Food and Things

Are you a hacker or a slicer when it comes to carving up your Thanksgiving turkey?  In my house, hackers oversee the dismantling of our Thanksgiving bird.  The turkey meat comes off the carcas in chunks that resemble blocks of moldering wood chips. So the other night, we strolled over to the Broadway and 74th Street Fairway to watch the market’s head butcher, Ray Venezia, demonstrate the right way to carve your Thanksgiving turkey.

Why does technique matter? So at the end of the day, you produce juicy slices of turkey. First, you have to “see what you’re doing,” said Venezia, a third generation butcher, as he expertly glided his knife through the turkey’s sinewy joints, cracking it open like a walnut.  By the time he got to the breast meat, Venezia had already accumulated a beautiful platter of turkey meat.  For the best results, “slice against the grain,” Venezia advised, holding up a piece of white meat—and improbably—squeezing it so that juice spurted from the just-cut meat.

Fairway scion, 26-year old Dan Glickberg—he’s the fourth generation of his family to operate the company—worked alongside Venezia, earnestly hacking away at a second turkey.  Glickberg was supposed to represent the Thanksgiving Every Man. He bent over his bird, sawing methodically at breast and drumstick, occasionally stealing a glance at Venezia’s handiwork. “Am I doing it right?” he asked every few minutes. Venezia reassured him—not to mention the group of anxious soon-to-be-turkey carvers in the audience—that his knife skills were just fine.

Here’s a video of Venezia carving a Thanksgiving turkey.  Either you’ll find his demo reassuring. Or you’ll conclude that without a master butcher in your house Thanksgiving Day, the whole thing is hopeless.

Video: Mrs Mo’s New Jersey Channel, hmorris0506’s.

Related posts:

1. Upper West Side: Fairway’s Steve Jenkins Takes on Trader Joe’s Threat
2. Thanksgiving Turkey Recipe Part II: From the Oven to the Table
3. Thanksgiving Turkey Recipe Part I: Double the Pleasure with Two Birds

November 20th, 2009 | Tags: 10023, 10024, 10025, carving, Fairway, Manhattan, thanksgiving, turkey, upper west side | Category: Fairway, New York City, Supermarkets, food markets, grocery stores, holidays, thanksgiving, upper west side |  Print This Post | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL