Skip to main content

I’ve never been keen on turkey. Now my aversion is approaching outright loathing | Rachel Cooke

The Christmas bird has now been financially weaponised

I’m calling this column “Turkey, Revisited”, after “Toads, Revisited” by Philip Larkin, a poet who was most definitely not a gourmand (“I was too lazy to buy rations in London, so today has been a poached egg, macaroni & tinned spinach”). Some years ago, you see, I wrote about my dislike of the bird in one of these columns, a piece that continues occasionally to reverberate in the form of messages from readers. Riffing on an essay by the great American food writer Jeffrey Steingarten, who once tried a legendary turkey recipe whose stuffing has 32 ingredients, the piece in question detailed my adventures with a Kelly Bronze I’d mortgaged my house to buy: the baroque trumpets that played as it entered the kitchen; the spa treatments I administered to its skin; the tea towel of finest cashmere that covered it before it was carved. It also came to the conclusion that, in spite of all of the above, I had completely wasted my time. The result was … about 3kg of OK.

So why return to the subject? No, I haven’t seen the light. In fact, my aversion has since become close to outright loathing. In part, this has to do with my nature. I seem to have made up my mind about turkey, in the same way that I’ve made up my mind about Nadine Dorries and Jacob Rees-Mogg (this lady is not for turning, unless we’re talking about a spit with a nice bit of pork or lamb on it). I think also that I’ve grown more green down the years, and turkey is almost inevitably wasteful, no matter how many recipes for leftover korma one dutifully reads.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian https://ift.tt/pn1ICza
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Green Planet review – David Attenborough’s gobsmacking, awe-inspiring return

From glowing bioluminescent fungus to 7,000 different camera set-ups for ants, the veteran broadcaster’s miraculous profile of plant life will have you gasping in astonishment so often you’ll be breathless One of the televisual joys I most remember from childhood was when a programme – often a nature documentary, but sometimes a few seconds on Sesame Street or a Tomorrow’s World demonstration of new technology – would show a flower unfolding with time-lapse photography. It was always sudden, always fleeting, and of course there weren’t even any recording buttons – let alone live pausing and rewinding facilities – that you could quickly press in order to capture and relive the delight. It was ever ephemeral, and I could never get enough. Until now, with the latest gift from David Attenborough and his endlessly patient and dedicated team of camera operators (to whom a now traditional 10-minute coda is again devoted), The Green Planet (BBC One). The new five-part series presented by the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Wandsworth escape accused says it was ‘foolish’ to jail him with his ‘skill set’

Daniel Khalife, 23, says he absconded because he was ‘terrified’ of being locked up with dangerous offenders A former British soldier has told a jury he did not hand himself in after he escaped from prison because he was “finally demonstrating what a foolish idea it was” to imprison someone with his “skill set”. Daniel Khalife, 23, told the court he absconded from Wandsworth prison while on remand because he was “terrified” of being locked up with “serious sex offenders” and “terrorists” who wanted to kill him, and that he did not think his imprisonment would be in the public interest. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/vRZHkaw
Post a Comment
Read more

The Guardian view on the Conservative party today: still lost in denial and confusion | Editorial

Kemi Badenoch has her first chance to persuade the voters on 1 May, but she seems to be getting nowhere Labour is struggling in the polls . Its spring economic statement next week is likely to be grim. Meanwhile, the Conservatives have an ambitious new leader and the local elections are only six weeks away. The situation ought to be full of promise for Kemi Badenoch and her party. Instead, she is treating the May elections not as a promise but as a threat. Mrs Badenoch launched the Conservatives’ campaign in warm spring weather on Thursday. From her message, however, it sounded as if she is leading her party into an electoral blizzard. If you apply the 2024 general election result to the councils that are up for election on 1 May, she told supporters: “We lose almost every single one.” The contest, she repeated, would be “very difficult”. Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to ...
Post a Comment
Read more