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There’s no shame in having a cluttered refrigerator. Cooking, more than some people realize, is a collector’s hobby, and hoarding unique sources of flavor is entirely normal behavior for an enthusiastic chef. And while a fridge full of fermented pastes, pickled things, one-of-a-kind condiments, and dependable stock bases might be an eyesore, it’s worth having the variety on hand. As the cultivator of that sort of bursting fridge I will say that maintaining equilibrium between the fresh ingredients and long-term stock is easy enough 51 weeks a year. It’s only around the holidays, and Thanksgiving in particular, when it becomes a problem.
The November feast of brown and beige demands an uncompromising amount of space, in your home, in your budget, and above all, in your fridge. Each time I’ve hosted Thanksgiving this issue has come up and each time I’ve put off dealing with it until the last possible moment. In an ideal world I would plan out my meals strategically in the weeks prior in order to clear out as many non-Thanksgiving items as possible, but I’m not that kind of person. Instead, I rely on a crude but highly effective method I call grabbing and shoving as much as possible into a cooler.
On Thanksgiving my cooler is not full of nice cold ones; it is full of three different types of mustard, a jar of eggplant salad, and the block of Costco cheddar I’m still working on. It’s not the most elegant solution, but by doing it this way I don't have to throw out anything I want to keep. There’s no smushing, no tedious games of Casserole Tetris, and no trying to fit a large bowl into the crisper drawer. Also, if you do the deed before any of your guests arrive, it will appear as though you are a person who is on top of things, and that’s valor worth stealing.
In theory pretty much any cooler will work; it just depends on how long you expect it to serve as temporary storage. Since I tend to return everything back to the fridge in the evening after all the cooking is finished, I only need mine to keep things chilled for a couple of hours. My particular cooler is an Ice Mule, which works for me because it’s compact and inflatable (both of which make it easy to store), and the 15-liter capacity is enough to handle what I need it to.
But if you have a significant amount of stuff to clear out or plan on keeping food in there for more than 24 hours, you should make sure that the cooler can handle the job. Even if Thanksgiving weather conditions are on your side, maintaining consistent temperature below 40 degrees can be tricky over longer periods of time. If you’re currently without a cooler, an affordable rotomolded one would do the trick here.
I understand that this isn’t a problem for everybody. Plenty are content with the shoving, stacking, chaos of the holiday season. But the bliss of having not just enough room, but enough room to spare, is a nice luxury to have when you have a turkey in the oven, cranberry sauce on the stove, and distant family members you’re not exactly thrilled to see knocking at your door.
