Big fan of the dainty lady-carvers.
Posted on 11/20/2022 3:20:06 AM PST by mylife
Donning a chef’s hat while you cook Thanksgiving dinner is one thing, but sticking a tiny one on the end of each crispy turkey leg seems like it might be taking the holiday a bit too far.
Over the years, these traditional paper coverings have been called many creative names, including turkey frills, turkey booties, and even turkey panties. And while they’ve fallen out of fashion in recent decades, they originally served a very specific purpose. According to 19th-century writer John Cordy Jeaffreson, paper trimmings gained popularity in the 17th century as a way for women to keep their hands clean while they carved meat.
“To preserve the cleanness of her fingers, the same covering was put on those parts of joints which the carver usually touched with the left hand, whilst the right made play with the shining blade,” he explained in A Book About the Table in 1875. “The paper-frill which may still be seen round the bony point and small end of a leg of mutton, is a memorial of the fashion in which joints were dressed for the dainty hands of lady-carvers, in time prior to the introduction of the carving-fork.”
(Excerpt) Read more at mentalfloss.com ...
You'll put an eye out kid..
booty call....
The men carved the meat in our family, but maybe that’s a fairly recent tradition in the last century or so.
Yup, men carve
Big fan of the dainty lady-carvers.
Should I truss my bird? It doesn’t have a hernia..
:)
I bend the wings under the breast and cover the drumsticks with foil. I can assume over the hundreds of years those appendages still were the first to cook and brown before the turkey was fully cooked. I have relatives that fight over the dark meat. This could be the way they prevented them from burning before they had aluminum foil?
We flip our bird upside-down on a V shaped roasting rack. That allows the dark meat to cook through while keeping the breast from becoming overcooked and dry.
Also, place slices of bread between the rack and breast to prevent deformation.
Last 30 minutes flip to crisp skin.
I like large, firm pumpkins!
I smoke mine
Our family tradition is everyone gets into the act. From youngest to oldest we form a skirmish line in the woods and herd the turkeys into a smaller and smaller circle til one can catch the largest turkey.
Then we all converge upon the hapless beast like ravenous wolves and tear it apart as it screams for it’s life. Saving the wishbone for the youngest.
Then we settle in for some football.
I am afraid to ask about spatchcocking.
I prefer rizlas
Oh yeah. Roasted turkey thighs are the Best!
Typical woke re-writing of history.
Carving the turkey was a mans job.
After all, the real name for them is a manchette.
Yes MANchette.
I can see and hear my dad, all dressed up at the head of the table, sharpening the big carving knife with a dozen strokes on the steel before he set to carving. He used that sharpening steel once a year and mom never touched it. Zing, zing, zing! It was one of those deep, mysterious male traditions.
I use my sharpening steel a couple times a week to touch up blades.
In my family, there was an ongoing, perpetual joke about my dad’s carving. I had two uncles that always made reference to the fact that my dad carved the turkey or ham so thin he was saving most of it for later when they were gone home.
LOL! What a reputation.
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