A Most Unusual Bird
At Cook’s Country magazine, we’re always on the lookout for old-fashioned American recipes that have fallen out of favor but deserve a wider audience. In test-kitchen-speak, we call these “lost recipes.” When one of our editors ran across a recipe for Thompson Turkey, aka Black Turkey, Lacquered Turkey, or Seasoned Blackened Turkey, she was intrigued.
The recipe was devised by humorist Morton Thompson in the 1940s, and popularized by Jeffrey Steingarten in his landmark book The Man Who Ate Everything (1997). Thompson called his method “the only way to cook a turkey” and the actual recipe reads like a hilarious New Yorker piece. There are dozens of ingredients, at least five bowls (with various pastes and spice mixes), and pauses to make Ramos Fizz cocktails with gin and the leftover egg whites (the yolks are rubbed onto the bird to create the spice paste which hardens and blackens in the oven). The stuffed bird spends the better part of the day in the oven and requires the cook to reapply the shellac-like coating several times. Thompson tells readers that by the time the bird is done it will look “ruined.” But beneath the blackened crust, he promises the bird will be a “gorgeous mahogany, reminding one of those golden-browns found in precious Rembrandts.” With a description like this, no wonder this recipe lives on in blogs and chat rooms.
Unfortunately, like many things you find on the web, our test kitchen concluded the hype wasn’t justified. We invested an entire day preparing a Thompson turkey, including shopping for the 30-odd ingredients--everything from crushed pineapple and poppy seeds to mace and water chestnuts. The finished bird sure looked the part, as seen in this photo of two test cooks chiseling away the blackened exterior. Too bad the bird was exceedingly dry and the stuffing made with ground veal and bread crumbs tasted like livery pâté. We think the Holiday Stuffed Turkey recipe in The Cook’s Country Cookbook is a better bet this holiday season. Not as entertaining to read about, but a more reliable way to guarantee a moist bird this Thanksgiving.
--Jack Bishop, Editorial Director, America’s Test Kitchen
Uncle Ralph on November 11, 2008 at 01:34 PM
Thank you, Jack!
If your crew can't make it taste good, it's a lost cause :)
CABAL RMT on February 11, 2011 at 09:41 PM
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