Are your taste receptors ready? It is time to start getting
those taste buds active for the big holiday feast. How to prepare,
you ask? My best suggestion is to begin by starting now to think
about those wonderful traditional foods served at your own family
Thanksgiving dinner. Year after year. See if your brain can send
remembered flavor and aroma sensations back to you now.
Are your taste receptors ready? It is time to start getting those taste buds active for the big holiday feast. How to prepare, you ask? My best suggestion is to begin by starting now to think about those wonderful traditional foods served at your own family Thanksgiving dinner. Year after year. See if your brain can send remembered flavor and aroma sensations back to you now. Close your eyes, go back in time. Clear your mind of everything except for one particular Thanksgiving day years ago. Yum, I can almost smell and taste my grandmothers turkey and farm made sausage apple dressing right now.
Be careful wandering back in time, or do so with an open mind as other memories may crop up as well. As I am thinking about that wonderful day, I am also now remembering that old turkey platter she always used, really old and slightly cracked with dark and light blue designs on it. Great-grandfather Cord Brunnen brought it from Germany. My brain has wandered away from the pleasant food memories. Now I am thinking about the platter too much.
“What ever happened to it? I bet that ungrateful cousin of mine ended up with it and who knows where it is now. It should have been mine.”
Wake up and get back to reality. It is food we are talking about today, getting our taste buds ready for yet another family gathering.
Traditional Thanksgiving dinners are always the same, until someone passes a new plateful of food saying, “Here, taste this and tell me what you think.”
That is what makes eating extra special. Instead of just putting forkfuls of food into your mouth, make your tongue search out the various taste sensations and then try to describe it verbally.
In order to do that, you need to understand where the taste buds are located on your tongue. The first buds on the tip of the tongue detect sweet, the ones along the side receive salty and acidic, whereas the buds located near the back of the tongue will register bitter. Just knowing this is not too important for survival, but knowing it does make you better at answering the question of, “What do you think about my new recipe?”
Now you can say it is perfectly balanced, or it needs some lemon juice to liven it up a little, or that it is too sweet. Fortunately, practice makes perfect!
So this is why our ancestors, way before food articles, magazines or cookbooks, were able to pair certain foods together for a good taste. It was done by experience and satisfaction.
“That tasted good, do it again.”
And so we continue to prepare recipes and menus that may be hundreds of years old. We like the taste.
Roasted turkey with apple sage dressing tastes good together. Adding oysters, or walnuts, or dried fruits enhances the flavors. Serving a wonderful San Benito County Pinot Noir wine with the roasted turkey is a perfect taste sensation. The spicy tastes of the dressing, the slightly gamey taste of the turkey and the earthy luscious fruity flavors of the wine are matched successfully. Try it for yourself. And if you happen to run across a German made oval turkey platter with little blue lines and designs on it with a browned aged crack running through the center, your turkey dinner will taste even better.
TURKEY STUFFING WITH SAGE AND APPLE
(enough for a 10-12 pound turkey)
1/2 cup real butter
1 onion, chopped
1 apple, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
2 cloves garlic sliced
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne or other flavorful spice
4 cups dried bread cubes
1/2 cup chicken or turkey stock
1/2 cup chopped fresh sage leaves, or 2 tablespoons dried sage
In batter bowl, combine butter and vegetables. Cover. Microwave on high for 5 minutes. Place bread cubes in a large bowl, adding seasonings. Add cooked vegetables, broth and sage. Blend well. Cool long enough to be able to shape snowball sized balls with your hands. If it is too soft to hold together, add more bread. If it is too dry to hold together, add a little more liquid. Stuff the dressing balls into the turkey cavity.
STUFFED ROAST TURKEY
10-15 pound turkey, completely thawed if previously frozen
1/2 cup unsalted pure butter
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
2 tablespoons sherry or broth
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground white peppercorns
1 teaspoon sweet Hungarian paprika
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Wash and pat dry the turkey, removing the neck and giblets. Use them for making stock, if desired. In a measuring cup combine butter, soy, sherry, pepper and paprika. Microwave on high 1 minute. Season inside of bird with fine sea salt. Loosely stuff, securing stuffing in with a heal end of a piece of bread. Don’t forget to stuff the neck cavity also. A couple of toothpicks will secure the dressing in place. Place turkey in an open turkey roasting pan (do not cover). Brush the butter soy sauce mixture all over the turkey. Take a piece of cheesecloth about the size of the turkey. Dip it into some white wine or turkey broth. Place over the turkey breast. This keeps it moist during the cooking time and will not stick to the skin. Calculate cooking time, using 18 minutes per pound of turkey as a guide. It is recommended to baste the cheesecloth that is over the breast with more stock from time to time, but if you forget, it will still be OK. When a meat thermometer registers about 175 to 180 degrees, remove the turkey to a cutting board. Remove the cheesecloth. Cover turkey with a piece of waxed paper and then cover with a clean terry cloth towel. Allow to stand about 20-25 minutes before carving.
SAGE AND RAISIN BISCUITS
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons snipped fresh sage leaves, or 1 teaspoon dried sage
1/2 cup butter or lard, chilled
3/4 cup raisins or other dried fruits, snipped into small pieces
1 egg, beaten
3/4 cup buttermilk or sour milk
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease well a 4 by 8 inch cast iron loaf pan, or use individual pans. Warm cast iron pans in the oven while measuring ingredients. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, soda, salt, sugar and sage. Cut butter or lard into the mixture until it reaches the consistency of coarse corn meal. Stir in the raisins. In a separate bowl, combine egg and milk. Add to flour mixture to bland. Scoop into skillet. Bake 35-40 minutes.
Dorothy McNett is the owner of Dorothy McNett’s Place, 800 San Benito St. Phone 637-6444 or fax 637-5274. Visit the store’s Web site at www.happycookers.com. Her food column appears each week in the Free Lance
