Not violently allergic, but there’s a reason, apparently, why I always get a little sick on Thanksgiving and don’t feel well for a few days—if I eat turkey. They disguise it. I can usually detect it: turkey pastrami and lunch meat to me has a very bad flavor. You can spice up turkey itself so it tastes pretty good—but apparently it and I don’t get along.
So I’m doing lasagne and fixing turkey for Jane. We’ll have stuffing. Stuffing and lasagne just boggles the mind. But hey, if I don’t put turkey gravy on mine, I’ll be fine.
Chicken, I’m fine with, and it doesn’t taste bad. But turkey, not so much, apparently.
Ouch! I’ve never known you could be allergic to a particular meat…could it be the way it’s cured, perhaps?
Over here we can get some textured protein called Quorn that do a not too bad fake turkey range – mostly aimed at the vegan / veggie market. they aren’t too bad when used with the rest of a traditional dinner
That’s annoying, considering that at this time of year, turkeys are a bargain; frequently you can pick them up for a pittance or free-with-promo. Hams are more expensive as well since last year’s swine sickness messed quite thoroughly with the pork market. Beef roasts have gone up in price too, how’s your fish prices? You will have to be creative for your festive holiday meals.
You can be allergic to most anything, but it could be something used in preparation.
I’ll get by just fine with my lasagna. 😉 I’m with Garfield. I like lasagna.
I thought I was allergic to some foods, but my GI doc set me straight. If one is allergic, then the consequences go down the lane to anaphylaxis, swelling of the mouth or throat, rash, diaresis, shock. What I have are food intolerances, which take a different path, sounding much as you describe, upset tummy, nausea, light headedness, diarrhea, etc.
Trader Joe’s has a turkeyless–um, log? “Meat” on the outside around stuffing. They also have a sausage stuffing and many other yummy seasonal dishes.
A PBS Nova program on landslides, especially the March 22, 2014 Oso, Washington slide:
http://video.pbs.org/video/2365370505/
I personally have never been able to detect much taste difference between chicken and turkey. Since ritual festive fowl seems to be very much a part of the US Thanksgiving tradition, I would suggest taking out a mortgage, going to a proper butcher and getting either an organic roasting chicken or a capon (if you can find one). These alternatives should fulfill all the turkey requirements: platform for cranberry sauce, source of boundless gravy, support for serious overeating, endless leftovers. I suspect your allergy is to whatever antibiotics, additives, etc. they use in raising turkeys rather than the birds themselves.
Re: the weather. Last evening on the radio somebody as an aside said that below-freezing temperatures had been reported from every state in the US, including Hawaii. Is this so Chondrite? A nasty shock if true!
There is a difference. Turkey is just a bit more flavorful. I like chicken thighs and wings; they have more flavor than breasts.
We do indeed get below-freezing temperatures on the tops of the main mountains, like Haleakala, Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa; snow, too. Our astronomers are not pleased with the age-old emnity between Madame Pele and Poliahu, the snow goddess who lives on top of Mauna Loa.
Turkey wings go into the turkey broth.
Lol—turkey to me tastes and smells mildewed. Strongly mildewed. Chicken tastes like, well, I suppose like everybody else tastes it.
Ritual Festive Fowl? OMG! Don’t eat Woodstock!
::big-grin:: ::wink::
My favorite is a Cornish game hen (really just a small chicken). They taste mild, not gamey, and usually are very moist. Getting the frozen game hens is okay, they thaw in about two days in a cold refrigerator. I prepare my game hens the same way I used to prepare a turkey, but you aren’t burdened with so many leftovers that they go bad before you finish them. They also take much less time to prepare and roast, although you may need to wrap the tips of the wings and legs in foil to keep them from crisping. I like making a glaze with melted butter, currant or apricot jelly, and a compatible liquer. Dressing (stuffing) is any way you like to make it. A brown rice based stuffing works well I usually stuff the bird, and because they are small, when the internal temp of the bird reaches the safe range for poultry, the stuffing will be done as long as you haven’t stuffed them too full. The skin around the neck is loose and can also be stuffed. At our house we normally fix one bird for each person, who is then responsible for taking their leftovers with them. Really, 1/2 bird is gluttony for one.
Not quite “just”. It’s a specific breed that’s quite different morphologically than most breeds raised for meat, e.g. Plymouth Rocks, Rhode Island Reds, New Hampshires, Brahmas. The key word is “Game”, because they descend from chickens raised for cock fighting. They’re muscular, smaller-framed, and have less fat. I’d say if we were to make a comparison in dogs, typical meat breeds of chickens would be your St Bernards, Newfies, Great Pyrenees, and Cornish Games are the Greyhounds, Whippets, or Dobies.
I’ll buy allergy. I have a friend who is allergic to corn, including corn alcohol; she likes the flavor of corn, though. (Grilled corn on the cob is very tasty. Remove silks, soak in water to get the husks soft, then grill until the husks start to char. Doesn’t even need butter.)
I stuffed and roasted a duck this past Sunday for us for dinner… Yum! Duck fat may be the tastiest fat there is! [Yes, I know that is a politically/dietarilly incorrect comment: I’m just being honest.] The meat’s pretty darn tasty too.
