“Thanksgiving Turkey”

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving!  It is a feast of celebration in our home, as it is the same in so many other homes across the USA.  The tradition of Thanksgiving apparently goes back to the Pilgrims and the Indians of Plymouth, who somehow put aside their differences to sit down and have a Thanksgiving meal together.  Whether the story is actually true or is simply an American myth, it is a powerful one, told and retold to school children across the land.  It helps form for us a national identity.  You must be American to celebrate Thanksgiving.  Transplanted Americans from other lands and nationalities can celebrate this too, if they desire. It is a unique American holiday!  It is a time we can all set aside our differences, bring family together from the far reaches and remember to give thanks to God for all his bountiful gifts!

I remember quite vividly as a child my anticipation of Thanksgiving.  I have always enjoyed eating and our Thanksgiving dinner had no limits on the amount of consumption allowed.  For a growing boy, I celebrated this day more than Christmas.  Christmas had its many presents and toys, but Thanksgiving had it many delightful foods!  Given an option, I will choose my family’s cooking at Thanksgiving to any gift of toys anywhere, anytime!  Once I was so excited in anticipation of the Thanksgiving meal, I did not eat more than the bare minimum for three days.  I was quite disappointed when I found my stomach had shrunk to the point I could hardly eat anything at all.  It took me another two days to recover my eating, so I could enjoy the leftovers and not miss out on this annual meal.

Everyone, I suppose, has one favorite dish which is part of this grand meal.  For me it is the dressing, covered with giblets and gravy.  This gravy in my home is never served but once a year, since it requires the drippings from the turkey and the turkey liver, gizzard and heart minced up and placed in the gravy with pieces of eggs.  As they say, “it is to die for”, especially when ladled generously over the dressing.  In my home there is no stuffing, but corn meal dressing, which includes both sage and celery with a little black pepper.  Our tradition is to make it with chicken broth, since the turkey broth goes into the large pot of gravy.  The dressing must be moist, never dry, and the amount produced should last almost three days, since this is the essential part of the meal which goes with the turkey, as first the white meat, then the dark meat is finally consumed.

Hannah says the macaroni cheese and the sweet potato casserole are her favorites.  The sharp cheddar cheese mixed throughout the macaroni makes it moist and delicious.  The sweet potato casserole is laden with brown sugar and pecans melted together into the most delicious topping ever to grace a casserole.  The sweet potatoes have been beaten thoroughly by the mixer so all coarse fibers are removed and the sweet potatoes melt in your mouth like soft pudding.

Sometimes we have green beans, sometimes kale and cranberry raisin salad.  Joyce brings her famous deviled eggs which are so good, I eat at least three before I even start the meal.  Dorothy cooks everything, or course, as I am banned from the kitchen except for one item I will speak of later, the grand turkey bird.  The final course is a sweet potato cake obtained from the Brick Oven in Greenville, SC, which is so good a line forms outside the bakery.  It must be ordered at least three weeks ahead, or it is not seen at Thanksgiving, such is the demand for this one cake across the whole county.

The grand turkey bird is the only part of the Thanksgiving meal I am allowed to do.  Ours is a never frozen butterball turkey we obtain from Cosco, at least 18 and sometimes up to 22lbs.  That is the absolute largest size which fits in our turkey pan.  A lot of folks around our way do theirs in the turkey fryer, a large cylindrical pot full of hot peanut oil.  These are quite delicious, too, but it is impossible to obtain the drippings from a deep fried turkey.  Since my goal is not the turkey but the turkey gravy for the dressing, I use a reliable tried and true method that even someone like me cannot mess up.  My method is called the “turkey bag”.  This is a large cellophane bag, which is found in every grocery store I know of, which holds up to a 22lb turkey.  Once the turkey is washed and treated with oil or butter and the giblet material removed, including the neck which I discard, the turkey can be placed in the “turkey bag.”  A couple tablespoons of flower are thrown into the bottom of the bag before inserting the turkey and the bag is secured at the top with a twist and tie.  At least six slits are placed in the top of the bag to allow heated air to escape, but not so many as to lose the moisture.  The oven is preheated to 325 degrees F and the turkey according to size and weight is placed in the oven from approximately 3 hours 15 minutes to 3 hours 30 minutes, according to the clarity of the juice and the brownness of its skin.  No thermometer is required if you observe the color of the drippings.

After removal from the oven, the turkey is set aside to cool for about 45 minutes to 1 hour so the drippings can be recovered.  When cool but still liquid the pan is tilted just so to allow one cut into the base of the turkey bag and the precious juices flow out into a container in the bottom of our deep sink.  This is prime gravy material.  After this is drained and secured in a large Tupperware bowl, the turkey can be placed in the refrigerator overnight to cool.  A cool turkey will carve easily, while a hot turkey will not.  After securing all the breast slices on one tray, I then place the dark meat pieces on another, which are combined on a third tray for display before the meal.  The bones, skin, extra fat and any gristle is discarded and my display of succulent meat is refrigerated until the meal is ready to be served.

Anyone desiring a hot piece of turkey simply smothers it with gravy and along with the honey baked ham, a person can eat until there is no more room left.  Coffee, pie and cake finish the meal until all the family, relatives, guests and friends find full satisfaction.

Wise hosts send as much of the meal home with those who came to eat it.  Otherwise, the consumption of the leftovers for the next three days requires so much consumption as to cause a person to feel positively a glutton, which may cause enough guilt to prevent preparation for Christmas, which follows close on the heels of Thanksgiving.  Black Friday is coming and then Monday for electronics.  I never do any shopping until a few days before Christmas.  Alternatively, I give the credit card to my daughter, who enjoys shopping for everyone, including herself and I can sink back on the recliner and ponder what size turkey we will need to have for next year.

Bill W.