Qmckenna’s Weblog

The Christmas Turkey December 29, 2009

We visited Mary’s Grandmother in Naples, Florida for Thanksgiving, and had Thanksgiving dinner from Boston Market. It was better than we expected, but it wasn’t a home cooked dinner. So, a Christmas turkey assumed greater importance in my mind than in most years.

On the 23rd I selected a fresh, cage free, no hormone lived-a-happy-life turkey from Mollie Stone. On Christmas eve I prepared the brine; salt and sugar boiled in a couple of cups of water with garlic, a fresh bay leaf and mix of herbs from the garden. I diluted the brine with cold water and ice and submerged the turkey in a large stainless steel hotel pan.

Since the night was to be cold, and there was little room in the refrigerator, I decided to leave the turkey on the back deck. As we went to bed, Mary said “won’t the raccoons get it?” I said not to worry about it. Why would raccoons be hanging around our backyard?

Naturally, Lila woke us early Christmas morning. I don’t recall exactly when in the confusion of that first hour I thought to look at the bird, but when I did, it had been half pulled out of the brine, wings spread over the edge of the pan and much of the skin gnawed off of its back. My first insticnt was to turn it over, damage down, and push it back into the brine. There was still plenty of ice, so at least I knew it had not been too warm.

I expected Mary to be freaked out about it but she surprised me by sanguinely accepting my assurance that it would be perfectly fine to eat. Then I started to worry about rabies. I figured the chances that the animal that attacked the turkey was rabid were pretty small, but they existed. I Googled “rabies” and learned that it is spread by saliva and that infected animals generally had little contagion in the saliva before the  disease manifests itself in those final fatal days. I decided to Google “rabid animal meat” to see what I could learn. Naturally, the only direct reference to the safety of eating meat infected with rabies came from the Louisiana Department of Public Safety (who else!). They advised that meat that was fully cooked or dessicated was safe.

Putting the information together, I figured that the real risk of contamination was incalculably small, but that for the modest price of a new turkey I could set aside any worry about it at all. had it been just me eating, I probably would have cooked the bird, but for Lila and Mary, the cost of a new one and the challenge of finding one on Christmas day was a small price to pay. The third Safeway was open, and was surprisingly quite busy, though I doubt anyone else there was replacing a raccoon ravaged Christmas dinner.