Evening star., 1941-10-27


McLemore. of the Gideon
Society and leave copy of This
Business of Carving" in every Amer
lean home just as the Gideons place
Bibles in hotel rooms.
1t would bring much comfort to
the average American man. l be-
lieve it is safe to say that the most
trying moments many of us face
each year come at the dinner table
when we are placed face 10 face with
snarling COR so it seems roast
beef or a belligerent chicken whose
fighting spirit was not dimmed by
two hours in the oven.
In a column written about this
time two or three years ago I advo-
Gated that meat loaf be substituted
for the turkey as our national bird.
I pointed out that the turkey was
all right for the Pilgrim fathers, who
we're hard and dauntless men and
who by constant skirmishes with
Indians had become steeled 10 a
point where they could face the task
OF carving a turkey without finch
ing.
But the modern American man is
not conditioned to the turkey. The
thought Of wrestling with an 18-
pound gobbler with the critical eyes
Of the family fastened on his every
awkward move, robs Thanksgiving Of
any joy The only time he feels
like giving thanks is when the con-
sarned bird is finally butchered into
portions and he can lean back,
knowing that it will be another year
before he is again called on to make
fool Of himself,
/ The meat loaf offers no such
problems. 1t has no spirit Vhatso-
ever and will not fight back the way
turkey does Il has no legs either
and that. I believe. is its greatest
virtue Ornithologists will deny it,
but the legs Of birds are fastened to
their bodies with cement and steel
and up until I read Mr.. Rhodes
book I would have taken an oath
that the only sure way Of removing
the legs was to place the bird on
the floor. put foot on its back and
overpoWer i in a sort of tug-of-War.
The response to the meat loaf
! suggestion was gratifying. Hundreds
Of haraSsed carvers wrote in second
ing the motion. Some even felt
that meat loaf offered too much Of
carving problem and suggested
bologna as the national bird.
But nothing Official was ever done
about it. so this Thanksgiving will
/ find the turkey still breathing
defiance At the head of the house
1t was cheering 10 read Mr.. Rhode
on how to whack up a turkey, and
find that he approaches the task
with light heart. and is so sure
Of himself that he wears his best
suit when carving and not some
CaSt-of garment too far gone TO be
hurt by gravy or flying turkey
divots.
. His explanation Of how to carve
turkey is simplicity itself Always
have the bird placed before the
/ carver SO that the legs are on the
right. He doesn't say whose legs
/ the birds or the carver's-but I
assume he means the carvers as
this would enable him to move
more quickly if the bird happened to
slide off the plate. Like shortstops.
nearly all carvers go better to their
right than to their left.
Place the carving fork in the arc
that is formed by the wishbone Of
the bird, Mr. Rhode explains. He
leaves it to the carver as to what
grip he will employ on the fork
In practicing I used the overlapping
| or Vardon grip and found it very
satisfactory. I also found that by
wearing an old golf glove my grip
was much more secure and my hand
didn't keep slipping down the fork
and patting the turkey on the back
as if were soothing it.
Mr.. Rhode advocates the presence
of an auxiliary carving plate at the
left of the carver. He doesn't go
into details about this reserve plate
but its duty is obvious; it is there to
catch the dressing. Left to its own
devices, it will invariably find q lap
to land on.
Mr.. Rhodes instructions for wing
removal are the only ones I ques-
ton. Wings should never, never be
removed. They never were made
for eating in the first place, wing
having so little meat on it that its
taste is cross between a bifocal
/ ,NL n, Af