Life Is Meals_ A Food Lover's Book of Days - James Salter [112]
In fact, it is a native of North America and was eaten enthusiastically by the original inhabitants. Columbus may have crossed paths with turkeys on his fourth voyage in 1502, but it wasn’t until Cortés’s conquest of Mexico in 1521 that they were transported to Spain and from there to the rest of the Old World, where they quickly became popular. In England, large flocks were driven on foot, their feet tied in sacking or leather boots to withstand a walk that often took a week or more from the countryside to London. They were intended to arrive in time for Christmas and soon replaced the goose on holiday tables.
ROASTING A TURKEY
Benjamin Franklin always believed that the turkey, instead of the bald eagle, should be the national bird, being “much more respectable and a native of North America.” He was talking about the wild turkey, smaller than our domesticated variety and a bird described as “wary to the point of genius.” The wild turkey is said to have been the one eaten at the first Plymouth Rock Thanksgiving in 1621. Almost 350 years later, vacuum-packed roast turkey with all the trimmings was the first meal eaten on the moon.
Excellent cooks differ in their methods for roasting a stuffed turkey. One way is to set the oven at 325 degrees F and cook the bird covered with a cheesecloth, basting it occasionally. Another—our preference—is to start the browning by putting it in a 450-degree oven for twenty minutes, then turning the heat down to 325‑350 degrees and basting frequently through the cheesecloth. A six- to sixteen-pound stuffed turkey should be cooked twenty to twenty-five minutes per pound. Over sixteen pounds, it is eighteen to twenty minutes per pound.
CARVING A TURKEY
Carving has been considered an art since at least Roman times, when wooden models were provided in the kitchens to instruct servants, and music was played as they practiced to encourage grace and rhythm with the knife.
By the late 18th century, there were thirty-eight terms for carving, depending on the dish: pigeons were “thighed,” pheasants “allayed,” deer “broken,” and salmon “chined.” As in the past, it is still an honor to be designated carver, though now the challenges are turkeys and roasts.
For a turkey:
(1) First, remove the thigh and leg from the body by fixing the leg with a large two-tined carved fork. Cut through the skin, then bend the leg outward to cut through the thigh joint close to the body.
(2) To carve the breast, insert the fork across the middle of the breastbone, which is on top when the bird is on a platter. The breast should be cut in thin slices down from the breastbone, angling slightly toward the wing joint. Carve the entire side nearest you before beginning on the other, which can be kept intact to prevent it from drying out until more meat is needed.
In general, beef seems more tender if cut against the grain of the meat, but with a standing rib roast, it is easier to cut between the ribs, which is with the grain.
THANKSGIVING
In 1789, George Washington, during his first year in office, declared November 26 “A Day of Publick Thanksgiving and Prayer” intended to acknowledge “with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God.” It wasn’t the first Thanksgiving celebration, but it was the first official one in the newly formed United States.
The earliest Thanksgiving was in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1621, attended by the Pilgrims and Indian chiefs Squanto, Samoset, and Massasoit, along with ninety of their men. For the next 150 years, individual colonies organized their own Thanksgiving remembrances, often tied to specific victories in battle or a good harvest and usually marked not with eating, but with fasting and prayers.
In 1863, President Lincoln proclaimed the fourth Thursday of November a national