turkey du jour

Wow, I'm sure glad Thanksgiving has come and gone once again. Why, you might ask? Well, ever heard of kid-in-a-candy-store syndrome? Yes, I know that's a technical term. Well, that's what Thanksgiving is like for me, a glutton from the word go. Once a year is enough of this, for I can surely join the Psalmist and say , 'my cup (and my waistline) runneth over'.

Finally, after having eaten for hours, I took to the bed and after a short four hour nap have just re-appeared for one last try: a bit more turkey, a martini, and - oh yes - some pecan pie! Though I'm certainly no Puritan, I give thanks for Thanksgiving, however it came to be!

And this seems like the best juncture to share a little blog of interwoven cuisine and theology. I'd like to talk, just briefly, about a great recipe, and, as you've come to suspect, how it relates to that queen of all sciences, theology.

So first, let me share with you the best turkey recipe I've ever used. I just found it last year, thanks to a dear friend in New York City, Kristina Jacob, who, among being simply a delightful woman, is also a fine chef! She made this for us last year when she was in Birmingham visiting her mother, our dear friend Kathi Jacob.

I made her recipe today for our communal Thanksgiving Day brunch at Nashotah House. All were duly impressed, stuffed, and very sleepy. This recipe is for the breast only, which, after much trying, I've decided is really ideal; nobody eats the leg but me anyways (and all my Alabama kinsfolk who eat the heart, too!). And if you have to have giblet gravy, which I think is a must, just make it with chicken pieces. So just cook a breast, period.

Kristina's Brined Turkey Breast
For the brine:
16 cups water
2 cups sugar
2 cups coarse salt
1 cup whole Malabar peppercorns
4 bay leaves

For the turkey:
1 fresh turkey breast, 9-11 pounds, deboned
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
fresh sage, to stuff under the skin
Black pepper
fresh thyme

1. Combine the brine ingredients in a large pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, until sugar and salt dissolve. Cool to room temperature.
2. Rinse the turkey breast, discarding excess fat. Place in a deep bowl or pot, breast-side down. Pour the brine over the breast and refrigerate, loosely covered, overnight.
3. Preheat oven to 350°F. Remove the turkey from the brine 30 minutes before roasting. Place pats of butter and fresh sage under the skin. Sprinkle thyme on top. Line a shallow roasting pan with long pieces of heavy-duty aluminum foil.
4. Place turkey in the pan. Brush with melted butter periodically; season with pepper. Cook until a meat thermometer reaches 140. Yes, I know everyone says cook to 160, but that's simply too damn done! It keeps cooking after its removed from the oven.
5. Slice and pour the pan juices over the top.

Enjoy.

Now, think theologically with me for a moment. I already admitted gluttony was my favourite besetting sin. So what's yours. Don't kid yourself. What's yours? Don't try to justify yourself like I so often do, but be honest -- what's your favourite sin?

I say 'favourite' on purpose. Too many preachers and would-be-teachers talk about -- as if it were a dominical injunction no less -- how much we should 'hate the sin but love the sinner'. Let's be honest here folks: we do love certain sins and, with any grace, we love the sinner too, and I dare say, that's exactly what Jesus meant when he said, 'For the Son of Man came to seek and to save sinners'. He surely did not say 'hate sinners and their sin', which is usually the end-result of this self-justifying worldly wisdom, as if the speaker of this nonsense were the arbitrator of all matters of the realm. One wonders what sin they're hiding? Bottom line: we're all sinners, whether we believe it or not.

I'm not brow-beating; for heaven's sake, I'm simply asking an important question. I'm certainly not putting legalism back in your lives (may it never be so)! Of all things, the law doesn't work. St. Paul, of all people, recognised this to be spot on when he said to the Galatians, 'I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing'! Beloved in God, there's only one thing that works, and even it's not results-driven or contingent solely on you. Namely: God's grace, where a new worldview is born, one where Christ the incarnate Redeemer is at the centre. This is a cosmology that is nourished by His holy Sacraments, especially the Most Blessed Sacrament of the altar.

So with any luck, I'm trying to take Turkey Day and give us just one more reason to fix our gaze on Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whose answer for all of our shortcomings is nothing less than His own life, given for all of us freely while we are still sinners. And for that, surely we can muster thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving!