Your Perfect Holiday Menu Can Be Planned in Seconds With AI

The holiday season is here, and if you’re planning to throw a big feast for your family and friends, it’s time to start planning the menu so you have plenty of time to purchase those ingredients. And artificial intelligence might be the best sous chef out there.

While it may be one of the most magical times of the year, it’s also one of the most stressful. Vacation memes are hilarious, but there’s nothing funny about working in a hot kitchen from sun up to sun down only to have an aunt you see twice a year questioning the quality of your mac and cheese. “Who did this?” can be a very tricky question when you’re hosting.

This can be a time to revel in the bounty of the season’s most succulent offerings. But it’s also when loved ones dive too deep into the sauce and start arguments about pronouns at the table.

One way AI can help you is by taking the guesswork out of planning an undeniably delicious meal, no matter what the vacation has in store for you. Here’s how to use it.

Choose an AI tool and discover your skills

Because I would like to have the advantage of choosing some recipes on the web, I use Microsoft’s in-browser text-prompt AI tool, Co-pilot. Copilot uses LLM processing as well as cited sources from the Internet to respond to conversational search queries, and can analyze web pages while you browse.

But make sure you give him the information he needs. For example, if you can barely boil water, don’t ask an AI tool to design a multi-course French-Chinese fusion banquet with sous vide steaks and flat noodles made from scratch.

I let Copilot know that I was an amateur in the kitchen and it gave me easy-to-prepare recipes with easy-to-find ingredients and minimal steps and prep. One of the options even seemed fancy: the green bean almond, which is literally just green beans with sliced ​​almonds.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased technical content and lab reviews. Add CNET as your preferred Google source.

Staff the AI

Let the robot chef know how many hungry people will be there for your holiday meal. I used Microsoft’s Copilot to convert this sauce recipe from the New York Times to accommodate 20 people and it seamlessly converted the measurements to a larger batch.

Edit recipes as needed

Not everyone wants raisins in their potato salad, and it’s best to avoid foods that might upset the stomach or trigger allergies when you’ll all be at the table in close proximity.

For example, Copilot was able to offer me critical ingredient substitutions on the fly to remove the onions from the green bean casserole.

Consider your budget

Let the AI ​​tool know how much you need to spend on dinner. Copilot was able to provide me with a list of inexpensive, flavor-packed meals, including waiting for sales or discounts on turkey, getting a smaller turkey, and using plain potatoes, canned stuffing mix, packets of gravy mix, pre-made pie crust, and canned versions of beans, cream of mushroom soup, pumpkin cranberry sauce.

Copilot estimated the total cost of my meal to be between $50 and $75 and included a detailed price breakdown for each ingredient I would need.

Be sure to check your local prices though. I’m not convinced you can still find real whipped cream for $2 a container, as a quick search reveals the price to be closer to $4.50. However, something called “whipped topping” was on sale at Kroger for $1.79.

Let the AI ​​know what you’re working with

Sometimes bad things happen to good people, and one of those bad things might include losing use of your oven over the holidays. Copilot was able to step in with solid suggestions for cook a whole turkey without the help of an oven. Please do not fry a frozen turkey.

I pressed Copilot further, letting the tool know I only had a large pot to cook with, and it gave me a detailed recipe on how to poach a whole turkey.

Whatever your job, AI seems to be a good kitchen companion.

Don’t let your critical loved ones know that a robot helped you season the turkey.