What Seasonings Do You Need for Thanksgiving Dinner?

For a traditional Thanksgiving dinner you need three things on the spice shelf: a poultry seasoning for the bird and the dressing, a salt-pepper-garlic blend for the potatoes, vegetables and casseroles, and a salt-free all-purpose blend so you can season twice without doubling the salt. Add a pepper grinder and real butter and you can cook the whole table. Everything past that is a nice-to-have, not a need.

We make a list like this every year because the opposite happens otherwise: you buy eleven little jars in the third week of November, use a teaspoon of each, and find them again next October smelling like dust. Here is the short version, then the dish-by-dish version.

The short list

Three blends, one grinder:

• Anything With Wings — our organic poultry seasoning. Sea salt, garlic, coriander, onion, black pepper, cumin, basil, cayenne, oregano and ginger — no sage in it. This is the bird, the dressing and the gravy. 5 oz resealable pouch, $13.49, or a 2.6 oz glass jar at $9.49.
• The OG — salt, pepper and garlic, three ingredients and nothing else. This is mashed potatoes, green beans, Brussels sprouts, mac and cheese, rolls, anything roasted. 5 oz pouch, $13.49, or a 3.4 oz jar at $9.49.
• Zilch. Nada. None. — the same kind of savory flavor with no salt at all. This is the one that saves a dish you have already salted, and it lets anybody at the table add flavor at their own plate. 5 oz pouch, $13.49, or a 1.9 oz jar at $9.49.
• A pepper grinder. Pre-ground pepper that has been open since Easter tastes like paper.

All three are USDA Certified Organic, gluten free and kosher, with no MSG, no fillers and no anti-caking agents. Shipping is free over $25, which two pouches clear.

Dish by dish

The turkey

Poultry seasoning, inside and out, plus butter under the skin. Figure about a tablespoon per 4 to 5 pounds of bird, which is roughly 3 tablespoons for a 14-pound turkey, and get some of it under the skin where it touches the meat rather than the surface you are going to throw away. We walk through the whole thing in how do you season a turkey.

The dressing or stuffing

This is the dish people actually judge you on, and it is sage-forward. Anything With Wings has no sage in it, so use the poultry blend plus dried sage from your own shelf, as much as your family likes — a tablespoon and a half of seasoning per pan, stirred into the warm broth so it spreads evenly instead of sitting in one corner. The full method is in how do you season cornbread dressing.

Mashed potatoes

Salt the water, then season the finished potatoes with the salt-pepper-garlic blend and taste before you add more. Potatoes absorb salt quietly, so taste twice.

Gravy

Drippings are already salty. Season the gravy last, after it has thickened, and use the salt-free blend here — you want more herb and garlic, not more salt.

Green beans, Brussels sprouts, carrots

Olive oil, the salt-pepper-garlic blend, a hot oven. That is the whole recipe. Roast at 425°F until the edges go brown.

Sweet potatoes

If you are going savory, salt-pepper-garlic and olive oil. If you are going sweet, brown sugar, cinnamon and butter — a seasoning blend is not what that dish is asking for.

Mac and cheese, corn casserole, squash casserole

Cheese and cream swallow salt. Season the sauce before it goes in the dish, not after it comes out of the oven, and use the salt-pepper-garlic blend.

The deviled eggs and the cheese board

A light dusting of anything savory on top. This is where a salt-free blend earns its keep, because the eggs already have mayonnaise, mustard and salt in them.

What you can skip

Poultry seasoning and Italian seasoning overlap on thyme, marjoram and rosemary — if you own one, you do not need the other for one meal. Pumpkin pie spice is cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves; if you keep those four, you can mix it in a bowl. And you do not need a separate "turkey rub," a separate "stuffing blend" and a separate "vegetable blend." That is three jars doing one job.

How much do you buy for twelve people?

One 5 oz pouch of poultry seasoning handles a turkey and two pans of dressing with plenty left. One 5 oz pouch of salt-pepper-garlic covers every side dish on a twelve-person table. The salt-free pouch will last you into spring, because you use it a half teaspoon at a time. Two pouches get you free shipping; three gets you through Christmas dinner too.

Quick answers

What is the one seasoning I need for Thanksgiving if I only buy one?

A poultry seasoning. It is the only one that is doing a job nothing else on your shelf can do, because it covers both the turkey and the dressing.

Can I use poultry seasoning on the side dishes too?

On the potatoes and the green vegetables, yes, in a light hand — it will taste like the dressing, which some families love. On mac and cheese it fights the cheese. Use salt, pepper and garlic there instead.

When should I buy my Thanksgiving seasonings?

Two weeks out. Shipping gets slow the week of the holiday, and the one year you wait is the year the store is out of sage.

Every Flavor Seed blend is USDA Certified Organic, gluten free and kosher, with no MSG, no fillers and no anti-caking agents, made in small batches by our family in Charlotte, North Carolina.