Our subject this evening is turkey, ladies and gentlemen. My bride decided I was going to cook Thanksgiving dinner last Sunday (even though Thanksgiving is quite a few months down the road.) Thanksgiving being my all time favorite holiday, I stepped up in fine fashion and delivered a monster feed on Sunday. Turkey, cornbread stuffing, homemade gravy, corn on the cob, asparagus, mashed potatoes with smoked gouda cheese, a mince pie and a pecan pie (yeah I had Cool Whip too.) What's better than a damn turkey? You cook a meal like the one described above, you're full as a tick before you've put a dent in it. You eat left over turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, etc. for a few meals. Then there's the heavenly turkey sandwiches. Mayo, a tomato slice, a piece of lettuce, a bit of onion, some dijon mustard and a slice of cheese or even the toasted bread, open face sandwich drowned in gravy. When you can no longer find a piece of meat big enough for any of the above, you simply chuck the carcass in a pot boil it, remove the meat from the bone put in whatever you have and you're in business with some fantastic turkey soup for a couple days. It really is the perfect food and quite affordable too.
Well yeah, pig fat of any variety is the bees knees but just doesn't seem to enjoy the linger time that a 12 or 13 lbs turkey does. I just finished up some hella spicy Turkey soup. The Amberbock is just for medicinal purpose, (for forehead is sweating. ) And for the record, I concur I love turkey and I love bacon but turkey bacon just isn't real bacon. Who ever thought of turkey bacon and worse yet tofurky ought to be taken out and hung.
OK, OK, since the original title of the post is What's Better, I'll confess, the lowly swine is indeed king of the good food mountain. But turkey is pretty damn good and you can get several meals out of a 12 or 13 lbs bird. And oh yeah, lobster is much better than turkey as well but affording to eat it in the desired quantity with the desired regularity can be quite a challenge.
I've been in charge of the thanksgiving turkey at my house for a few years now. Even though I live in upstate NY we rub our turkey and cook it over a low wood and charcoal fire. All the benefits of turkey already mentioned plus the goodness of wood. Now that's tasty.
Turkey is nice but most people don't have a clue how to cook it. The best way I've found is to actually part the bird before roating iut so you can put in the different pieces at different times so they all end up well cooked but moist and juicy.
Better than turkey... Turducken. If you are not familiar, let me bring you up to speed. It is a deboned turkey stuffed with a deboned duck stuffed with a deboned chicken stuffed with cornbread dressing. Stuff it with sausage and you have three birds and one pig on your plate at the same time!
You guys are making me hungry. For what it's worth the Turkey is much healthier than the Pig. Yes there are ways to make that Turkey just as artery clogging, but in general the cardiologists do better when more folk indulge in the porky stuff.
As much as I love to eat lobster, turkey is something that most people don't grow tired of eating. A New England lobster roll is one great sandwich, though. I'm with those who voted for pork, though, and I like mine pulled in the Tennessee or North Carolina way along with some homemade beans and cole slaw. Joanna, I could die a happy man if that was my last meal -- along with some Bozo's (Mason, TN) lemon ice box pie. http://westtnculture.com/barbq.html I'll be seeing my doctor next Wednesday. Judging from my last lab tests and what he'll be reading on the scales, he won't be very happy with me.
Pulled Pork with North Carolina vinegar/pepper based sauce might be the best thing on earth that doesn't involve a naked woman.
I've never been to Chicago but I have been to lots of great BBQ places in NYC and so far the best I've ever tasted is a place in Syracuse in upstate NY called Dinosaur BBQ. Sort of a cleaned up biker bar. They have branches in rochester and NYC too but I've never been to those. Dinosaur's ribs are better than mine and they rank near the top as far as food goes but I like the pulled pork from my back yard better than anything I've ever had in a restaurant.
DISCLAIMER: Naked barbequing is not endorsed by this poster. Any injuries sustained in such activities are the sole responsibility of those participating and poster will assume no liability.
