Thanksgiving Traditions

I know I've mentioned some American Thanksgiving traditions before but I keep learning more.

I did describe in some detail the combination of sweet potatoes and marshmallows. It's common enough here in Indiana that the supermarkets put out marshmallows and brown sugar in the vege section next to the sweet potatoes for everyone's convenience. A friend of mine who's lived in LA and Boston assures me that this in not just a Mid-West novelty dish, it can be found all over the states. I'm considering making that recipe this year, just to see what it's like. We'll have people over so if it's disgusting, Cindy and I won't have to eat it all ourselves.

I've also mentioned turduckens. Looking back to my first Thanksgiving, what's more interesting is Cameron's comment:

I want to try some turducken! If and when I come over to Indiana, I have to try it out. It's like baconated grapefruit or some other 'antichrist' of vegetarians. I can see them crossing themselves right now.

I might just hold him to that! (Cameron, the rule is that vegans are allowed to eat meat if they're in a different area code.)

But I don't think I've ever mentioned just how Americans cook their turkeys. This photo was taken at our local K-Mart but turkey deep-friers can also be bought in supermarkets along with 4 US gallon (15 L) bottles of oil. They put them out a few weeks before, next to the turkeys.

Now the New York Times is reporting that this might not be such a good idea. If the fat doesn't kill you through a heart-attack, it might just burn you to death:

The turkey fryers — which combine gallons of boiling oil, open propane gas fires and often unstable frames — can easily become flame throwers, fire safety experts say.

Because of the number of fires and burns, national fire safety groups essentially urge people not to fry turkeys. The city’s Fire Department has issued a warning about turkey fryers. And Underwriters Laboratories, a nonprofit group that gives safety certifications for everything from hair dryers to space heaters, has refused to put its UL safety mark on any turkey deep fryer.

I think I'll stick to the oven when I cook mine this Thursday.

And my anecdote for this week isn't picking on United Statesians (for a change) but a different breed of North American. I was discussing Thanksgiving with a pair of Canadians. They have an earlier date for their Thanksgiving up there, because the climate is colder so the harvest comes earlier but everything else is the same. So one of them asked me, 'What do you do for Thanksgiving in Australia?'
'We cook an emu,' I replied, straight-faced. And they believed me!

But when I mentioned this to Cindy, she asked, 'Well, why don't you?' In France they always eat exotic birds at Xmas (pheasant, goose, capon etc.) and everyone knows about emu farming, so it just seemed logical to her that we should at least eat emus at Xmas. I prefer the light meat of the turkey so I think I'd rather stick to tradition than eat patriotically.

Addendum
Tonight at French table I asked a couple of Americans what their favourite Thanksgiving dishes were.
One (West Virginia) replied that she loves stuffing, particularly with lots of dried fruit. So I checked and she confirmed that her stuffing never actually goes in the bird. (It's not sheer laziness, apparently they're all terrified of salmonella poisoning.) In fact, I think I'm yet to meet an American who does stuff their stuffing; in another generation no one will know why it's called "stuffing"!

The other (Michigan) said it was sweet potatoes. So I asked her about the marshmallow abomination. She said she didn't like them with marshmallows herself because she doesn't have much of a sweet tooth. Instead, she likes them sprinkled with brown sugar and cinnamon! No, that's not a sweet tooth at all! On the other hand, this same girl told us that her grandmother's recipe for apple pie called for a cheddar crust. At first I thought I had misheard but, no, in that family at least they really put cheese in the crusts of their apple pies.