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 | I know, we're at the beginning of November, but the Thanksgiving Feast does take quite a bit of time and planning -- enough that we have never celebrated Thanksgiving on T-Day in Italy, because we simply can't take time off from work during the week for a holiday nobody else is celebrating -- Especially wife E, who is a GP. So we get together with American friends on the nearest weekend, and celebrate then.
And while we're on the subject of holidays, a couple of people have written to wish me a happy Diwali. I confess I was unaware of this Hindu holy week, but it sounds wonderful. Happy Diwali! | |
Roasting the Bird Around About & Around the World
The range of About's food channel never ceases to astonish me, and just about every school of cooking has at least one recipe for a stuffed bird -- Even vegetarian, though it's based on tofu rather than bird. This is a collection of recipes from the various sites on the food channel, as well as advice on techniques, from brining to boning, and safety tips and more. Even if you have a recipe you will use you should give it a gander, because you are sure to find an inspiration (or two).
| Boning a Bird
There are two major techniques for boning a chicken or turkey. One involves making a cut up the back of the bird, and this means that if you want to stuff the boned bird you then have to sew the cut up. The other, which my father-in-law practiced daily in his poultry shop, does not. He demonstrated it to me a few years ago, and I took pictures. Took him 10 minutes to bone two birds, and when he was done I had two techniques on film.
| Never Boned a Bird? What Italians Do Thereafter
Italian stuffings for birds tend to be much firmer than American-style bread stuffings -- they generally contain meat, and even cold cuts, and serve to extend the bird as it were, making more meat available. Since there are no bones, the cooked stuffed bird is sliced and served in slices, each of which includes bird and stuffing. Here is what E and I did with one of the birds Adriano boned, and good eating it was!
| L'Uccello Ripieno: Stuffing the Bird
Italy is astonishingly diverse culinarily, and though those living outside of Italy may consider a dish to be Italian, say tortellini in broth, if you look more closely it's regional -- tortellini originate in the area around Bologna, and even though they are now popular most everywhere, people still consider them to be Emiliani. The same of course holds true for bird stuffings, and here we have a collection of Italian recipes. Under featured articles (below, to the right), you will find some suggestions for sides. Happy T-Day, a bit early, but in time to plan!
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