Saturday, 13 November 2010
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Who Makes the Best Thanksgiving Turkey? ME or HE?
Around this time every year, talk starts heating up about our annual family Thanksgiving feast, which has evolved into a hot competition over the last few years. Contention is between my husband and I - I, who love stuffing, and he, who loves his family turkey recipe which cannot be stuffed. And so followed the practice of cooking not one, but TWO (though last year it was THREE) Thanksgiving Turkeys on that forth Thursday of November!
My husband's family traditions generally revolve around food. His grandmother was a notorious cookie baker and we would all look forward to an invitation to dinner, which would, no doubt, lead to a round tin of cookies being sent home with us! Not only were there cookies, but there were smothered pork chops and cucumbers with vinegar and the famous M(?)-man tradition of biscuits and strawberries - biscuits made from scratch and by men only. Any woman trying to replicate this process would be shunned (for at least 10 minutes)!
But one of the most guarded family food traditions, was the pepper turkey, meticulously prepared by rubbing a mixture of salt and cooking wine on the inside cavity and a pepper, oil and parsley mixture on the outside. The result is a moist and tasty treat, but the downside is the inability to stuff the bird.
Though I do enjoy the M(?) preparation, I am extremely partial to stuffing of many kinds. My favorites are cornbread sausage stuffing and traditional sage stuffing with mushrooms. As the M(?) bird doesn't allow for my partiality, I made the executive decision of cooking my own bird(s) and banning the pepper turkey to the grill, which is agreeable to most men who feel more manly using large cumbersome utensils and cooking in the open air, thus simulating camping or being a cowboy on the range.
You may ask who eats all this turkey?! Over the last five years, we lived out of the country and the nostalgic draw of no Thanksgiving holiday called for a super-sized celebration and a several-month-long process of accumulating all necessary (and hard to find) Thanksgiving accoutrements. I will now define super-sized as 50+ people gracing our house on the Saturday following the actual holiday (or lack thereof). During this era, we converted many a non-American to the burning desire to invent a Thanksgiving of their own!
The constant banter between my husband and I over whose turkey was the most delicious created a buzz in the weeks leading up to the feast. Friends would whisper to us on the side that they liked our turkey better and each of us would secretly (though obviously) puff with interior pride. The natural juiciness of the non-stuffed pepper turkey, spurred me on to researching trade secrets for the most succulent turkey.
Last Thanksgiving, I think I finally did it! I believe I created the ultimate stuffed turkey! I'm pretty sure I beat my husband at that point, though it definitely helped that he had overcooked his turkey in his new massive man-grill that he had acquired for his birthday a couple weeks before. The whispered votes were definitely in my favor that year.
This year, I'm going for my second consecutive victory, so I'm asking all you amazing turkey chefs out there for your triple ultimate turkey secrets. I want juicier than juiciest! I need tastier than tastiest! And if you can divulge those secret ingredients and preparation tips for glorious stuffing, I'm all ears!
Please help me in my quest to blow away the family traditional pepper turkey competition!
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About the Author
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- From: chelleannette@xanga
- About Me: I'm an almost 40 mother of three teenagers, two crazy fat dogs and one husband. I live in and love New York City. In the last five years or so I've taken up French, shooting for eventual fluency and possibly picking up one day with the man after the kids are gone and moving it all to France. I also learned how to play tennis in the last few years and have, consequently become obsessed with the sport and acquired the delusion of playing on the WTA seniors tour or in a grand slam (Watch out Serena!) Living passionately, I want to see, smell, taste and feel the world through relationships, travel, food and whatever else life throws at me. Still waiting to discover what I want to be when I grow up!
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Comments (6)
Alton Brown's turkey is divine. I like "dressing" more than stuffing because stuffing a bird safely requires a lot of management, and most people don't do it right.
we always do the stuffing on the side.
@TheSecretLifeOfPandas@xanga - Don't you find stuffing on the side a little dryer and a little less full 'o flavor?
@i_r_keiko@xanga - Can you explain the difference? And what kind of management does it require - the stuffing, I mean?
@chelleannette@xanga - Well, my sister makes it and it's the most delicious stuffing. I also have a thing with things being too mushy, so for me the stuffing while it's not dry it's a little firmer then it would be had it been in the turkey.
but I guess it all depends on who makes it. her stuffing is epic. and I used to hate stuffing.
@TheSecretLifeOfPandas@xanga - OOOOH! Epic! Can you pass on the recipe?! I'd love to try it this year!
And that's funny about your issue with mushy things. My x-sister-in-law hated soggy bread and, therefore, had stuffing issues! Good to know this stuffing transcends that realm!