Preparing Thanksgiving feast no easy feat

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Jason Tudor
  • 380th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) --  An American Thanksgiving kitchen is often a loud, clattering commotion of cooks, noise, smells and relatives arguing about what time the Dallas Cowboys' game starts. By the time the chaos settles onto polished dining room furniture, all that's left are the clean-up, naps and a good game of bid whist.

The same could be said about the 380th Expeditionary Services Squadron's dining facility kitchen in the days leading up to turkey day. Sans noisy relatives with neverending stories, the 26 people who planned and cooked this base's formal Thanksgiving meal were hustling now to meet Thankgiving's 11 a.m. start time -- for good reason.

"Yes, people will be away from home, but they will still get the same quality here," said Tech. Sgt. Jeffrey Slowick, NCO in charge of the dining facility. "This meal is about morale. Everybody gets to sit down and enjoy."

And, oh, what they will enjoy: three-quarters of a ton of turkey, including 24 whole birds; 350 pounds of ham; 613 pounds of steamship round roast; 56 sweet potato pies; 42 apple and pumpkin pies; and 32 pecan pies.

That's just a slice of the feast. There are also enough mashed potatoes to make an Idahoan proud, enough cranberry sauce to wrestle in, as well as an assortment of candy, nuts and much more.

Staff Sgt. James Lotz ordered and received that basket of groceries. The $25,000 food order -- bought from the Defense Supply Center in Philadelphia -- arrived in country Nov. 1. The contractor delivered it here Nov. 15. Everything checked out fine when he got it. But what if it hadn't?

"We would have sent it back," he said. "We wouldn't sacrifice quality for quantity. We would have made Thanksgiving happen another way. It might not have been exactly a Thanksgiving meal, but it would have been Thanksgiving."

Ten cooks started preparing the meal Nov. 21, three days before the first hungry Airman hits the food line. Sergeant Slowick said the meats get cooked first.

"The cooks pull the meats, put them in a thaw box and start cooking everything to meet demand," he said. "We have to make sure everything is cooked properly before we put it onto the serving line at 11 a.m."

He said the most difficult items to prepare are the steamship round roasts. One roast weighs 65 pounds and is slightly larger than a beach ball.

"The roast has to be cooked 14 to 16 hours to make sure it's the correct temperature inside," Sergeant Slowick said. "You can't halfway cook it and start over."

Turkeys and hams take about three hours to cook. Almost everything else can be done Thanksgiving day. That is, if the equipment cooperates. There have been issues with a few of the ovens in the past.

"There's going to be a lot of stress on the equipment," he said. "There are also a lot of things going into the ovens at the same time."

Even as they preflight the Thanksgiving meal, the dining facility team is still making breakfast, lunch, dinner and a midnight meal. From the start of the week to today, the crew served 11,100 meals. That's 133 meals served every hour until show time -- in addition to flipping and stuffing the holiday birds.

None of this is lost on the facility's patrons, like Staff Sgt. Scott Harris. The 380th Expeditionary Security Forces Airman knows his Thanksgiving, too. His hometown is a stone's throw from Plymouth Rock.

"It won't be the same," the Carver, Mass., native said. "We usually eat, watch football, and have a good time. Then we head down to Plymouth Plantations."

However, when Sergeant Harris heard about the volume of food and the effort undertaken by the dining facility workers, he smiled.

"Thank God," he said. "Their effort is great. It can't be something that's easy."

To ensure those 3,000 meals reach an expected 1,300 people, both dining facility lines will serve holiday food (no snack line). The center of the dining facility will teem with pies, cakes and other goodies.

The combat dining facility is not left out of this fray, either. Workers at the CDK will prepare some food, but most will be brought over during the day. After all, Airmen will still be "meeting the frag" as turkey is served.

Despite the volume of food, there are some things the staff won't be able to replicate.

"We can't bring people's families over," Sergeant Slowick said. "Some might want snow. Others might want to hit the beach after their meal. Everybody has their own thing and to bring it all into the DFAC is hard to do. We'll give them comfort and a good meal. The football comes later."

So, while the chaos of family and commotion of a busy kitchen may be missing for some, the food will be in abundance. Sergeant Harris said that makes it worthwhile.

"In addition to the food, this is a time for everyone to get together and reflect on giving thanks," Sergeant Harris said. "We can sure be thankful for what the dining facility has done."