Thanksgiving

Roasting pans, racks and the countertop roaster:

most people roast in the oven they already have, and the pan decides how the bird comes out. A heavy roasting pan with handles and a V-shaped rack lifts the turkey out of its juices and lasts for decades. Foil pans are cheap, single-use and buckle when lifted full, so they go out on a flat baking sheet. Then there is the electric roaster from Hamilton Beach or Nesco, a deep tub with its own thermostat that sits on the counter. It earns its place when a whole turkey will not fit the oven at home, or when the oven is needed for the sides and the pie. Before buying any pan, measure the inside of your oven with the shelves in: a pan that touches the walls cooks unevenly. The same pan comes out again a month later for the turkey on Christmas Eve, and the rest of that night sits under Christmas.

Thermometers, carving sets and the turkey platter:

the plastic pop-up timer pushed into a supermarket bird is a one-off guess. A digital probe thermometer is the tool worth owning, and also the one that most often turns up barely used, next to carving sets and electric knives. On the table, the large oval platter is the piece people hunt for. Johnson Brothers’ His Majesty pattern, with its turkey in the centre, is the one collectors know, and a platter or plates from that set hold their value far better than plain white. Glass Pyrex pie dishes and gravy boats are year-round pieces that happen to be bought in November, and in Costa Rica the pie dish gets its other outings under a pie de limón.

Harvest décor in a country where the leaves never turn:

every maple leaf on a Costa Rican Thanksgiving garland is fabric or plastic. Leaf garlands, wheat sheaves, wicker cornucopias and runners in rust and gold carry no year and pack flat, so they keep from one November to the next. Faux pumpkins cross over from Halloween, and plenty of hosts skip them for a basket of ayotes and dried mazorcas from the feria, which look the part and end up in Monday’s soup. Fabric leaves fade wherever the sun reaches them, so look at a garland in daylight.

A used roaster, a used pan and the china:

plug an electric roaster in and let it heat with the lid on: the dial should click and the light cycle off once it reaches temperature. Lift out the insert and look for chipped enamel, because bare steel rusts, and check the cord where it enters the body. Set a roasting pan on a flat table and press the corners; a warped base rocks and scorches the drippings. Flaking non-stick finishes a pan whatever the brand, and a rack that will not sit flat has usually come from another set. On china, run a finger round the rim of a platter for chips, tilt it to the light for crazing and knife marks, then turn it over: the backstamp gives the maker and the pattern. A propane turkey fryer should come with its burner, regulator and hose, the hose free of cracks.

A roaster or turkey platter listed in early November:

that is when people start planning, and the selling window runs longer than for most seasonal things, because the same pan, roaster and platter are wanted again for Christmas dinner. If yours has not gone by the fourth Thursday, retitle it for December instead of putting it away. Give the inside length and width of a pan and a roaster’s capacity in quarts, the figures people check against their own oven, and photograph the rack inside the pan, the roaster with its insert out and the back of any platter. Someone driving over from Heredia or Jacó for a roaster will want to watch it heat, so have it plugged in and warm when they arrive.