Wasifee the turkey
Nov 24th, 2007 | By Hank Shaw | Category: Wild Game | Comments | 5 Comments |
My friend Soraya is in Afghanistan, and somehow she and several of her American compatriots scored a turkey for Thanksgiving; they named him Wasifee. She asked me if they could eat Wasifee shortly after slaughter, and I said yes, that should be no problem. Well, Soraya reported back that Wasifee tasted good (although he was gamier than a Butterball) and was even better in the post-Thaksgiving soup. Way to go, Soraya!
I have a question Mr Honest-Food. Here in Massachusetts where the turkey is indeed, the state bird they have become rather ubiquitus, taking over the same territories as racoon, skunk and squirrel. Found in backyards in the strangest places, there have been wild turkeys spotted in Cambridge and they seem to love office parks. Now, my question is are they edible? or, are they as their nasty cousins the Candian geese are – completely inedible and a nuisance?
Suburban turkeys taste even better than those that live in the wilderness because you get to see the look on your “I-can-only-eat-meat-that’s shrink-wrapped” neighbor’s face when you catch it with a fishing net, tackle the bird, then wring its wrinkly little neck. Plucking *does* take a bit of time, but you can leave the feathers in your neighbor’s yard and blame the omnipresent coyotes…
Should I “domesticate” them by feeding them until they are the correct size? A friend recommended giving them feed soaked in beer and then getting a baseball bat. That seems too close to the factory feedlots.
don’t write off the canada goose as a tasty thing to eat!
From “Wild at the Table: 275 Years of North American Fish & Game Recipes,” SGB Tennant, Jr. writes “At the height of market gunning, just prior to the Migratory Bird Treaty of 1918 the wild shot goose fetched top dollar on the New York market, second only to the magnificent canvasback. To have a roast goose at Christmas, its crisp skin and succulent meat in abundance, was as important to the urbane cosmopolitans as it had been to Tiny Tim and Bob Cratchit in Scrooge’s day 50 years ealier.”
The recipe that follows includes Madeira wine and raw oysters. Yummmm.
You are correct, Dee-Di! I have a copy of that book (which is well worth owning – that’s why I added the link!) and have dozens of Canada goose recipes. The key with honkers (like pigeons, by the way) is what have they been eating? Crap at a town pond or corn and rice? Makes a big diff…