Here’s something Walton Gas customers can be thankful for this holiday season: Those priceless memories created around the Thanksgiving table with family and friends come at a low cost. The natural gas energy it takes to cook a holiday meal for 12 guests costs about 42 cents.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture says you should cook a thawed stuffed turkey of regular size for 4-4.5 hours. The cost of natural gas needed to operate an oven set at 350 degrees for one hour is about 6¢. So a turkey roasted for four hours costs about 24¢ in natural gas.
The cooking costs breakdown for your Thanksgiving meal:
- Roast stuffed turkey cooked 4.5 hours: 24¢
- Large pan of mashed potatoes cooked for 20 minutes: less than 2¢.
- Giblet gravy cooked on the stove for 10 minutes: less than 1¢.
- Homemade dinner rolls baked for 30 minutes: 3¢.
- Vegetable casserole cooked for 1 hour: 6¢.
- Two baked pumpkin pies: 6¢
TOTAL: 42¢
Cooking Smart
Walton Gas offers these tips to get even more energy value while cooking your holiday meal:
- Use glass and ceramic dishes. They hold heat well and allow you to lower the oven temperature by 25 degrees.
- Cooking turkey in a roasting bag can reduce cooking time by nearly half.
- Keep the oven door closed. The temperature drops 25-75 degrees each time the oven door is opened, so monitor cooking time and peek through the oven window, if possible, to check on your food.
- Plan to bake more than one dish or cook an entire meal in the oven to save energy.
Did you know?
- Americans eat 46 million turkeys at Thanksgiving, according to the National Turkey Federation. Another 22 million are eaten at Christmas.
- 34% of Thanksgiving meals are cooked in gas-powered ovens.
- Butterball’s Turkey Talk-Line, which the company has operated since 1981, employs 50+ experts who answer more than 100,000 questions each November and December.
- You can talk turkey with a Butterball expert by calling 1-800-BUTTERBALL (1-800-288-8372). The company’s experts also answer questions via Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, live chat, text and email.