The Thanksgiving ordering timeline for restaurants and bakeries runs on one simple rule: anything frozen, shelf-stable or case-packed gets ordered in October, and only the true perishables wait for the week of the holiday. Thanksgiving 2026 falls on Thursday, November 26, which puts the sweet spot for case orders between October 5 and October 23. Order then and you have a full month of buffer for backorders, substitutions and a second delivery if counts change.
Below is the working timeline we use with the chefs and bakery owners who buy from our Brockton warehouse, broken into four windows with a buy list for each. Every item named here is stocked in our Thanksgiving Prep collection, so the list doubles as an order sheet.
Three things converge in the second half of November. Distributor trucks fill up, frozen pie and pastry stock gets allocated to whoever ordered first, and your own walk-in runs out of room. Ordering in October moves the long-shelf-life items out of that crunch entirely. Frozen pies, tart shells, IQF fruit, purées, canned pumpkin, nuts, dried fruit and spices all hold for months, so there is no quality reason to wait.
There is also a portion-planning reason. Once you have a headcount estimate, you can convert it into cases and know exactly what is on the shelf. A widely used foodservice benchmark for a plated Thanksgiving is about one pound of raw turkey, three quarters of a cup of stuffing, a half cup each of mashed potatoes, vegetables and cranberry sauce, a third of a cup of gravy and one slice of pie (an eighth of a pie) per guest. For 100 covers that is roughly 13 pies, 12.5 quarts of cranberry sauce and 19 quarts of stuffing. If you need those numbers for any size party, the Feast Planner does the math.
Start with last year's numbers if you have them, then adjust for reservations already on the books and any catering commitments. Decide now what is house-made and what is bought finished. A bakery running 300 pies in a week has a different list than a restaurant plating 80 covers, but both need the same three categories locked: pastry, fruit and seasoning.
Pastry is where a finished product saves the most labor. A Chef Pierre 10-inch pie shell gives you a consistent base for house fillings, while pre-baked pumpkin pies, pecan pies and ready-to-bake apple pies cover the volume you cannot produce from scratch. For plated desserts or a cheese course, 4.1-inch neutral tart shells take both sweet and savory fillings.
This is the main order. Everything below ships in one to two business days from our warehouse and holds until the holiday.
| Category | What to order | Why now |
|---|---|---|
| Pies and shells | Pre-baked pumpkin, pecan and apple pies; 10-inch pie shells; neutral and sweet tart shells | Frozen stock is allocated first-come; holds for months |
| Cranberry | Sliced IQF cranberries for sauce and compote; Decas sweetened dried cranberries for stuffing and salads; Boiron cranberry-cherry purée for coulis and sorbet | Frozen and dried; no quality loss from ordering early |
| Pumpkin | Seneca solid-pack pumpkin, 6/#10; Boiron frozen pumpkin purée; pumpkin pie spice | Shelf-stable cans and frozen purée; the #10 case covers roughly 40 pies |
| Nuts and chestnuts | Fancy jumbo pecan halves, medium pecan pieces, walnut halves, unsweetened chestnut purée | Store cold and they keep; pecans spike in demand in November |
| Seasoning | Poultry seasoning, rubbed sage, thyme, bay leaves, celery seed, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, allspice, kosher salt | Dry goods; one order covers brine, stuffing and pies |
| Pantry | Dark brown sugar, sweetened condensed milk, vanilla extract, shortening, gelatin, caramel sauce | Shelf-stable; avoids the last-week scramble |
A note on the pumpkin math: a #10 can holds about 106 ounces, and a standard 9- or 10-inch pumpkin pie uses roughly 15 ounces of purée, so a six-can case yields approximately 40 pies before you account for custard scaling. Order accordingly.
The week before Thanksgiving is for the items that do not freeze well and for anything the October order undercounted. Butter is the big one. Cabot foodservice butter in 30-pound cases and Beurremont 83% for laminated doughs both move fast in this window, and both are in our warehouse inventory. This is also the week to confirm pickup or local delivery if you are in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire or Maine, since the free-delivery thresholds ($250 for MA, $500 for RI, NH and ME) are easy to clear with a top-up order.
If you are roasting whole birds, this is the window the USDA thaw math points to. Refrigerator thawing at 40°F or below takes about 24 hours for every 4 to 5 pounds, so a 20-pound turkey needs four to five days in the walk-in. Cold-water thawing runs about 30 minutes per pound and the bird must be cooked immediately afterward. Either way, poultry is done at 165°F measured in the thickest part of the thigh, the wing and the center of any stuffing.
Monday and Tuesday are for fresh produce, herbs and any dairy you did not pull the week before. Wednesday is pie day and casserole day, which frees Thursday's ovens for the birds. If you bought pre-baked pies, Wednesday is just thaw-and-hold; if you bought ready-to-bake, run them Wednesday afternoon so the ovens are clear by Thursday morning. Cranberry sauce made from IQF fruit can be finished Tuesday and held cold; the pectin sets as it cools, so make it a day ahead on purpose.
Four to six weeks for anything frozen, canned, dried or spice-based. For Thanksgiving 2026 that means placing case orders between early and late October. Perishables such as butter, cream and fresh produce come in the week of the holiday.
Plan on one slice per guest at an eighth of a pie each, which works out to 13 pies for 100 covers. Round up if you are offering more than one variety, since guests will often ask for a sliver of each.
Yes. Frozen cranberries go straight into the pot without thawing and behave the same as fresh once they heat through. Cranberries are naturally high in pectin, so the sauce thickens on its own as it cools without added starch.
Roughly 106 ounces by weight, which is close to seven 15-ounce retail cans. A 6/#10 case covers about 40 standard pies.
Pre-baked pies only need to be thawed and, if you like, warmed before service. Ready-to-bake pies go into the oven from frozen and give you a fresh-baked crust and aroma. Pre-baked saves oven time; ready-to-bake gives a better presentation for plated service.
Yes. Warehouse items ship in one to two business days nationwide, and orders in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Maine qualify for free local delivery at $250 (MA) or $500 (RI, NH, ME). Warehouse pickup in Brockton is also available.
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