Anything but Turkey !!

[oldjerry]

Thought I' d stick this up before I open a bottle.....

I don't do poultry(never eaten it,even when we were farming them),so Christmas dinner has always been a bit weird,but now we've developed a nice compromise,Calamari,followed by Lasagne for the kids,and Kingprawns for us. Then Boiled Salt beef with cabbage. (I'm alone in liking Christmas pud,so I have to eat a whole one myself to round it off), it's the same every year,never changes.

So is this odd? MXMS !!

[Green Aura]

Sounds good to me.

Christmas isn't getting off to the best of starts in this house. Every year we buy half a pig, which we butcher ourselves. This year it came early - October, so our ham has been brining since then. Which, despite what we'd read, is apparently far too long. It's not only salty as all hell (despite being soaked in several changes of fresh water over the last 48 hours, it's also as tough as old boots! Oh well, lots of lentil and ham soup over the next few months methinks

Then to top it off the friend, who was coming for dinner, has just phoned to tell me he's currently awaiting an ambulance and will spend Christmas undergoing tests for chest pain. My cooking really isn't thatbad! Seriously, I hope he's OK.

But I do now have a rather large nut roast to shift - we're having goose

[Maykal]

Not odd at all. I've never been a big fan of turkey either, so I either roast a chicken, or just cook pork (pork is traditional Christmas fare in Romania anyway, so it goes down well if I'm cooking for guests). I've been on my own many a time at Christmas and have eaten all kinds of non-traditional stuff. One year I made myself pizza but made it 'Christmassy' but garnishing it with minced pork, sage, onion and chestnuts!

[safronsue]

Thought I' d stick this up before I open a bottle.....

Then Boiled Salt beef with cabbage.

not odd, but must taste better than it sounds! how do you do it?

we like turkey and only have it the once a year. first year here they took the skin off, to save us the bother. not a pretty sight, a skinless turkey, and stuffing it was a challenge.
happy chrsitmas oj
sue

[oldjerry]

Piece of Brisket or silverside rolled(better with a bit of marbling--- those Greek cattle might be a bit scrawny,but there again I could be doing them a disservice),leave in the pickling tub for minimum of 10 days,then after soaking for a day in fresh water,boil with winter veg,bouquet garni,cloves,juniper berries,loads of red wine vinegar brown sugar,for 5 or 6 hours till easily pierced with a skewer.Eat hot or cold,I think it's Jewish,but forms part of a Bollo Misto in Italy,and I bet they eat something similar somewhere in Greece.Anyhow,have a good un,and let's hope for better things for you guys in 2013,by the way,you don't need any water do you?

[GeorgeSalt]

I see this thread, after seeing the thread "Help with a horse" and having to sit on my hands to avoid typing "Gas mark 2 for 18 hours". This time of year, questions about unreasonably large animals usually involve cooking them..

Turkey is always too much for the two of us, so for the last however many years we've had Duck on Christmas day after a cold fish spread on Christmas Eve.

[The Riff-Raff Element]

Turkeys in France typically come in at 3-4 kg, so I put ours on the rotisserie in the oven with some butter, garlic, sage & onion in the cavity. It worked pretty well and was a bit different.

[darkbrowneggs]

OK - here's a recipe for something large and unusual for those - "must have something different" folk

In a cookbook called International Cuisine, presented by California Home Economics Teachers, 1983 (ISBN 0-89626-051-8), you will find:


Stuffed Camel
1 whole camel, medium size
1 whole lamb, large size
20 whole chickens, medium size
60 eggs
12 kilos rice
2 kilos pine nuts
2 kilos almonds
1 kilo pistachio nuts
110 gallons water
5 pounds black pepper
Salt to taste


Skin, trim and clean camel (once you get over the hump), lamb and chicken. Boil until tender. Cook rice until fluffy. Fry nuts until brown and mix with rice. Hard boil eggs and peel. Stuff cooked chickens with hard boiled eggs and rice. Stuff the cooked lamb with stuffed chickens. Add more rice. Stuff the camel with the stuffed lamb and add rest of rice. Broil over large charcoal pit until brown. Spread any remaining rice on large tray and place camel on top of rice. Decorate with boiled eggs and nuts. Serves friendly crowd of 80-100.

Shararazod Eboli Home Economist, Dammam, Saudi Arabia

[The Riff-Raff Element]

I've eaten camel in North Africa. It was tough (can't hang meat to mature in those climates), fatty and distinctly unpleasant.

[Skippy]

I actually quite like turkey and that's good because a friend of mine drops one off every year that he is given at work. He and his family go out for dinner on christmas day and so don't want the bird.
The one this year was about 5kgs and it got the usual treatment of some bacon on top and an onion and an apple shoved inside and very pleasent it was too.
The only complaint I could make at this time is after being fed the sprouts , stuffing and onion gravy my wife then moans about any "emissions" that I make a bit later .


Pete