Think people look forward to Thanksgiving dinner? Maybe – but it turns out that more Americans might be bigger fans of the few days that follow.

No, our interest doesn’t suddenly shift away from food to Black Friday or Small Business Saturday deals. When it comes to dining, it seems we prefer leftovers to the big meal itself.

“You don’t have a turkey every day, so it’s a special thing,” said Tony Kaufman, who owns The 581 in Mexico with his brother Nick. In the aftermath of Thanksgiving he prepares sandwiches and turkey salad.

Actually, the restaurant serves a popular roasted turkey slider every day, but the point is well taken. A whole turkey pulled from the oven tends to be for special occasions.

At Aussie Outback & Down Under, turkey is not a menu item – except this year, in honor of the holiday. Alice Smith, the restaurant’s manager, prefers turkey pot pie from the leftover bird, but she doesn’t stop there.

“I’m eating turkey, stuffing and sweet potatoes,” she pointed out.

Dagwood Jr owner Brad Deihl serves two kinds of turkey sandwiches, one with regular white meat and the other smoked. He also stocks a pumpkin gooey butter cake. When he turns to leftovers?

“Ironically, I usually make sandwiches out of them,” he said. “Cranberry and turkey sandwiches.”

Deihl, Kaufman and Smith are not alone. A 2013 survey by The Harris Poll reported that over 60 percent of Americans look forward to leftovers more than Thanksgiving dinner itself. Another Harris Poll, conducted in 2015, found that 79 percent admit that hosting the big meal is secondary to all that stuff piled back into the fridge.

In other words, Thanksgiving is a three-day – four max – binge.

A quick search of the internet reveals the scope of our obsession with Thanksgiving leftovers. Yes, sandwiches are a favorite, as are salads and pot pies. Taste of Home lists 25 new ideas, such as sweet potato and cranberry doughnuts. Food Network compiled more than 60 of their best recipes, including mashed potato pizza, stuffing waffles, fried stuffing bites and...

Wait – what happened to the turkey?

Well, thanks to a survey sponsored by The Honey Baked Ham Company, we now know that an overwhelming number of Americans favor leftover stuffing to the bird – or ham, for that matter. In fact, 31.1 percent picked stuffing, ahead of mashed potatoes (a mere 17.1 percent) and sweet potatoes with a lowly 9.7 percent.

Missouri’s top leftover? Stuffing. It was the same in 47 other states. Only Colorado and Washington looked past the day old bread, selecting mashed potatoes.

“I like cornbread stuffing the best,” Deihl observed.

Deihl notes that sales of turkey sandwiches at his popular shop drop off after Thanksgiving. He stops selling the pumpkin gooey butter cake, too. Meanwhile, at Aussie Outback, Smith hopes that the restaurant sells out of turkey so the kitchen doesn’t have to cope with leftovers.

“That’s why we have variety,” Kaufman said.

Even at the so-called “First Thanksgiving” – the one with the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag – turkey wasn’t the star. Indeed, historians believe the menu consisted of duck or goose and venison.

Britannica’s John M. Cunningham indicates that the first association with turkey and Thanksgiving came in an 1827 novel called Northwood, written by Sarah Josepha Hale.

The author gives roasted turkey and the Thanksgiving meal an entire chapter, with the golden-hued bird “placed at the head of the table.”

And this was long before Thanksgiving became a real holiday. Abraham Lincoln made the day official in 1863, after a lot of lobbying by Hale.

And yet, while turkey may not be America’s favorite leftover from the Thanksgiving table, it is gaining in popularity the rest of the year. In 1970, according to data found on the University of Illinois website, half of all the turkey consumed during a year in the US was on holiday tables. Today, that figure is at 29 percent.

No wonder sales of the bird at Dagwood Jr climb again after the holidays. Deihl explains that if he added his favorite leftover sandwich – turkey and cranberry – to the menu, he would do it sometime during the summer.

“I’d look for a stuffing bun,” he added.

The turkey sliders remain strong sellers at The 581 throughout the year.

“We have so many people who like them,” Kaufman observed. “People who get it get sweet potato fries.”