Turkey Day

We're not eating turkey today, because we always have lamb for Thanksgiving now. Years ago, we decided that turkey for Thanksgiving and then turkey again for Christmas was just too much gobbledy-gobbledy for us. Besides, when we lived in San Francisco we didn't eat lamb often, so the Thanksgiving leg of lamb was a treat that reminded us of France. Once in France, we realized that whole turkeys are not available in November. Turkeys are Christmas birds here. We do get turkey parts — boned-out breasts as filets or scallops, turkey legs and thighs, and turkey wings too — all year round.

There certainly are turkeys in France (you're welcome to chuckle). Turkey (dinde) became a standard at French Christmas dinners decades ago, replacing goose. The nice thing about turkeys here is that you can get small ones that weigh as few as 3.5 kilos (about 8 lbs.). I'm sure you can get birdzilla-sized birds too, but for just two of us that's way too much. The way I like to cook small turkeys is to poach them in simmering water first, and then brown the bird in the oven after it is cooked in water. The broth is excellent, and the turkey doesn't dry out. You can poach a small turkey that way but it would be hard to poach a 20 or 25 lb. bird.

The best turkeys I've ever eaten, I think, are farm-raised French birds. We bought one from a Saint-Aignan butcher for one of our first holiday meals here. I think it was for Thanksgiving 2003, and we had to order it a week in advance because, as I say, whole turkeys are only available in late December. And it cost something like 35 euros for an 8 lb. bird. It was really tasty and not dry — there was a layer of fat under the breast skin that basted the white meat as it cooked. It was fantastic. That was before I started routinely poaching turkeys, ducks, chickens, and guinea hens before browning them in the oven.

In March 2018, we went to the Allier département in central France (northern Auvergne, near Vichy and Moulins) to spend a week in a gîte and drive around the countryside over there. One reason for choosing to spend a week in the Allier was that I had seen a cooking show on French TV about the town of Jaligny-sur-Besbre (pop. 575; founded in the year 67 A.D.) which described it as the place where the best French turkeys were raised. Its farm-raised turkeys are Jaligny's claim to fame. Unfortunately, we didn't go there on market day, and there were no butcher shops in the town. So we left empty-handed — no Jaligny turkey for us. Someday I might go back for the village's foire aux dindes, the turkey fair, in December, and we'll come back and cook a Jaligny turkey for Christmas.

The photos of live turkeys in this post are some I've taken at Valençay over the years. It's about half an hour's drive from Saint-Aignan and is famous for its big château (Napoleon, Talleyrand, etc.) and its pyramid-shaped goat cheeses. On the grounds of the château there's a little animal park where you can get up close with turkeys, chickens, guinea fowl, ducks, geese, goats, and even deer — it's fun to visit. Happy Thanksgiving. Stay safe.