Let's Talk Turkey (1955)

It's that time of year when some people get a little hot and bothered in the kitchen, what with all the holiday cooking to do.  Are you sweating it?

An overseas correspondent recently suggested that your Head Trucker publish some guidelines for preparing a real American Thanksgiving dinner. Well, I suppose I could; but since this falls under the heading of What Everybody Knows over here, I doubt that it would be of much use to anyone living between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. And of course the only correct way to roast a turkey is--the way your mama did it.

And the components of a Thanksgiving dinner are too standardized to bear repeating in detail: a turkey with stuffing or dressing; giblet gravy, which each diner pours over his dressing and his mashed potatoes too; down South here, next comes green bean casserole, which in my lifetime has become the sine qua non for any large family meal; and another vegetable or two to round things out (in my family, we usually had canned asparagus gently heated in butter sauce, and candied yams or perhaps a sweet potato souffle); and some kind of dinner rolls, preferably the classic Brown & Serve rolls that you just pop in the oven for ten minutes. And one must not omit the cranberry sauce, as essential with turkey as mint sauce is with lamb.  For dessert, it is de rigueur to have at least one of pecan pie, pumpkin pie, or sweet potato pie, along with whipped topping or vanilla ice cream, and of course a good cup of coffee or two.

Beyond all that, each family has its own particular and time-hallowed menu traditions. A few years ago, it came to the attention of M.P. and myself that many black families have a tradition of eating macaroni and cheese instead of mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving. Now to my way of thinking, mac and cheese from a box is very tasty, but too pedestrian a dish to be considered for a festival meal; mais a chacun son gout. M.P. taught a black friend and co-worker how to make the dish from scratch, with a few extra-yummy ingredients, which he was thrilled to learn, and he has since, we hear, become the King of Mac and Cheese at every family gathering.

If you have lost or forgotten your mama's directions for cooking a turkey, there are any number of YouTube videos that will show you how to proceed; but as in all things culinary, no two are exactly alike, so I would suggest looking at several before settling on the version that seems most practicable to you. But I will make one suggestion if there are only a few persons to be fed at your house: it is nowhere mandated in law that you must eat turkey on Thanksgiving, believe it or not. Thus, a very small gathering can be well and easily fed on a roasting hen instead of a turkey; it can be prepared like a turkey and served with all the traditional trimmings, and you'll have plenty of bird to go around, but much less left over. Or for a few dollars more, a capon is a delightful change from ordinary chicken, with an elegant, delicious flavor all its own. Just sayin'.

Well, I have said all I know that is worth saying about turkey dinners.  But here is a very helpful video from six decades back that may teach you some things about turkeys you never knew before: