Turkey Talk 2011

It’s funny about food. One advantage to getting multiple food magazines from semi-serious (Food & Wine, Bon Appétit) to serious (Art of Eating, Cook’s Illustrated) kind of allows one to get an overview of food trends, or at least believe you do. I have pretty much given up watching the Food Network, just makes me nauseous these days with all the celebrity crap. Competition? Gimme a break.

Food

So anyway, a couple of years ago, fanciness was all the rage.  There was brining, de-constructing, rubbing, heat up, heat down, flip, tent, and so forth. Now it seems to be we’re getting back to basics, just roast the damn thing. Although Saveur is an “international” publication, I was surprised that the lead article was about “The Perfect Bird”, written by Molly Stevens. Thank god it wasn’t Molly Wisenberg. I was pleased to see her lead off with “I used to be expected to come up with newfangled takes on the Thanksgiving Turkey each year. I’ve brined it, smoked it, fried it, dry rubbed it; but eventually I (and everybody around the table) tired of elaborate seasonings and complicated preparations. What we really craved was a fantastic roast turkey….”. I might beg to differ with her on the last point, I kind of think “fantastic” and “turkey” are an oxymoron.

And maybe the editors of the magazines are beginning to reach the same conclusion. Although Martha Stewart Living devotes the cover to “Make it your BEST thanksgiving ever” the magazine devotes a whopping 6 pages (of 212) to the subject with only one turkey recipe. The rest is “Martha” stuff about making placemats with woven weeds from her yard and so forth. And the recipe is simple: Put turkey in oven at 425, roast 30 minutes, reduce temp to 325 until temp of bird (thigh) reaches 165. She does use a cheese cloth. And speaking of celebs, Food & Wine also has only one Thanksgiving turkey, this by Michael Symons. I never knew he existed but come to find out he owns seven restaurants and does four TV programs. What a food dedicated soul he must be. Lots of pictures of him and beautiful people enjoying themselves. Almost like Thanksgiving is a second theme.. His turkey is also put in at 350 and left to cook.

And that pretty much sums up the dozen or so recipes I looked at. Some call for starting at high heat for X minutes, then lower, some just stick it in about 365/75, baste and wait for the temp in the leg to reach 165 or 170. Only one source, Bon Appétit has four bird recipes, and all of them (!) called for the somersault technique of breast down then flip someplace in the process. So, “simple” pretty much carries the day. Preparations vary some, Tandoori, Cider brined with star anise, plenty of glazes, but mostly just plain roast the thing. I pretty much agree with that. Good old iconoclastic Cook’s Illustrated suggests braising a Turkey Breast. Not a whole lot (yes, there is some) of difference between braising and boiling!! The difference in finished product between jumping through hoops and just roast the thing is probably miniscule at best.  Okay, I will pass along one food tip.  It's a good idea to rotate the pan in the oven every hour or so...

Now “sides” are pretty much a different animal (ha ha). Here’s where you can flex your culinary muscles if you wish, or just do Grandma’s green beans.. Speaking of which, a quick aside here: I was in the supermarket the other day, and there were a pair of couples of my generation in the aisle and the conversation ran to: “Okay, you go get the green beans, I have the mushroom soup, and we need to find the dried onions”. Any bets on what is on their Thanksgiving table? Anyway there was plenty of magazine ink devoted to the vegetables and starches to go along side your pretty good turkey. Brussels Sprouts are in: “Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Capers and Walnuts”; as are almost any root vegetable: “Celery Root, Kohlrabi, and Apple Puree”; “Creamed Onion Gratin”; don’t forget those green beans; “Green beans with Miso and Almonds” and greens: “Creamed collard greens”; Squashes: “roasted Squash with Mint and Toasted Pumpkin Seeds”. And don’t forget the spuds: “The Fluffiest Mashed Potatoes”; “Potato and Celery Root Gratin with Leeks”; and yes, “Sweet Potato Casserole with Pecan Crumble”. Seems like all the sides take a basic ingredient, and then “fancy it up”. They are, after all “Gourmet” magazines.

Drink

Surprisingly, pretty much absent in all the magazines was any extensive treatment of wines. Most didn’t even suggest a wine. Ray Isle, the wine guy for Food & Wine, did a piece called “Wine Lover’s Guide to Party Planning” wherein he listed what he thought was value priced wines at Target, Trader Joe’s, Costco, and Whole Foods. Bon Appétit’s David Lynch listed what three Sommelier’s were drinking alongside his picks. The three Sommeliers he selected were characterized as Pragmatic, Iconoclastic, and Hedonistic. For instance the Iconoclast chose an “orange” wine from Long Island, the Hedonist took a 1er Cru Burgundy, and Mr. Pragmatic chose a Cru Beaujolais (NOT Nouveau!). Incidentally, “orange” wine is made from white wine grapes that are left on the skins (not normal practice) and so take on an orangish hue. All the rage these days.

Pairing wasn’t mentioned much, although I did like an article in the Washington Post Food Section called “What do you pair with baloney?”. The slant the article takes is to make some sense of Thanksgiving wines and the attendant aura.. He takes on the myth that “No wine can stand up to the Thanksgiving meal”. While kind of true, he suggests that wine should go with courses, such as a minerally Chablis with the poached oysters, a grand cru Burgundy with the roast pheasant, the myth arises when “the oysters are roasted inside the turkey, served with mushroom gravy, cranberry sauce, and marshmallowed sweet potatoes, and that’s when the Sommelier runs screaming from the room”. His defense is to serve several wines of varying variety.....Which upon reflection is pretty damn close to my Drink Whatever the Hell You Like” advice.  Still is!!

Dessert

So, there’s the Thanksgiving report for this year. While not in depth, I don’t think it has to be. The myth that Thanksgiving should produce wonderful, gourmet inflected, meticulously prepared food is bunk. The very first Thanksgiving was only about giving thanks for what they had, and that they were still alive and thankful for nature’s bounty. Maybe we should think about that rather than brining the poor bird in a 25 ingredient brine, prying under its skin, twisting and turning it during cooking, poking it with a thermometer, resting and carving.

No, the real joy of Thanksgiving is that it provides a reason to convene family and friends, a time to remember Thanksgivings past and people that were at the table then, and now only in memory and spirit, enjoy a meal and each other. Raise a glass to those memories, the ones in the making, and the many people that are in faraway places away from their families on this day.  Bless them.

Okay, enjoy whatever you cook and those you share it with. And of course on this occasion you MUST

DFD

PS: And if that glass you raise contains a Grand Cru Burgundy, so be it!!