Chinese Roast Duck is delectable. You can keep Peking duck, which is an expensive way to make 1 duck serve a dozen people, and you end up not eating half of it; if the server can’t whittle a nice slice off the carcass, it goes back to the kitchen. Give ME the leftovers, not the serving staff!
Honestly, we live on a diet of under 50 carbs a day, most of those veggie-sourced if we’re being good; and grain-sourced (bread/pasta) if not. We eat a fair amount of dairy in cheese form, which is concentrated; fruit as a rare treat, fat mostly from cheese and nuts and olive oil, and no desserts. If you look at one serving of most non-diet dishes commonly sold in the frozen foods area, they’re about 50 carbs a serving, not even saying that word ‘dessert’, so we try not to do that. Not even a cookie. We supplement with vitamins and minerals, to be sure we get what we need.
This is how we ‘keep it off’ after losing weight. But it’s been a while since we were on the sincere diet track, and we need to get back there. Weight has crept up a bit during the fall, with birthdays and such and also with my month-long knee problem, which started it all, and it needs to creep right back down. We’re going to hold it down, have our holidays, then start a campaign, taking the carbs down to 20 and staying with that until we make the progress we want.
Duck fat. Yes. Potatoes roasted in duck fat. The only thing better is goose fat!
I love most of the traditional fixings for the Thanksgiving and Christmas feast, but the wife either loathes the taste or can’t tolerate the food. So the first year we were married 16 years ago, we started steaming crab legs and grilling a venison steak for her. It makes for a lot of cooking, but guest and family think we have some of the most interesting holiday feast. We go traditional and creative.
Sorry you and turkey don’t get along. We will equitably divide your share of the world’s turkey among us. It would be interesting to see if eating wild turkey affected you in the same way as eating “farmed” turkey, which is somewhat of a man-made genetic monstrosity.
Sorry I haven’t been contributing much lately. Lost my 92-year-old dad in September. The 16th would have been my parent’s 68th wedding anniversary. It’s been hard. Then, yesterday, my mom took his life insurance money, as per his wishes, and replaced my 27 year old Toyota “Crayola” (whose clutch was on its last legs) with a new 2015 yesterday as my Christmas present this year. Now that I have a car I’m not afraid to take on the highway, if there’s a Shejicon next year, I just may come.
My condolences to you, Wol. Losing one’s parent is hard on the psyche. But he will be with you in spirit in the car. Mind, if your Dad was a strong, ‘back-seat” driver, this might be an interactive but mixed blessing.
So sorry for your loss.
You have my full sympathy.
So sorry about your dad.
The death of a parent or a parental shakes the foundations of one’s world as nothing else can do. The solid ground which has been there for as long as memory is suddenly; and even if long expected, it is sudden; gone. It is as difficult as losing a child, though for different reasons. My most sincere condolences.
WOL, I am so sorry.
And we may indeed do a Shejicon-mini in the days before or after the Spokane Worldcon. Jane and I aren’t actually attending the Worldcon formally; we’ll just kind of drop in around the fringes, meet folk we need to meet, including the DAW folk… But yes, there will be something, and hopefully this next year I won’t be so stupid as to sprain my knee.
BTW, certain lace items are hanging in our living room. We love them.
a Shejicon-mini would be great. I had no plans to attend Worldcon, nor desire to attend Worldcon, for that matter. But a Shejicon-mini would be great fun.
We roast a pair of cornish game hens, which as also not too expensive and darn easy to do. Plus they are fun to dismember and eat like a barbarian, one per barbarian, please.
Brine them for a couple hours in the morning, stuff with a bit of celery and parsley (and onion for those not allergic to it), rub with your favorite seasonings, insert a thermometer in a meaty portion and bake. You can accompany with traditional sides or make up your own. Look for brine and baking recipes online.
If you’re looking to expand your poultry horizons, see if you can find silkies. They are chickens about bantam size, bigger than Cornish game hens but smaller than your regular fryer pullet. My part of the world has a large asian population so exotic things can be found even in the freezer cases of mainstream supermarkets. The thing about silkies is their skin is blue/dark purple/black. (They have black feathers apparently) The meat is the same in appearance as any other chicken, but you can really get in touch with your inner barbarian sucking back a piece of crispy silky skin. The last time I cooked a silky it was with brown rice/wild rice stuffing.
Most of the ones I’ve ever seen were white feathered, still dark skinned.
I’m wondering if the flavorings in that turkey pastrami and lunch meat include onion or garlic in some form. They hide so much under ‘natural and artificial flavorings’.
Had our Thanksgiving feast early this year, ie, when (most) everyone could get together. No turkey for us, as we’re vegetarian, but plenty of other traditional fare. (Who needs turkey when you’ve got potatoes and dressing?) Have heard tofurkey (tofu turkey) is excellent, but have never tried it. They don’t seem to sell it around here. We don’t see a problem with going the lasagna route, however. Always a tasty dish!
I had an aunt who was allergic to turkey. At Thanksgiving we always made her a nice steak instead. (She wasn’t allergic to chicken, she just preferred steak.)