[Sca-cooks] Report on Thanksgiving experiments...OP

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Nov 24, 2005, at 6:57 PM, Elaine Koogler wrote:

> We used to take a weekend every so often and cook stuff we'd never  
> tried before...we have fun working in the kitchen together!   
> However, Phillip has been on the road so much that we just haven't  
> had the time or the inclination to do this...he usually arrives  
> home on Friday night, and flies out again on Sunday.  He only wants  
> to collapse on Saturday!  So this was a very special time for  
> us...and, fortunately, it all worked out very well.
>
> So...what'd the rest of you do??

Just a tad embarrassing, but we did what we've done for the past  
several years: normally my Mom would do a turkey and a couple of  
pies, and everyone would bring everything else, to my Mom's house.  
Over the past few years this has become too much for my Mom to handle  
(she's now 87 and it's been a difficult year for her), but we'd  
gather at her house and I'd bring a turkey (I live close enough so  
it's still hot when I arrive), plus the Official Mashed Potatoes,  
accept no substitutes, and the requisite gravy that pretty much shows  
up when you cook the turkey, as well as the creamed onions I dare not  
show up without (apparently my brother has declared no one else in  
the family is allowed to make them... I'd better teach him to make  
them before I die). <shrug>

Nothing very inspiring-- my family is large and lives far apart, and  
the social aspect is paramount, but as always, I did take care to  
season everything perfectly but simply, and let the food speak for  
itself; I was in a Mark Bittman mood. I also managed to throw my back  
out moving furniture on Wednesday, so I wasn't in the mood for  
anything elaborate. Still, I did the Alton Brown brining process  
(roasted it a little differently), and the turkey was tender,  
flavorful, and juicy. The potatoes and onions were utterly essential  
in the literal sense.

So, naturally, about six people came up to me and made a point of  
coming up to me and saying, "My... God... that... was the _best_  
gravy I have ever eaten in my life!"

Which, naturally, opens up a variety of touchy questions... I didn't  
do anything bizarre to the gravy. It was just... gravy. Maybe my  
version of acceptable gravy (I wouldn't have served it had it not  
been acceptable) is unusual, but I thought the reaction was a little  
extreme. Unless everything else was bad and people were trying really  
hard to be nice? The only thing I can think of that was even remotely  
unusual was the fact that the pan drippings from the brined,  
unstuffed turkey were probably pretty powerful, and the stock I'd  
used was homemade "meat tea" made from actual soup chickens. Brown  
roux made with a mixture of butter and olive oil, and mirepoix (two  
parts onion to one part each carrot and celery) in the bottom of the  
roasting pan doubling as both aromatic and roasting rack.

Have I lived all my life without realizing that gravy is some sort of  
big mystery, or is my family just nuts? I mean, yes, they're nuts,  
but I wasn't aware of this particular facet of the group nuttiness...

Adamantius