Thanksgiving in Toulouse, November 2012

This was my first Thanksgiving living outside of the United States. Of the holidays that are to be missed, this felt like one to recreate here in Toulouse. The question became how to accomplish the goal. I have been to the markets almost daily, and I have not seen a whole turkey, or even turkey parts for that matter. Questioning a few locals, I found out that whole turkeys are available at Christmas time, and that few actually have ovens big enough to handle the bird. I had a friend offer to call her butcher and see if a special order for a whole turkey was possible. She called early in November and they could special order a turkey for November 20th, no problem. How big? They said a 6-7 kg (13-16#) bird would be possible. I thought that would fit just fine in my biggest pan and into the oven.

 The rest of the meal should be fairly easy to put together. I saved all the ends of the baguettes to make the dressing, found a small pumpkin-like squash, and sweet potatoes are in season now. I knew it would be bad form to take haricots verts and turn them into the magical green bean casserole with fried onions on top, so I opted for Brussels sprouts. Pecan pie is a favorite of my husband, and a little more difficult to recreate. Pecans are not generally available here, so I paid 38 euro per kilo for pecans to decorate the top of the pie, the rest were almonds. The real problem was the corn syrup; there just isn’t any! But most grocery stores here have a British section, so there was Lyle’s Golden Syrup. I used that instead, and the pie was fabulous!

November 20th arrived, and it was the day to collect the turkey. The butcher shop is about a mile from our house, so I set out with a sack and a plan to ride a Velo-bike back home with the turkey in the front basket. When I got to the butcher shop, I said I am the American who ordered the whole turkey. The butcher went in back and brought out the biggest turkey I had seen in a long time. It was nothing like the tightly packaged Butterball from Kroger! It was huge, pink and the legs stuck out from the sides of it as if it was under protest of being put in the sack. Well, the butcher put it on the scale and it weighed in over 10 kilograms! A full third bigger than the biggest bird I was hoping for! He asked me if I wanted it entire, and I said yes. I was imagining the size of the oven and my pan and I thought it would be ok, but just barely. He wrapped it up for me and put it in my sack. I picked it up and almost fell over. My plan for the bike was gone. The giant turkey was bigger than the basket, and it might make operating the bike dangerous for me and others on the road in the event of the turkey falling out! I just didn’t think I could ride the bike home so front loaded without crashing! I had no choice but to carry it back home. I slung it over my shoulder, slid it across my back, cupped my hands under and piggybacked it home. That was the longest mile I have ever walked!

Once home, I pulled out the pan and shoved the turkey in. It was hanging over the edges, and when I put the pan in the oven, the turkey legs kicked the oven door back open. So much for the entire turkey! It had to come apart. I’ve taken apart whole chickens, but nothing like this! I sharpened my best chef’s knife- a Wusthof 8” Cook’s knife and went to work. I decided I would break it down only as far as needed to fit into the oven, keeping with the whole turkey spirit that I envisioned. Well, first the drumsticks and wings came off, and still no go into the oven. Off came the rest of the legs. I eventually had to split the back in two pieces to fit in my Dutch oven. I had to remove a shelf from my fridge to fit the pieces in.  

Now I needed a game plan for getting all of the food out, hot at 7 pm two days from now. I started Wednesday bright and early making the potatoes. They were a take on Pommes Anna, mixing white and sweet potatoes into stacks. They baked up nicely! Then the pies; the pumpkin first followed by the pecan pie. The dressing went in last and all I had left was to prep the Brussels sprouts. I sliced a giant pile of them in two, salted and put a bit of sugar on them to help the carmelization. Into the fridge they went, on top of the giant pile of turkey parts. They could cook on the stove while the turkey roasted.

Thursday, game day! Turkeys here in France are not as disproportionate as American turkeys. The legs and breast are in proportion: meaning the legs are huge! There is a lack of fat and they have not been pre-injected with broth. Cooking this turkey would take some tricks to keep the meat from drying out. I loosened up the skin and slid butter and black truffles under it. I covered the breast in foil and started roasting. I had to baste with turkey stock during the last hour to keep it from drying out-not much fat on this bird! Three hours later, I pulled a beautiful roast turkey breast from the oven. The rest went in one batch at a time in Dutch ovens. Finally at 7 pm on November 22, the guests arrived and we all were thankful! I was most thankful for my friend who ordered the turkey and my knife that helped me get it in the oven! The food was delicious! The only problem we had was with our cable service; ESPN America was not working, so European Football replaced American Football. Cable TV in France is another story!

Happy Thanksgiving from Toulouse!