Animal Crossing: New Horizons (ACNH) Guides

Turkey Day Thanksgiving Event Guide: Ingredients, Recipes, Rewards

Turkey Day with Franklin is an event in Animal Crossing: New Horizons celebrating the American Thanksgiving holiday with recipes to cook and special prizes to collect!

This event is a new feature introduced in the Version 1.6 Winter Update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons and requires a fully updated game to experience. Learn more about everything in the update here.

Turkey Day Thanksgiving Event Start Time & Date

The Turkey Day event with Franklin is held in Animal Crossing: New Horizons on American Thanksgiving every year! This year, it will begin on November 26th, 2020 at 9AM and run until  Midnight.

Please note that Nintendo has temporarily date locked the Turkey Day event until the real-world date of Thanksgiving is reached, making the event unplayable right now even with time traveling. It’s possible for hacked Nintendo Switch systems to play the event though.

This date is the same for islands in both the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere. Note that Resident Services with Isabelle must be unlocked to experience the event.

When the new island day starts at 9AM on November 26th, the Turkey Day Thanksgiving event will begin with the following changes:

• Franklin the Turkey will appear outside on your island near Resident Services wearing his chef hat.
• A cooking table with pots, pans, and ingredients will be setup outside Resident Services.
• Dining tables and other holiday decorations will be setup nearby.
• Villagers will put on hats, carry plates and drinks, and hang out around the plaza.
• Special festival Thanksgiving music will start to play.

Turkey Day Thanksgiving Event Activities — What To Do

Once the Turkey Day Thanksgiving event begins in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you can participate in helping Franklin with cooking meals for the entire island! We’ve summarized the main activity flow for this event below, with more details on each part later in this complete guide.

Some information below is speculative based on pre-release media and past Animal Crossing games. It will be updated soon after the event is released.

• Talk to Franklin outside Resident Services to get recipe ingredient instructions for a Thanksgiving dish.
• Learn hints for the ‘secret’ fourth ingredient in dishes by talking to villagers.
• Collect the recipe ingredients around your island by fishing and gathering materials.
• Get other cooking ingredients like Butter, Milk, and Sugar by trading fish to your villagers inside their houses.
• Bring the requested recipe ingredients to Franklin at Resident Services to cook the dish and receive Turkey Day DIY Crafting recipes and items!
• Get an extra reward for correctly giving Franklin the ‘secret’ ingredient in all four dishes you cook.

Learn more about all of the fun Turkey Day activities you can enjoy on Thanksgiving in the sections below, including specific details on how to get every item reward available in this event.

Cook Recipes For Franklin

To begin the Turkey Day Thanksgiving event, head to Resident Services and find Franklin hanging out by his cooking table. He’ll introduce himself and provide instructions for a dish he needs cooked with a list of specific cooking ingredients.

There are four different categories of dishes that Franklin will ask you to cook for him. Each recipe requires three different main ingredients that will be disclosed to you, plus an additional fourth ‘secret’ ingredient that won’t be directly revealed by Franklin.

You’ll need to go around your island looking for these ingredients and bring them back to Franklin at Resident Services to cook his requested dish! Once you’ve completed one, repeat the process for another recipe.

Sometimes Franklin and villagers will give you hints about the secret ingredient for a recipe though, so pay close attention to anything they say!

For details on the different cooking ingredients and how to get them in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, check out the Gather Ingredients section below later in this guide.

Turkey Day Recipes List

In the sections below, we’ll fill in all of the possible Turkey Day recipes we can discover in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Find one we’re missing? Help us out in the comments below to complete this guide.

Clam Chowder Recipe

The Clam Chowder recipe can be cooked on Turkey Day using the following ingredients:

• 3 Manila Clams
• Secret: Scallop

You can get Manila Clams by digging up squirting spots on your island’s beaches. The Scallop can be found by diving for sea creatures in the ocean and is used as the secret ingredient to enhance the Clam Chowder afterwards.

Pumpkin Pie Recipe

The Pumpkin Pie recipe can be cooked on Turkey Day using the following ingredients:

• 1 Orange Pumpkin
• 1 Random:
  • Green Pumpkin
  • White Pumpkin
  • Yellow Pumpkin
• Secret: Two Pumpkins not originally requested.

You can grow Pumpkins by purchasing Pumpkin Starts from Leif year-round, or at Nook’s Cranny during October. Franklin will ask you for an Orange Pumpkin and one other random color initially, with the other two remaining colors used as secret ingredients to enhance the Pumpkin Pie afterwards.

Gratin Recipe

The Gratin recipe can be cooked on Turkey Day using the following ingredients, depending on the island hemisphere setting:

Northern Hemisphere

• 1 Mussel
• 1 Random:
  • Flat Mushroom
  • Round Mushroom
  • Skinny Mushroom
  • Oyster
• Secret: Dungeness Crab

Southern Hemisphere

• 1 Squid
• 1 Sea Urchin
• Secret: Dungeness Crab

You can find Mushrooms growing around trees during November. Mussels, Oysters, and Sea Urchins can be found by diving for sea creatures in the ocean. Squids can be fished from the ocean.

The Dungeness Crab can be found by diving as well and is used as the secret ingredient to enhance the Gratin afterwards.

Fish Meunière Recipe

The Fish Meunière recipe can be cooked on Turkey Day using the following ingredients, depending on the island hemisphere setting:

Northern Hemisphere

• 1 Sea Bass
• 1 Random:
  • Dab
  • Olive Flounder
  • Red Snapper
• Secret: Barred Knifejaw

Southern Hemisphere

• 1 Sea Bass
• 1 Random:
  • Olive Flounder
  • Red Snapper
• Secret: Barred Knifejaw

All of the ingredients above can be easily found by fishing in the ocean around your island, including the Barred Knifejaw used as the secret ingredient to enhance the Fish Meunière afterwards.

Gather Ingredients For Franklin

Franklin will ask for a variety of different ingredients from you on Turkey Day to cook each recipe, with three disclosed and fourth ‘secret’ ingredient left a mystery! You can discover the secret one by talking to villagers.

Many of the Turkey Day ingredients can be easily gathered on your own at any time around your island like fruits, fish, sea creatures, mushrooms, and pumpkins. Check your house storage as well.

If you’re not able to find one of these ingredients on your own for some reason, like say if you don’t have any pumpkin plants to pick or there aren’t any mushrooms on your island, you can obtain them by trading fish to villagers inside their homes.

Additionally, there’s a set of specifically cooking ingredients for the Turkey Day event that can’t be traditionally gathered like Butter, Flour, Milk, Sugar, and Vinegar! You can only get these ingredients by trading with villagers.

Turkey Day Ingredients List

You can find a table below containing all of the possible ingredients we know so far and exactly how to get them in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Find one we’re missing? Help us out in the comments below to complete this guide.

Ingredient	How To Get
Green Pumpkin	Grow using Pumpkin Starts
Orange Pumpkin	Grow using Pumpkin Starts

Turkey Day Thanksgiving Item Rewards & Prizes

It wouldn’t an Animal Crossing: New Horizons event without some rewards to collect for participating and Turkey Day is no exception to that rule!

Each time you successfully collect the ingredients for a dish and cook it with Franklin during Turkey Day, he will reward you with a DIY Crafting recipe for the Turkey Day Set of furniture. In past Animal Crossing games, this furniture set featured a predominantly purple and pink color scheme, but appears to have been redesigned this time around to be more subtle.

If you correctly provide the fourth ‘secret’ ingredient for all four Turkey Day dishes cooked, Franklin will give you the Cornucopia item as a prize for your hard work.