08 January 2018

Turkey... façon coq au vin (1)

Turkey is American, of course, but it is also standard French holiday fare. I put the word in English in my title today because, despite the packaging, I can't be sure whether the turkey that I bought and cooked was a hen turkey (une dinde), a tom turkey (un dindon), or an immature turkey (un dindonneau). The words are not used consistently in French cooking terminology. For example, I just read a recipe for Dindonneau en daube à la bourgeoise in the Larousse Gastronomique food encyclopedia, and the first line says the main ingredient is une dinde.


So at Christmastime this year, and over the week following, there were expensive turkeys and less expensive turkeys available in the supermarkets. For our Christmas dinner, we bought a farm-raised turkey from our preferred poultry vendor at the open-air market in Saint-Aignan, and it cost us about 11 euros per kilo. That's 40USD for a 3.5 kg bird. It was very good, just roasted and served with stuffing. We had the leftovers prepared various ways, including some of the breast meat that we chopped up and put in chile con carne with pinto beans.


I kept looking at the less expensive turkeys in the supermarkets — what in French are often called produits industriels. Agri-business, you know. Unless you are buying from a farm, that's what you get in the U.S. anyway, so why not? The "industrial" turkeys might not be as meaty and flavorful as farm-raised birds, but all that means is that you need to be more creative in seasoning and cooking them. I ended up buying two such turkeys during the holiday season, one at each of our local supermarkets, and the price at both was 4.20 euros per kilo. That comes out to about two dollars U.S. a pound. I also bought a capon for the same price. We may be growing feathers this spring, eating so much poultry.


For one of my low-priced turkeys — it weighed only five pounds — I decided that a creative way to cook it would be to treat it like a tough old rooster and make the red-wine dish called Coq au vin. I cut it up, marinated it in the refrigerator for 30 or so hours (*30* is not a typo) in red wine (the Cahors "black wine" pictured above, 2.50 euros a bottle) with carrots, onions, garlic, salt, black pepper, herbs, and allspice. I followed but adapted a French recipe that I found on line. I'll post my translation of it — it's pretty simple and straightforward. To keep to what has been my theme for a few weeks now, I could have cooked the turkey in Chinon red wine. However, the Cahors seemed like a better idea. More to follow...

19 comments:

  1. We always buy french turkeys at Xmas, 3.20 euros a kilo. Pop up thermometer, like a big chicken, around 4 kilos, easy to cook and always moist and tasty.....with lots of Greek garlic, lemon juice, oregano and English stuffing. A truly European bird!
    Love your recipe.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's interesting to know that you can get French turkeys for a euro less per kilo there than we can here in France. Ours don't come with the popup thermometer. The garlic, lemon, oregano combo sounds really good.

      Delete
  2. We live at the other end of the Loire to you, in Dept 42, La Loire. I have enjoyed reading past posts on your blog - especially those frrom your trip to Salers back in 2009. It reminded me of the trip we took there with my mum in 2016. I will bookmark your blog to keep up with your news from the bottom end of the Loire!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think we paid 79¢/pound for our 20-pound turkey at the grocery store, this Thanksgiving. All we do is slather it with butter, put some under the skin of the breast, and roast... and it's absolutely delicious (as long as you don't over cook, of course). Ken, how do you compare the taste of these French turkeys, with what you always used to cook back in your U.S. cooking days? Did you do a turkey? Did you buy it fresh, or frozen? I've had both here, and don't taste a difference.
    J

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Turkeys are more expensive here than over there. How many people did you have over for the dinner of that 20 lb. bird? It sounds good with the butter massage. We often cooked turkeys for Christmas in California. We bought them fresh from a company called Distel, IIRC. I remember them as being very good. I think turkeys (and most birds and meats) freeze very well.

      Delete
  4. I didn't have my breakfast yet and my stomach is growling!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As you suggested, and without doing anything, I switched from Safari to Chrome and posting was a breeze. Electronic wars?

      Delete
    2. Safari has been a problem for years — at least with Blogger. I'm having all kinds of problems with Firefox on Android right now, so I'm using Chrome more and more often.

      Delete
    3. I left you a comment yesterday about skiffs, and Blogger ate it. Back to square one, it seems.

      Delete
    4. Emm, I left left a comment for you on day before yesterday's post. You should look at it, it might help you.

      Delete
    5. Emm, the best solution might be to compose your comment in Notepad or some other text editor, and then copy and paste it into the Blogger comment field. That way, if it gets vaporized, you won't have lost the text. Try, try again? Do you use Chrome? IE? Firefox? Chrome might be best.

      Delete
    6. That's what I do when I have to compose a comment longer than one one two sentences. And still, I leave typos!

      Delete
  5. I hope you at least had some of the Cahors before using it in the dish. But maybe you have plenty of it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We've been enjoying the Cahors. I bought 12 bottles of Cahors, 12 of Côtes du Rhône, and 6 of Bordeaux, a package deal at Intermarché in December, for 65 euros. I love France.

      Delete
    2. A good reason to love France. Does Intermarche deliver ... to the US?

      Delete
  6. I'm looking forward to this series. I've never cooked a turkey this way, but it looks yummy so far.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm thinking it might not be easy to find a 5¼ lb. turkey in the U.S., but you might find a chicken that big. Or a 10 lb. turkey you could cut up and then cook half of it, putting the rest in the freezer for later.

      Delete
  7. chm, I did see your comment, and thank you. But I don't use a tablet, just a keyboard and desktop machine.

    ReplyDelete

What's on your mind? Qu'avez-vous à me dire ?