the actual process of making it. Check on it regularly, but rest assured a fully frozen bird is going to take a while to thaw out in there.
Cook a side dish
We’ve recommended “cooler corn” in the past and while you probably think of it as a camping staple, why not give it a shot on Thanksgiving to make a perfect side dish?
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Throw a bunch of corn cobs into a cooler, dump two kettles of boiling water over them, and let them sit in there for 30 minutes. They’ll be cooked just right and you can use the extra time and oven space for other dishes.
Keep food warm
While you might have a grand plan of everyone sitting down at once to enjoy the meal all together, you know there will be early snackers, late arrivals, and mismatched prep times. Some food is going to need to be kept warm for one reason or another, and that is where a cooler comes in.
The name cooler is a little misleading; it’s insulated, which makes it good for maintaining any kind of temperature. Life Savvy also recommends using an empty cooler to keep your dishes hot until it’s time to serve them. Put a wire cooling rack or some trivets in the bottom to make sure hot pans aren’t coming into contact with the insulation, and keep the lid closed tight to maintain toasty temps.
Rinse your dishes
The New York Times suggests using a cooler as an extra dish-soaking station to maximize your plate-cleaning efficiency. (They also suggest using your bathtub, which provides a sense of how hectic this holiday can be for hosts.)
Keep a cooler of soapy water in the kitchen, and ask guests to deposit their soiled china in there, leaving your sink open for rinsing and hardcore scrubbing.
Just use it as regular storage, too
Don’t get overwhelmed by all the cooler hacks, either. Sometimes, simpler is better, but we lose sight of the forest for the trees. You can use the cooler as a root cellar, housing your carrots, celery, and onions, per The Kitchn, or just serve drinks out of it to free up fridge and counter space.
All told, three coolers—one for the turkey, one for the dishes, and one for storing ingredients and then cooked food—could go a long way in helping you get through this holiday. And if you’re a guest this year, bring your contributions to the meal in a big cooler, then graciously offer these tips up to your host, who may be grateful for the dish-soaker/food-storer/time-saver.
