The turkey is a tyrant. It is the centerpiece of American Thanksgiving, but it is also the great and unforgiving monopolizer of the oven. For a feast where the sides—stuffing! yams! baked mac! veggies with maple syrup on them!—are arguably the true and most beloved main event, the turkey often gets in the way.

I have made multiple Thanksgiving feasts already this year while testing Thanksgiving delivery meal kits —meals complete with multitudes of sides and dessert. One problem remained constant: oven space. With a turkey in your oven for hours at a time, plotting the logistics of cooking five sides started to feel like a spreadsheet endeavor to rival corporate forensic accounting.

By the time I planned out my second big turkey feast—a complicated filing system of recipe cards, all de

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