Ben Franklin's Thoughts on Tender Turkey
Ben Franklin once wrote his daughter to share his love for a certain feathered bird:
For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly...For the Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America.
As Tim Carman of the Washington City Paper notes, Franklin was also concerned with tenderizing this wattle-bearing poultry.
His favorite method? Electrocution.
“Birds killed in this manner eat uncommonly tender,” he wrote.
Maybe not the first thing you pictured in Thanksgiving cooking techniques.
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2 Comments:
I'd much rather put a turkey in the electric chair, stick their wet wattle into an electric socket, or expose them to lightning strikes, than chop off the head and watch tom/hen dance a round around.
PerkyMac at 7:57PM on 11/16/08
gordon ramsay had his turkeys electrocuted (and showed it on his F Word program on BBC America). both ramsay and the executioner insisted that this was the most humane way. as someone who hadn't witnessed anything like that before, it was a sobering moment. i also found it interesting that they show things like that on regular TV in europe, yet would never do so in the US; everything they show on tv here is somewhat "sterilized". peta would probably be all over it.
french tart at 10:41AM on 11/17/08